Preview Roundup
Optimism abounds for Centaurs
Those going to Woodstock Academy girls’ outdoor track meets this season might want to stray a bit from the track.
The Centaurs will be very competitive around the oval but out in the adjoining fields is where the real strength may lie as it is where the shotput, discus and javelin are held.
Seniors Avery Plouffe, Kiley Elliott and Lily Morgis had very nice indoor track seasons and Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain comes over from basketball to throw the javelin.
“It’s going to be fun to watch them this season,” said Woodstock Academy girls outdoor track coach Josh Welch. “They really have lofty goals. Morgis is super-fired up about some particular distances in discus. She wants to hit 160-feet. It’s not impossible. She ended in the high 130’s last year and is looking way more powerful than in the past. We will see what DB (D’Alleva-Bochain) can do as well (in the javelin) but she should be way out there. It’s fun to see their excitement coming into the season. There is a sense of purpose there, they want to repeat winning States,”
D’Alleva-Bochain captured the Class MM state title in javelin; Morgia was tops in the state in discus and Plouffe was best in the shotput.
The team, as a whole, finished third overall.
“I’m looking for the third MM (title, she also won in 2024) but also the State Open. Unfortunately, I cannot compete in New England’s because graduation is the same day but looking for that State Open title. We have a great squad, a lot to prove, we had a sweep in the MM last year so maybe bringing that back or even a sweep at the Open,” D’Alleva-Bochain said.
The Centaurs have some unfinished business to attend to in the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
Woodstock won the conference championship meet but the regular season crown belonged to Norwich Free Academy which edged the Centaurs by two points in the final regular season meet.
“I think we have the potential to have an undefeated regular season. States is always a little far out to think about how that will go. It seems like NFA and East Lyme always pop up but we’re doing very well against those teams now because we have a lot of diverse talent,” Welch said.
There is one big question mark.
The Centaurs lost only three athletes to graduation.
One of those, however, was Juliet Allard.
“That leaves a big dent in a number of things. We may have to spread people out a bit more to make up for those lost points but I think we lost less than both NFA and East Lyme so we could be right there,” Welch said.
One of the key members on the track will be senior Emma Weitknecht who has no shortage of goals for the season.
“I’m super-excited for the season. I want to come out and win States again, I want to win ECC’s, I want to better my own school record and take some more the board from Juliet,” Weitknecht said.
The Centaurs may have lost Allard but they may have gained points in another area as a pair of talented freshman distance runners join the squad.
“We have Emme (Langevin) stepping in with a little more skill and Claire Bruneaux, who is fantastic as a freshman. I think both of them will offer quite a bit so we should be much stronger in the distance and mid-distance department than we were last year,” Welch said.
The sprints might be the biggest question mark.
Welch said one of his biggest early tasks will be to figure out the 4x100m relay where he would like to be competitive but do so without having to take away from other events such as jumps where Ella Lidonde and Elise Coyle will likely score points, both are also sprinters.
“That was the nice thing, the complementary relationship between Allard and Coyle and some others as every one of them seemed to do fairly well between 100 and 400-meters and a couple could hurdle so we could piece it around and we always had coverage. It’s a little tighter now with one of those pieces missing. We don’t have the buffer we had last year so everyone will have to stay healthy,” Welch said.
There are a couple of younger athletes that Welch has hopes for including Mariella Siwko and Ellie Santamaria.
“Both are really quick kids. Ellie is turning into a good hurdler for a freshman. She didn’t walk in the door looking like our next star athlete but she is going to be really good. Siwko has a nice attitude, works really hard and is fast but has to develop into ECC-fast. The ECC has developed some real density in the 100 and 200 meters over the past couple years,” Welch said.
That’s a big reason why Welch was so happy to have his distance runners being fortified by a young group.
Unlike last year, the Centaurs have a host of seniors who will be bidding adieu to the campus in June.
“It has gone by fast,” Weitknecht said. “I think freshman year was literally like 10 seconds ago and now, all of a sudden, we’re here and facing graduation.”
The Centaurs are scheduled to open on Wednesday on the road at East Lyme.

