Meet 2: Centaurs down NFA

The Woodstock Academy gymnastics had a long winter’s nap.

The Centaurs opened the season in late December with a meet versus Killingly but didn’t get back at it until Saturday when they and Killingly played host to Norwich Free Academy at Deary’s Gymnastics in Danielson.

“It was really nice,” Woodstock Academy coach Kasey Tocchio said of the break. “We had the time to practice and kind of regroup and come together.”

It must have helped a bit as the Centaurs picked up their first win of the year, 132.65-131.1, over the Wildcats.

Olivia Aleman led the way as she finished with a 9.4 total in three of her events.

That was good enough to net her a tie for first-place in the vault and second-place finishes on both the bars and on the floor.

The sophomore was the only Centaur athlete to finish in the top three in any of their routines.

“It was a little uncharacteristic for us, especially on beam, where we had some falls. But Allie Boyd had a beautiful beam routine so there were some good things, but also some not-so-good things,” Tocchio said.

Overall, there was improvement as the Centaurs scored a 129 total in their season-opening loss to Killingly in December.

“We’re going to keep climbing. We’re being picky with ourselves. If we’re going up in the numbers and still having more falls than we’re definitely making some strides but we have more in us,” Tocchio said.

The win over the Wildcats was nice as it was the first time Woodstock Academy had seen what NFA would bring to the table this season.

Killingly, however, continued to impress as it finished with a 136.4 total.

“Being one big team, separated into two, is always tough, but Killingly had a killer meet (Saturday) so that was exciting for them,” Tocchio said.

The Centaurs did get another boost as Maitena Alvarez, back from winter break, did compete for the Centaurs.

“She competed on both floor and vault and did awesome. That was really cool. She does a flipping vault so we definitely counted her scores,” Tocchio said.