Girls Cross Country

Team Updates

DiPippo leads Centaurs in final meet of the season

John Ywarsky was more than happy to talk about Stella DiPippo on Saturday following the Class L girls state championship cross-country race at Wickham Park in Manchester.

“Stella got her groove back,” The Woodstock Academy coach said with a laugh.

The freshman finished 25^th in the field in a time of 21 minutes, 37 seconds to lead The Academy to a 15^th place finish with 410 points.

“She was the fourth freshman to finish in Class L, there is nothing to frown about there,” Ywarsky said. “She was trying to get top 12 (and qualify for the State Open) but this was a tough field. (Centaurs assistant coach Joe) Banas was saying that (Morgan) McCormick (from Wilton) who won this race will probably be the Open champion. She looked strong out there.”

DiPippo said she was happy with her performance especially since she bettered her time from the Wickham Park Invitational just a few weeks before.

“It’s really hard because you’re running with girls so much older than you,” DiPippo said.

Senior Hannah Matsas finished up her running career for the Centaurs with an 85^th place finish.

“I have a cold or something,” Matsas said. “It definitely wasn’t my best time.”

Matsas finished in 23:24.

“It’s insane. In Class L (where the Centaurs were placed for a first time this season because they were three runners over the MM designation) there are a lot more fast runners. It was pretty fast, even at the beginning, it went out really fast,” Matsas said.

There was more reason for optimism for the future as freshmen Emily McClure and Iris Bazinet finished 95^th and 100^th respectively. Sophomore Alexia Bourbeau rounded out the top five in 105^th.

“We had a good day. We had some good performances and the future looks really bright,” Ywarsky said.

Matsas will be one of the few seniors that leave the program.

“She has had a good career. We will be sad to see her go because she has had a good year also,” Ywarsky said.

Matsas said she was pleased with her season overall as she bounced back from a less than stellar junior season in her mind.

“The team, as a whole, did awesome this year. We have so many new freshmen and it’s a really young team. We did well this year and as everyone gets a year older next year, they will get even better,” Matsas said.

Eden Law and Leah Randolph were the other two seniors on the squad.

DiPippo comes home in 3^rd

The smile on Stella DiPippo’s face couldn’t have been much larger.

The freshman had just tackled the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship at the Norwich Golf Course and finished in third in 21 minutes, 27 seconds.

It led the Centaurs to a fifth place finish as a team overall and second in ECC Division II behind undefeated Stonington which placed third as a team.

Read about the meet on Centaurnation.com