Meet 1: Centaurs split with Griswold & Waterford

The race was on at the end of the meet at Harkness Park in Waterford last week.

Coming out of the woods and headed toward the finish line, Woodstock Academy sophomore Christian Menounos held a slim edge over Griswold senior Michael Strain with about 200 yards to go.

The younger runner was not fazed.

"Christian just maintained that space and was even able to open it up a little bit," Centaurs coach Peter Lusa said.

Being pushed by his Griswold opponent possibly even helped the sophomore.

Menounos had a goal coming in of finishing in 17 minutes, 10 seconds.

He bested his own hopes by about 40 seconds.

"I was very happy and he was happy with his time. It was a very fast, flat course with the finishing section all on road which allowed the runners to push off well," Lusa said. 

Just about 15 seconds behind him was senior teammate Vincente Bastura who placed third overall.

Unfortunately for the Centaurs, Griswold's Strain triplets and friends proved to be a little too much as the Wolverines posted a 26-30 win.

Lucas and Jacob Strain finished fourth and fifth followed by teammate Jackson Collins.

Centaurs junior Charles Cagiano finished seventh in 18:50 and was followed by classmate Joel Koleszar who came across the line five seconds later. Lance LaFemina placed 18th to account for Woodstock Academy's top five runners.

The Centaurs are off to a .500 start as they downed the host Lancers, 22-35.

"We're very happy with the first meet and now we have targets; now we have discussion points. A lot of our kids were able to hold off surges from behind so we're going to have a lot of conversations about footspeed," Lusa said.