ECC Championship: Centaurs finish 4th at Coast Guard Academy

It was a surprise to many when the Eastern Connecticut Conference announced recently that the league’s indoor track championship meets were going to be held at their traditional site, the Coast Guard Academy in New London.

The site was scheduled to be undergoing refurbishment but the ECC, which had originally planned to journey to the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven for the championships, was allowed to utilize the Coast Guard facility on Saturday for both the league’s Division I and II championships.

“I was surprised and there are pros and cons to the venue,” said Woodstock Academy coach Josh Welch. “The odd length track often means odd length relays so no chance to qualify (for state competition).”

For example, the 4x800m relay is a 4x720m at Coast Guard and the 4x200m is a 4x180m.

The Woodstock Academy girls team took home a fourth-place finish but weren't all that far behind the first-place finisher, East Lyme.

The Vikings finished with 136 while the Centaurs put together a 72-point performance.

Woodstock Academy had a couple of first-place performances.

Juliet Allard picked up one of those first-place finishes for the Centaurs girls as she won the 300m in a personal best 44.45 seconds.

“That was an amazing run,” Welch said.

The girls 4x720m team of Sydney Lord, Tessa Brown, Olivia Tracy and Julia Coyle also brought home first-place medals.

Coyle, who had a “fantastic day” according to Welch, was also second in the 1600m while Bella Sorrentino was third in the shotput and fifth in the 55m hurdles. Sorrentino, her sister Mia, Talia Tremblay and Allard were third in the 4x180m relay.

“Bella was phenomenal as always. She didn’t have her best 55m hurdles but she is consistently throwing close to qualifying for Nationals in the shotput,” Welch said.

Magdalena Myslenski was fourth in the shotput and Tremblay was fourth in the 600m.

Olivia Tracy also qualified for the States with a personal best time in the 1000m.

Speaking of States , that is next on the agenda for the Centaurs.

The girls will travel to the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven as they compete on Friday in the Class L state championship meet beginning at 4:30 p.m.

The Centaurs will send 14 athletes to that competition.