Meet 2: Centaurs down Ledyard and Tourtellotte; finish 8th at Ocean State
Woodstock Academy coach Joe Banas called it "the biggest meet of the regular season."
Unfortunately, this round belonged to host East Lyme.
The Centaurs hung in with their top four runners finishing in the sixth through ninth spots in the quad-meet at Rocky Neck State Park.
East Lyme, however, got the 1-2-3 finish against the Centaurs to guarantee itself the 23-32 win.
"At the moment, the gap between their top three and our first is huge," Banas said.
But that could change by the time the two next get together at the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship meet in October.
The Centaurs have a high ceiling with room to improve as they were led by two newcomers, Leila Kwairedinord and Olivia Tracy, who finished sixth and seventh overall.
"Olivia ran very little over the summer and she is coming up to the front with Leila who has not touched her tip yet. If those two can move a little closer and an East Lyme runner has a bad day, it could be interesting," Banas said.
Banas said both Lauren Brule and Julia Coyle, who finished eighth and ninth respectively, could also potentially close the gap a bit as they felt like they could have run a little better
The Centaurs did raise their record to 4-1 overall with a 25-33 win over Ledyard and a 15-50 victory over Tourtellotte.
Kira Greene placed 12th, Sydney Lord 15th and Tessa Brown 18th to round out the seven runners for Woodstock Academy.
The Centaurs did get a measure of revenge against East Lyme later in the week.
Woodstock Academy finished eighth overall in the girls Varsity 2 race at the Ocean State Invitational cross-country meet in Warwick, R.I.
East Lyme, which did hold a couple of their top runners out of the meet according to Banas, was 11th.
Tracy was first for the Centaurs in 41st place overall while Coyle was 47th.