Boys’ Track
There is certainly reason for the boys’ track team to feel positive as it heads into another spring season.
Last year, the Centaurs may have finished 1-3 in dual meets but only lost to Fitch by 10 points and to East Lyme by 15.
The Centaurs scored over 100 points in the ECC indoor track championship this past winter to finish in third.
And they had some very good individual performances along the way.
Add to that a good turnout for the spring and the Centaurs may have some answers for their opponents.
“At the risk of sounding cliché, diversity is the strength of this team this year,” boys; track coach Gerry LaMontagne said. “We have some strong sprinters, a couple of jumpers, Owen Williamson in hurdles and the high jump and Eli Manning and David Sumner and newcomer Eean Sanborn in the throws. We have a lot of guys across a lot of events.  We have some guys excited to come back who will fill in on sprints and relays and we have a strength in our distance runners. It’s what you need in track and field, it’s hard to load up any one area, you have to compete across a number of them and that’s what we have this year.”
Manning is coming off a winter season that saw him become a Class M shotput state champion in indoor track.
“That gave me some confidence. I have been working throughout my whole track career to build up confidence at some of the higher competition meets and it really just kind of clicked this year and I was able to push past some of my early-season troubles,” Manning said.
Manning was happy to see a host of student athletes who played football this past fall come out as throwers for the track team this spring.
Abraham McGregor, meanwhile,  is just happy to be able to compete this season.
McGregor was a part of the team last year but was not eligible to compete as the senior transferred into Woodstock Academy.
This year, he can put some points on the board in jumps and sprints for the Centaurs.
“Finally, I get to go out and compete against the best in the State and being able to finally represent the school is very nice,” McGregor said.
He will join Thatcher Paterson as the two key jumpers for the program.
“We did a lot of damage in indoor and that dominance is going to continue into outdoors as well as in the sprints,” McGregor said.
Collin Teal and Aiden Tyler may also be looked at for points in the short distances.
Ronan Curran and Liam Hewson will have to hold down the middle distance while Lucas Hecker. Sam Greene, Bronson Eddy and Jackson Durand will anchor the distance events.
One good thing, the weather has, generally, been cooperative.
“We were worried that all the snow this past winter would be an issue; that has been a non-factor. We have a lot of good attitudes and kids working hard. We just have to start honing in on the opening meet (the Centaurs are scheduled to open the season at East Lyme on Wednesday). Things are slowly but surely coming together,” LaMontagne said.
The coach would like to see his team turn around the numbers in dual meets this season.
Manning said the numbers will help as a strong turnout of athletes and the talent that they possess, plus a strong sense of community between the team members, will hopefully combine to produce “something special” this season.
“We could win three dual meets this season and we would have to see where that sets us up for the league meet but when you are trying to rebuild a program, you hope to get the pieces in place and, at some point, have to cash in on what you have and this could be the year we do that. Coach (Josh) Welch and I are pushing this boys' team to do something that hasn’t been done by a Woodstock Academy track team in a long time,” LaMontagne said.

Boys’ Tennis
The boys’ tennis team had 16 players a season ago.
Good numbers for the Centaurs.
Those numbers helped produce a 7-8 season which saw the team qualify for the Class M state tournament.
Unfortunately, seven of those players who were in the starting lineup are no longer with the team and coach Siana Green, once again, has a small number of players to begin the tennis season with.
“I’m going in optimistic when I look at who I have but it is a little scary especially with doubles. I’m feeling confident with our singles lineup, but doubles is up in the air. I have a lot of new players, new dynamics. Usually we have one established doubles team coming back and we don’t so that’s going to be our challenge this year,” Green said.
Adriano Peniche, Tyler Chamberlin, Leo Larkin and Ashley Abrams all graduated from the program.
The Centaurs will have a new number one singles player in Rodrigo Diez de los Rios Beigveder.
“He’s phenomenal.” Green said. “I’m hoping to get him into the state individual tournament. It will be interesting to see how he does in the ECC. I feel he should be a top-4 player.”
Senior Ryan Chabot returns as the team captain and No. 2 singles player for the Centaurs followed by sophomore Dan Jameson and junior Heath White.
Junior Cayden Worth is also back.
“Cayden is a seasoned doubles player so I have to decide if I put him with a newer player that he can help direct or do we try and make a strong No. 1 doubles team and then experiment with the other two doubles teams. Do I put all my eggs in one basket or not?,” Green said.
Senior Steve Shen has decided to return to the team after a year off.
Newcomers include Jackson Hayden, Jack Xie and Adian Newall-Vuillemot.
One thing the Centaurs will miss is the camaraderie that the 16-member team produced.
Even though some of the players were international students and not eligible to play, they did come to matches and that was helpful.
 “We had a lot of cheerleaders per se and that really boosts players’ self-esteem and when you don’t have people cheering you on, it makes the mental game tougher,” Green said.
The Centaurs do not have facilities on campus so they play their home matches at the Pomfret School.
“We want to make it to the state tournament again, defeat Ledyard which is something we haven’t done since I have been coach and finally win a (ECC) Division II title,” Green said.

