Warm Forecast Awaits Winter Teams Choate Squads Look to Make a Deep Run in the Playoffs this Weekend
By Rohan Hong ‘09, Rohit Shankar ‘09, and Suril Kantaria ‘09
News Reporters
Girls Basketball
With an outstanding season coming to a close, the Choate Girls Varsity Basketball team is looking to make a run in the upcoming New England Playoffs. Two games remain on the schedule, and the girls have compiled a record of 13 wins and 5 loses. The team lost to Taft last weekend, but is looking to rebound and play Williston Northampton this weekend. Their two remaining games are both home against Williston Northampton and Kent. The girls’ much improved record this year having two more wins and three fewer loses than last year’s total. Over the season they have had many memorable wins; including overtime wins over Taft and Suffield. In the first Taft game of the season, Jill Mastroianni ‘08 hit a buzzer beating three-pointer at the end of regulation that sent the game to overtime. The hoopsters will also look to use important lessons learned from their losses on the season. In a loss to perennial powers Tabor Academy (a team with two loses on the entire year), Choate played fairly well and found they could hang tough with the best of the best. This was a learning experience which could come in handy in the New England Championships.
As it stands right now, the girls look to be the seven or eight seed in the postseason tournament. There is only one glitch: many of the players on the team have been bitten by the injury bug in the season’s closing stages. Co-captain Kelsey Craig ’07 has torn her ACL, Rachel Romanowsky ’07 suffered a concussion, and two other players have recently had knee and ankle injuries. This leaves Choate in a deep hole. But as always, the girls will find a way to persevere and make there way through the rest of the season. The girls hope to continue their traditional success, as they have made the Class A Tournament eight of the last ten years. The girls have been underdogs all year long, and this will continue to be the case in the tournament. Captain Jill Mastroianni ‘08 said, “Our team has shocked a lot of people this year and we are better than most people expected and now the team just needs to continue this into the postseason.” Hopefully, the team’s result in the New England Tournament will make a good season an even better one.
Girls Ice Hockey
The Girls’ Varsity Ice Hockey team hopes to pull through the end of the regular season to end in the top eight girls’ hockey teams in New England. Key wins against Deerfield, Hotchkiss, and Cushing Academy will help the team qualify for a post season run in the New England Playoffs at Hotchkiss.
Under the dynamic coaching of Ms. Riepenhoff and Mrs. Nutting, the girls have had a very successful season, with a total of only four losses to Tabor, Taft, Lawrence Academy, and Westminster. Gwendolyn Schultz ’10 commented on the losses, “All of our losses were very close and tough games…we were very fatigued when we played Tabor, after having played two games in 24 hours, and we just couldn’t pull of a third win.”
Maura Leahy ’09 added, “Our team had a little lull halfway through the season, with a few losses in important games…but we are at the peak of our ability now.”
The New England Playoffs will be held on February 28 to March 4, 2007, and the tournament will include the top eight girls’ ice hockey teams in the New England Prep School League. It is traditionally held at the school with the top rank, so the whereabouts of the tournament will be released once all the teams have finished their season.
The team has been conditioning throughout the season, and has been continuously preparing for a potential post season run. Hockey player Maura Leahy ’09 explained, “After a tremendous effort at conditioning throughout the season, we are now at our peak conditioning state…we have been working really hard during practices and hope it will pay off.”
This years Varsity Girls’ Ice Hockey team consists of many underclassmen, who will lead the team in the future years. Maura Leahy ’09 stated, “Unlike many other teams who just have many good seniors, our team consists of many talented underclassmen too. They are the future of our hockey program, and our team will be strong in the next couple of years.”
The starting line for the girls this season has hockey players from all forms. Gwendolyn Schultz ’10 said, “Our team has very strong players in all four grades, as seen by our starting line.”
The team depends on its talented players to stay focused and come out strong during the next few games, which will determine whether they will qualify for New Englands. Gwendolyn Schultz ’10 commented, “Our team depends on Hilary Knight at all times, but captains Katie McKinnon, Emily Vitale, and Claire Preston are all pretty strong players as well.”
