caption:

Qualify
Freshman Linsey Arends was the only Woodstock Academy track and field athlete to qualify for the State Open championship meet. Photo by Marc Allard.


 There was only one member of the Woodstock Academy track and field program scheduled to compete in the State Open championship June 3. The event ended too late for this edition.
Freshman Linsey Arends earned herself a spot in the 1,600-meter event with a third-place finish in the Class MM state championship meet May 29.
“Linsey is great to work with because she is talented, but takes coaching very well.  As she matures as a runner, she will dial in on the events she is most suited for, and learn to feel out those races in challenging competition better,” said Woodstock Academy coach Josh Welch. “I think this outdoor season helped her get quicker, and brought her mile time down.  Coupling that with the right summer training should set her up for a great cross-country season.  She is not so speedy for a miler right now, but she is developing strength.”
Arends finished in 5:24.78, bettering her previous best in the mile by almost seven seconds.
The freshman barely missed out on qualifying for two events in the State Open.
She finished seventh in the 3,200-meter in 12:01.53.
Arends was just beaten at the line by Abby McCarthy of Torrington who got the last spot in 12:00.85.
”It was a tough call regarding which event to focus on.  In the end that choice was Linsey’s and she felt more confident in the mile.  Coach (Joe) Banas and I spent a long time deliberating on which race she would most likely qualify in, and really it’s always a best guess, but I think that was the best race for her given the performance data we had to work with,” Welch said.
Arends did get a little break which opened the door for her to run both events.
Rain came in halfway through the meet and forced the postponement of events like the 3,200-meter from Wednesday to Thursday.
“Splitting the meet over the course of two days gave her a great deal of time to recover from the mile and run the 3,200-meter to try and qualify there as well.  She was pulled out a little fast in the 3,200 and was just edged out by a second at the finish as she struggled to hold on,” Welch said.
Junior Marina Monrabal made the finals of the 100-meter dash and placed eighth in 13.02 seconds.
She also participated in the 200-meter where she finished in 27.37, good for 12th place.
“Marina did a great job in both races and set personal bests improving her times in both the 100m and the 200m by a tenth of a second or so. I think in her instance, the conditions on both days were less than ideal, she seems to really respond well to the heat. Considering the data from the meet, almost every athlete ran slower in preliminaries than their seed time and Marina was one of the few who dropped a little more time to get to the finals,” Welch said.
With the exception of Arends, the state championship meet spelled the end to the girls outdoor track season.
“I think we had a great year for a young team,” Welch said. “It has been a couple of years since the Woodstock Academy girls put points on the board at states and we managed to do that this year. We have very few athletes moving on next year, and a batch of new athletes coming in so in that respect I am excited for next year.  Hopefully we’ll see some greater participation from athletes in cross country and indoor, continuing on to outdoor, and a batch of new faces over the course of the year.”
Boys
The Woodstock Academy boys’ track team failed to have any of its members qualify for the State Open championship.
But it didn’t mean the Centaurs didn’t see improvement.
Senior Danylo Ntamwemizi stood out in that regard.
Ntamwemizi barely snuck into the Class MM state championship meet with a throw of 41-feet at the ECC championship the week before.
May 29, Ntamwemizi cleared that mark by almost 2 feet, finishing with a toss of 42 feet, 8 1/2 inches to claim a seventh-place finish.
Fellow senior Lucas Couture easily cleared 11 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault.
He tried to go for more, but narrowly missed on three chances at 12-feet and settled for a tie for seventh place.
Kenneth Birlin placed 12th in the 800-meter while Ethan Aspiras struggled against a fast pace at the start of the 3,200-meter event and ended in 15th.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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Legal Notice
Town of Pomfret
Planning and
Zoning Commission
PUBLIC HEARING
NOTICE
The Pomfret Planning & Zoning Commission will hold the following Public Hearing at its meeting on June 19, 2019, starting at 7:00 PM at the Old Town House:
1. First Congregational Church, corner Pomfret St. and Grosvenor Rd. — text amendment to reduce front yard setback for parking
A copy of the application is on file in the office of the Planning and Zoning Commission, 5 Haven Road, Pomfret Center, Connecticut. The file is available for review during normal business hours.

Town of Pomfret
Planning & Zoning Commission
Dated this 29th day
of May 2019

Lynn L. Krajewski,
Clerk

June 5, 2019
June 12, 2019

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caption, page 12:

Tops
Luke Mathewson was Woodstock Academy’s top hitter and pitcher in his senior season, going 7-4 on the mound and hitting .432. Photo by Joel Tretheway/The Woodstock Academy.