Girls’ Tennis
Stephen Wetherell told the administration that he was interested in coaching when he was hired as a teacher.
He didn’t have to wait too long for that ambition to be fulfilled.
Wetherell will coach the Centaurs girls’ tennis program this spring.
Wetherell will have help this year, however, as last year’s head coach Dena Cocozza O’Hara, who is still the Pomfret School tennis coach, joins him as an assistant for the Centaurs this season.
“It’s helped me to learn who the girls are. She has some great ideas about how things roll and how things are at Pomfret since we are using their facilities. It’s been super helpful,” Wetherell said.
Wetherell played soccer and tennis for Killingly for four years, graduated and went to Hilbert College in Buffalo, N.Y., where he played collegiate soccer.
Wetherell also comes into a nice situation as far as the team is concerned.
The Centaurs finished 9-7 and return their singles contingent from a year ago including Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II All-Star senior Wynter Worth.
Fellow senior Gianna Musumeci was an honorable mention ECC performer last year and both Kerrigan Reynolds and Mariia Oliinyk also return.
“Just seeing them practice, I’m super-excited about the potential that they have. I tell them that in practice, that they have the capability to do some really great things in the ECC this year. I’m excited to see how they do,” Wetherell said.
In addition to the singles, the Centaurs also return a pair of ECC Div. II All-Star doubles players in juniors Catherine Trudeau and Delilah Kesselman.
“We also have a couple of up-and-coming players that will be stepping in at doubles so we really feel that we have a full team of really strong, fundamentally sound tennis players. We just have to have the right mindset. Tennis is one of those sports where it is so easy to get into your own head. They all have the capability to perform well, but can they learn how to fall back on their fundamentals under pressure,” the first-year coach said.
Sophomore Emma Mairson returns to the team with seniors Sophia Aguilar Del Olmo and Andrea De Cos Ortiz able to play for a first year. Sophomore Jada Ngibuini and freshman Lillian Gregorzek are also out for the team.
The Centaurs will again play their home matches at the Pomfret School.
That’s a good thing, especially early in the season, when the weather can wreak havoc with the schedule.
The interesting thing, though, comes when the Centaurs have to step outside and play a match on the road in the elements.
“It’s different playing outside,” Wetherell said. “We want to get them outside because it feels different, with the wind and everything. It feels quicker. We have to get them exposed to that.”
Fortunately, their first match was indoors as they were scheduled to host Ledyard in their season opener on Monday night at Pomfret School.
“I want us to win ECC’s. I think we have the capability. The girls have a team goal to win, at least, 10 matches which I think is great,” Wetherell said. “Our four singles can all make (the state individual tournament). I think our doubles teams are strong contenders for that as well. We have some very talented tennis players this year.”
s went in order in the sixth and could only muster a two-out walk in the seventh.
Sampson led the offense with a trio of hits for Woodstock Academy while Ethier had a pair in the loss.
  Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

Girls track captions
IMG 6847
Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain hopes to once again compete for the individual state title in the javelin. Photo by Gerry LaMontagne/Woodstock Academy.
 
123.1
Senior hurdler and sprinter Emma Weitknecht is on a mission to improve her own school records and add her name on the board to a couple of others this girls outdoor track season. Photo by Josh Welch/Woodstock Academy.

Boys' track captions:
IMG 6862: 
Eli Manning, coming off a state championship in shotput from the indoor track season, will be a key thrower. Photo by Gerry LaMontagne/Woodstock Academy.

Boys' Tennis captions:
IMG 7672
The boys’ tennis team has a host of new players but are optimistic about the season that lies ahead. Photo by Siana Green/Woodstock Academy.

Girls' Tennis Captions:
IMG 4871
From left: Sophia Aguilar Del Olmo. Delilah Kesselman. Kerrigan Reynolds and Emma Musumeci will be key players. Photo by Stephen Wetherell/Woodstock Academy.

Stephen Wetherell will guide the girls’ tennis team this season. Photo contributed by Woodstock Academy.
..

.