By Danilo Lobo Dias ‘08, Max Mullen ‘08, and Dae Ro Lee ‘07
News Reporters
Girls Water Polo
The Girls Water Polo Team concluded a successful season with a record of 8-2. With coaching from Bill Berghoff, Cassie Nichols, and Katie Childs, Choate managed to defeat several top New England teams. With important wins over Loomis Chaffee, Suffield, Philips Academy, Deerfield, and Williston Northampton, the Girls Water Polo team entered the New England Championship as the number one seed.
In the semifinals, Choate defeated Suffield, the four-time New England champions, 6-3 with the help of two goals from Lena Gayraud ’06. However, Choate could not carry their momentum through the final game. The first quarter ended in an even score, but Loomis overpowered Choate in the remainder of the game. As a result, Choate finished second place in New England behind the Pelicans.
At the midpoint of the season, the team suffered a heart-breaking loss to Philips Exeter Academy by a score of 8-7. However, in the same day, the Wild Boars faced off against the New England Champion of the last few years, Suffield Academy. The game was very tight, but Choate came out on top with a score of 4-3 thanks to Niki Albino ’06, who scored the game-winning goal.
The team had to face tough competition throughout the season. Led by Co-Captains Tiffany Kim ’06 and goalie Elizabeth Lawrence ’06, the girls stepped up to the challenge and handled the opposition.
In addition to having strong team chemistry, the team was supported by outstanding individual talents. Kendall Dacey ‘06 and Lena Gayraud ‘06 provided the team with offense, while Elizabeth Lawrence covered the net for the Wild Boars. Also, the team received extra help from 4th form young-guns Kristy Zera ’08 and Emily Hunter ‘08.
Boys Track and Field
Choate Boys Track & Field had a very competitive season, finishing with a record of 3-4 in the regular season. Even though the team’s only home meet was cancelled because of inclement weather, the Wild Boars performed strongly at all the away meets, managing to beat some of the top teams in the Founders League. However, Choate did not perform well as a team during the final events of the season.
At the New England Championships, Choate garnered 28 points, and finished eighth out of eleven teams. Michael Morrill ’06 set a personal record (1:59.51) and finished second in the 800 meter run after leading for most of race. Greg Borrelli ’06 contributed with a second-place finish in the shot put event (53’ 11.25”) as well. Borrelli’s also had a first-place finish in the discus with a throw of 148’ 05.”
During the regular season, the track team’s strongest win came on the 15th of April, when the Choaties went up against eventual Founders League Champions Trinity-Pawling. After strong performances and thirteen first-place finishes, Choate defeated T-P 74-69. On that same day, Choate also defeated Westminster 76-67 as part of a tri-meet.
Channing Tookes ’07 had two wins on the day: triple jump (38’08”) and pole vault (9’06”).
The other win for Choate came in a meet against archrivals, Deerfield. Said Coach Phillip Youker, “While Deerfield posted some solid performances, Choate’s talented team proved too deep to beat.”
On another note, all loses suffered by Choate seemed to be a one-sided win favoring the opposite team. Northfield Mt. Hermon manhandled Choate with a win by 73 points. The finals score was 109-36. “With CRH missing a few varsity athletes due to AP-testing, what looked to be a close contest from the start, ended in NMH’s favor,” said Coach Youker. “The NMH boys’ squad proved to be very strong, even in the face of some fine individual Choate performances.”
Girls Track and Field
The Girls Track & Field Team finished 4-1 in the regular season with convincing wins against Deerfield, Taft, Westminster, T-P, and the eventual Founders League champs, Hotchkiss. During the New England Championships, the team performed well finishing sixth out of eleven teams.
The Wild Boars gathered 42 points with the help of Jaleesa Murrell ’06, Yaneve Fonge ’07, and Juliana Hernandez ’08. Murrell broke her own school record in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.62 seconds during the preliminaries. Murrell went on to win the event in the finals and put up 10 points toward Choate’s total score.
Yaneve Fonge ’07 had three strong performances. She finished second in the shot put (37’ 03.25”), fourth in the discus (96’ 06”), and third in the javelin (92’ 05”).