Centaur baseball season ends
The hugs at the end of the game May 30 quickly led to tears.
Unfortunately, in high school baseball, only four teams leave the field with tears of joy.
The Woodstock Academy program was hoping it might be one of those.
Jonathan Law had other ideas.
The Milford-based high school came to the Quiet Corner and handed the Centaurs a 9-0 loss in a Class L state tournament game.
“That’s a very good team,” said Woodstock Academy coach Brian Murphy. “I’m proud of our guys. We battled. (Thursday) just wasn’t our day. They saved their ace for us and he looked like their ace. You have to give credit where it’s due and the kid pitched an outstanding game and they had some timely hits.”
Josh Baker faced just three batters over the minimum.
He set the Centaurs down in order in the first three innings before hitting Eric Preston with a pitch with two outs in the fourth inning. Luke Mathewson followed with a single but Baker’s third strikeout of four got him out of the inning.
Pete Spada had the only other hit, a single, in the sixth inning for the Centaurs.
“He had a great fast ball, definitely mid-80’s, something we haven’t seen much of this year so it was tough to get the bat around on it,” Mathewson said.
Woodstock Academy had high hopes coming into the game.
The Lawmen were only the No. 26 seed and had just got past No. 7 Wilcox Tech, 6-1, May 29.
It gave the 23rd-seeded Centaurs a bonus home game.
“We thought we had a chance,” Mathewson said. “Second-round game at home, we felt like we had a chance for sure. I thought Senior Day was going to be our last home game, but winning (Wednesday) meant we had a good chance at playing another home game. It was just a tough outcome.”
Jonathan Law reached Woodstock Academy starter Preston for three runs in the second inning.
“We knew we would have to grind it out and I even started out an inning with Doug Newton trying to bunt his way on. We knew we had to manufacture something. They were a confident team and you could see why, they were nine-deep in the batting order and had their ace on the mound, but we battled,” Murphy said.
The Lawmen put the game out of reach with three more runs in the fifth and three in the seventh.
The Centaurs made it look easy in the first round.
They delivered one of their better offensive performances of the season in a 10-0 win over 10th-seeded Hillhouse High School.
Mathewson would have liked to have saved some of the 16-hit attack to use against Jonathan Law. He didn’t need all of that support as he allowed the Academics just one hit, struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter.
“I didn’t want to take off the Woodstock Academy jersey yet,” said Mathewson who will be playing for Westfield State in the fall. “I wanted to put it on at least one more time so I had to go out there and do what I can for the team.”
Mathewson’s effort meant he finished the season with a 7-4 record on the mound including seven complete games. He allowed only 13 earned runs and 50 hits in 64 innings for an earned run average of 1.42. His control was superb throughout the season as he struck out 80 and only yielded nine walks.
“Luke is a special kid,” Murphy said. “I’ve given him the ball in some funny circumstances this year and he’s just a competitor.”
Mathewson had three hits and an RBI in the win over Hillhouse to finish with a team-best .432 batting average. He was also second on the team in RBIs with 19.
Preston took that runs batted in title with 20 and hit .328 on the season. He had two of those and four hits in the win over the Academics.
Nathan John was the third of the senior trio in the middle of the batting order. The first baseman hit at a .343 clip with 18 runs driven in.
“Eric was a competitor every game. Nate John had an incredible year. Pete Spada was great in relief despite a bad knee and Matt Moffitt stole us a run against Plainfield and won the game for us. We’re going to miss those guys next year,” Murphy said.
The Centaurs finished with a 12-12 mark.
“We’re happy. Twelve wins. That’s (two) more than last year. Great season. I’m incredibly proud of all these guys who put on the uniform every day. Some play more than others, but we all did our job,” Mathewson said.
Murphy will not have empty shelves returning next year.
He will have to replace the heart of his order but he started that process this year with freshmen Jonathan Smith (.281, 7 RBIs, 3 doubles); Hamilton Barnes (.231, 5 RBIs) and Brendan Hill .214, 3 RBIs) all seeing plenty of playing time.
The Centaurs will also should have their No. 3 starting pitcher, Tommy Li (4-3, 2.51 era in 22 1/3 innings) back. Li was also solid at the plate with a .303 batting average and eight RBIs. Newton (.235, 7 RBIs), Jacob Hernandez (.234, 3 RBIs, 2 doubles) and Luis Miranda (.246, 7 RBIs) are also slated to return. “We look to build on our successes. We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores. We’re excited about next year. Sad to see these guys go, but we will get ready for next year,” Murphy said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director,
The Woodstock Academy

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