NFA avenges regular-season defeat to Woodstock to capture ECC DI girls' track title
May 20—EAST LYME — Norwich Free Academy coach Jeff Wadecki told his girls' track and field team Monday not to worry about the score.
Just keep going. Do what you do best. If a win at the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I championship meet is meant to happen, it will happen.
So it was, with the meet rapidly drawing to a close and the Wildcats ahead somewhat comfortably, that Wadecki, true to his word, hadn't checked the totals either.
NFA scored a triumphant 161 points to dethrone 2023 champion Woodstock Academy. It was also Woodstock which defeated NFA 88-62 in a dual meet just a week ago to claim the ECC Division I regular-season championship.
Woodstock finished second Monday with 149, followed by Waterford third (82), Fitch fourth (75) and Ledyard fifth (70).
"We were a little disappointed by losing to Woodstock (in the regular-season), but we also knew we took Karina (Chan) out of the events against Woodstock (as a precautionary measure for a possible injury). So we knew we had a better shot to come here," said Wadecki, in his first season as the Wildcats head coach.
"(Woostock) still has Juliet Allard that's really good. She gets them 30 points right away. I told our girls, we just need to control what we can control and then we'll be fine."
NFA's wins came from Hannah Graham, who threw a personal-best 132 feet, 6 inches to capture the discus and qualify for nationals, from Lily Gilbert, who led a sweep in the pole vault with a leap of 11-8, and from Chan, who capped off the championship with a victory in the 3,200 (11 minutes, 50.84 seconds).
New London's Darielys Arnold won the 100 meters (12.84) and the long jump (17-5), crediting her new pair of New Balance track spikes for her soaring confidence.
Woodstock's Allard, a junior, took the 300 hurdles (47.71) and the 200 (26.04), as well as running a leg on the Centaurs' first-place 4x100 relay.
NFA's Graham, a senior headed to compete next year at Yale, said she is interested in the numbers when it comes to track and is usually bugging Wadecki to see if he's scored out the meet ahead of time.
For the record, Wadecki did score the meet in advance and had the Wildcats winning. NFA also captured the ECC Division I indoor track championship under coach Ted Koziol.
"I probably asked the coach like a month ago what the prediction is," Graham said. "They told me the potential score but that's just on PRs. We knew there was a shot at us winning, but we knew we had to come here and be individual athletes, come together as a team and whatever happens happens.
"(Before the meet, Wadecki) was just talking about how he's not expecting superhero performances, he's just expecting everyone to try their best and if we can do that maybe we can pull out a win but he did not put a lot of pressure on us. He said, 'Do you.'"
Arnold, meanwhile, repeated in both the 100 and the long jump from a year ago. She's been managing a bout with shin splints that set her back during the indoor season, but has also tried her hand at several different events this spring.
She's attempted the 200, 100 hurdles, shot put, javelin and triple jump with hopes of competing in the CIAC heptathlon at the end of the season.
"It was fun, honestly, trying something new, getting out of my comfort zone," Arnold said of the regular season. "Every time that I try something new, I know it's my first time doing it so there's no judgment of myself."
Arnold was also thrilled with her start to the postseason.
"I finally got new spikes, dude," she said, grinning. "It felt great. It felt great. I ran faster this season but it felt good, that's what really matters to me. It felt good overall, the fact that I won, the fact that I felt like I was going fast."
Other local winners were Waterford's Avery Maiese in the 1,600, Fitch's Hannah Thomas in the 100 hurdles, Waterford's Lily Davis in the 400, Ledyard's Kate Littler in the 800, Bacon Academy's Alyssa Blanchette in the shot put, Fitch's Sydney Post in the high jump and Waterford's Sarah Davidson in the javelin.
Maiese and Davis also led the Waterford 4x400 relay to a victory, joining Ava Lee and Elle Dibuono.