Only a sophomore, Juliana Hernandez ’08 finished third in both the shot put (33’ 05.75”) and in the discus (96’ 08”.
During the season, Choate proved to be a very strong in the throwing competition. Against Hotchkiss, the girls secured 30 of a possible 33 points in the throwing events. These marks helped the girls beat Greenwich Academy handily while sneaking past Hotchkiss 80-77.
Versus Deerfield, Coach Youker said, “The girls’ team clinched a win by amassing a solid 93 points to Deerfield’s 50.” Against Taft, the throwing events were the key to Choate victory once again. Yaneve Fonge ’07 became the 3rd best female shot-putter in Choate Rosemary Hall history and the 4th best female thrower with the new javelin. Julianna Hernandez ’08 also made a mark with the new javelin, hurling the 5th best toss.
Next season, the team will suffer the loss of Jaleesa Murrell ’06, but the class of ’07 and ’08 proved that they are capable of winning events for Choate.
Boys Tennis
Beating the Hotchkiss Wildcats in the quarterfinals and avenging an early season loss to the second-seeded Taft Rhinos with a 4-2 victory in the semifinals, the Boys Tennis Team fought hard to reach the finals of the New England Class A Team Championships. With the championship match against Milton Academy, delayed due to sudden downpours, the Wild Boars ultimately lost the title to the Mustangs.
As they have in the past, the boys’ team posted a strong record entering the Class A tournament with only 2 losses against the Taft School and Andover. With a 12-2 overall record and 6-1 mark in the Founders League, Sunday 21st seemed to hold promise for the Wild Boars Tennis before it started raining.
Milton Academy won the hard-fought doubles round, and in the singles play that followed, they posted a quick win at #4 for a 2-0 lead. This was when the rain forced the players to move to the Middlebury Racket Club to continue the match indoors. At that point the Wild Boars held big leads at #3 and #5 and had successfully shifted momentum their way at #1 and #2. Eliot Jia ‘06 held a break in the second and Ben Gettinger ‘07 climbed out of a 2-6, 0-4 hole to force a third set while the #6 players were in a third set. Any victory in four of those five matches could have produced a title for Choate.
Max Mullen ’08 describes, “Right when we started to click and get back in the swing of things, the rain came, killing our momentum.” When play resumed indoors, Choate’s positive energy had dissipated, and Milton earned wins in the first two completed matches--the three-setter at #6 and a 7-5 second set comeback at #1.
After a strong showing in the team championships, the Wild Boars will look towards the individual competitions and the and of the year.
Golf
After the 2005 Choate Golf Team finished 14-0 and took second in the Kingswood-Oxford Invitational and Founders League Championship, this year’s Golf Team looked to match last season’s success. Choate’s prospects looked strong with the return of its top three golfers—Wes Lord ’06, Mark Dee ’07 and Clement Chung ’06— and the addition of new sophomore Connor Goggin ’08.
This year’s edition compiled an l 8-4 record with first place finishes at the Andover Invitational and the Bader Golf Tournament and had high hopes heading into the Founders League Championships on May 20th. Although Connor Goggin ’08 felt he played poorly, he said the rest of the team “played decent” to keep Choate in the running for the title. The team finished two strokes behind rival Deerfield, but it was no small task to take second place.
The Kingswood-Oxford Invitational Tournament, a gathering of many of the top teams in New England held the previous Wednesday, was also close. Led by Wes Lord, Mark Dee and Kyle Morris’s ’06 sub-80 rounds, the Wild Boars were in contention until the very end. “They played really well”, said Goggin of his teammates. But they were unable to propel Choate past a strong Kingswood squad that won by three strokes.
Looking at the season, the Choate Golf Team’s 8-4 record is evidence of a successful spring. Although the team suffered their first loss at Taft in two years, two tournament titles is an accomplishment that will be hard to match. However, with three of the top six golfers—Mark Dee, Andy Holden ’07, and Connor Goggin—returning and others moving up from an undefeated JV squad, the future looks bright for the Wild Boars.
