ECC
championship
next up for
Centaur
harriers
The most exciting part of the season lies ahead for the Woodstock Academy girls’ cross-country team.
The Centaurs will take part in the ECC championship meet Oct. 21 at the Norwich Golf Course.
“I’m very excited for this meet,” said senior Linsey Arends. “I’m a little nervous because we’ve had a lot of meets that have been close together with little rest time. So, we’re hoping to get a little rest, get some speed work in and perform super well on Thursday.”
Arends finished second in the ECC championship meet when it was last run two years ago. The winner was Bacon Academy’s Jordan Malloy and both were only sophomores.
The rivalry will be renewed Oct. 21. The two ran against one another in the Wickham Park Invitational medium varsity race recently with Malloy just edging out Arends by 13 seconds.
“I do want to catch her,” Arends said. “I was trying to keep up with them at Wickham and it was like, ‘Ooh, not today’ but I did break 20 (minutes) which was my goal and it was amazing to do. I wasn’t that far behind and could see them (Tolland’s Peyton Bornstein, Suffield’s Emily Brydges and Malloy finished in front of Arends) the whole way. Hopefully, I will get (Malloy) at ECCs but I know it will be good competition and we’re both going to have fun. I like having Jordan and Peyton there (Bornstein will not run at the ECC championship) and knowing I will be racing them because it’s a friendship that I feel I have cultivated over the four years.”
Head coach Joe Banas said for Arends to catch Malloy will take some work and strategy. “Linsey has to run the perfect race and what I mean by that is that she has to let (Malloy) take it out and needs to sit on her. With a half-mile or mile left, just try and press it. We hope it doesn’t come down to the final sprint because we’ve seen Jordan and she can outkick Linsey but I think Linsey has a shot,” Banas said.
As far as the team, it finished in third place at Wickham, 49 points behind first-place finisher E. Lyme whom it will also have to compete against at the ECC championship.
While that may seem like it a lot, it’s not the points, but the overall time of the two teams that matters. The Vikings were just a minute ahead of the Centaurs.
“It’s not impossible,” said assistant coach Josh Welch. “It will be a tough race and we’re going to have to have everything go right but I think we can push them a lot. We started to break into their pack at Wickham and showed we could mix it up. Who knows?”
The Centaurs finished the dual-meet portion of the season with an 8-1 overall record and a 2-1 mark in Div. I of the ECC after a pair of wins last week.
Woodstock downed host NFA 22-39 and Griswold 15-50.
The ECC championship meet will also determine the regular season champion in all of the ECC boys’ and girls’ cross-country divisions.
Arends finished 33 seconds ahead of the field, crossing the line in 22 minutes, 11 seconds. Her fellow captain, Carah Bruce, was third overall in 22:47, just three seconds back of NFA’s Sophia Jones.
Julia Coyle, Lauren Brule, Leah Castle, Tessa Brown and Sydney Lord finished in the five through nine spots for the Centaurs.
“They’re flipping around quite a bit,” Welch said of the constant change in order of finish behind Arends. “Some of that had to do with wrong turns and other things and things shifted in different ways but they are all up there, pushing each other, which is awesome.”
Arends said: “There is a little behind the scenes rivalry going on within the team because I know a lot of the girls want to protect their varsity spot. It’s a really good thing that it’s happening,” Arends said. “It doesn’t directly affect me but if I see them coming down together to the finish line, I try to get them to race it out because it’s good to have someone running right next to you. It gives you that little bit of fear and motivation and the ‘I can’t let her beat me’ feeling especially when it’s your friend.”
The Centaurs will be able to run only seven in the varsity race of the ECC which created a quandary for Banas: “I have a hard decision to make. I have eight girls who really deserve to go,” Banas said.
Boys’ cross-country
Academy senior Ian Hoffman continues to improve. Hoffman finished fifth overall in the Centaurs final dual meet of the season against host NFA and Griswold. The Centaurs finished with a 5-4 overall record and a 0-3 mark in Div. I of the ECC as they lost to the Wildcats 27-30 and the Wolverines 22-34.
Hoffman finished in 17 minutes, 57 seconds and was just 22 seconds behind first-place finisher Michael Strain of Griswold.
“It was very good to see and he looked like he belonged there,” said coach Peter Lusa. “Now, he has a vision in his head as to where he needs to be (in the ECC championship race). Who the players are, who he should go out with and who he should not go out with.”
Lusa fully expects to see Hoffman, a senior, finish in the top 10 in the ECC championship.
“It’s going to be tough. He will finish the race exhausted. He will have to put it all out there and I think that will put him into good stead in (the state championship meet) the following week,” Lusa said.
Hoffman’s teammate Vincente Bastura placed seventh at Mohegan Park with Christian Menounos in ninth. But they were off the pace of the leaders a bit. Bastura finished 1:07 behind Hoffman.
“There was a significant gap between our first and second runners. The first pack kind of brought themselves along and the second pack stayed together for a bit and then Vince emerged from it and ran by himself with no one to chase after,” Lusa said. Seamus Lippy was 10th for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

caption, page 4
Hopeful
Woodstock Academy senior Linsey Arends hopes to bring home an ECC individual title from the Norwich Golf Course this week. Photo by Josh Welch.

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