The Girls’ Hockey Team will be depending on support from all its loyal fans, as it will need a lot of support and energy to win the difficult upcoming games. The girls’ fate will be determined by their performance through the end of the season, but they hope to battle through and reach the New England Playoffs.
Boys Squash
Boys’ Varsity Squash is ending the season with a satisfying record, only losing to three teams. The team’s current record is 15-5 because the team has lost twice to Taft and Exeter, and once to Brunswick. Considering the team was not in its full strength when it faced Taft, and Exeter and Brunswick are the strongest team in New England, the Wild Boars have fought well.
The team has recently added three more wins to its winning records on Friday, February 16 and Saturday, February 17. The team performed tremendously in all three games against Avon, KO, and Westminster. However, Dae Ro Lee ’07, the current #1 varsity player, injured his ankle last Friday. Thus, every player had to play one ladder level higher than they usually do. The team overcame this obstacle and beat Westminster 6-1.
The team wants to place in the top 8 in the New England Championship before the end of the season. The team has already proven its strength in the National High School Team Championships at Yale by placing the 10th. “We have great depth, great team cheer, and team camaraderie,” says Lee. “Talking about girls in the midbus to every single away trip helps us to bond.” The head coach, Mr. Will Morris, has emphasized a strong sense of team and sportsmanship throughout the entire season, and these traits have already become the team’s motivation. The weakness of the team is that players in 1, 2, 3 positions usually suffer losses due to strong top players from other teams. Thus, the hope lies on the players in 4, 5, 6, and 7 positions who secure the wins in most games. The
Wild Boars seem quite ready for the New England Championship. They have had a lot of fitness sessions under the guidance of Coach Morris for the whole season, and most importantly, most players have gained much experience from many matches. “I believe that with our team bonding and our desire to improve, regardless of what we were last year, we will do better,’ says Lee confidently.
Girls Squash
Girls’ Varsity Squash is very close to achieving all three goals it had set in the beginning of the season: to end the season without having the second loss, to defeat Greenwich, and to place top three in New England Championship. The Wild Boars have boasted consistent performances throughout the entire season. “Our strong point would be our level of fitness,” says the captain Anne Cheng ’07. It is quite unusual that a girls’ squash team can boast players’ fitness. The head coach, Mr. Tom Foster, has always emphasized the physical conditioning of players during each practice, which helped players to perform well in every game regardless of the team’s busy schedule. In addition, the players have learned drills and skills from three coaches Mr. Foster, Mr. Loeb, and Ms. Brenner. “It isn’t just about the record, because our level of playing has really gotten so much better,” says Cheng. Although the team suffered a loss at the hands of Greenwhich Academy in the early season, there is still much hope for the team to defeat GA in the Championship at the Groton School.
The team has already begun to prepare for the New England Championship because the team wants to place top three among competitive rivals. “There are 3 divisions: A, B, and C. We are re in Class A, and there will be 16 schools in the divisions. I think Milton, St. George’s, Groton, and Greenwich are strong rivals,” says Cheng. Players will have abbreviated practices for last few days before the New England. “We’re spending the last week honing our skills, and most importantly, making sure that we eat and sleep well,” says Cheng.
Moreover, the success of Girls’ Squash will likely continue next season. Although three top senior players are leaving the team this year, the team will be full of excellent players such as Maggie Remsen ’09, Ellie Foster ’08, Caroline Shumway ’08, etc. Also, freshmen, Hannah Koh ’10 and Mary Foster ’10 etc, are contributing significantly to the team. The team has a very bright future. “I hope the team next season will be as successful as this year’s,” says Cheng. The team, however, is eager to end the season on a successful high note.
Boys Swimming
The regular season has quickly come to an end for Boys Varsity Swimming, and the top four swimmers in each event have begun to prepare for the Western New England Championships, on February 25th, and the New England Swimming and Diving Championships at Deerfield Academy on March 3rd, 2007.
The Boys’ Swim Team has ended their regular season with an even four wins and four losses. Unfortunately the male Dolphins were not as strong as they hoped to be, as suggested by Timothy Ibbotson-Sindelar ’09: “Two years ago the boys team had been undefeated for five straight years, but in these past two years we’ve decreased in strength and power.” He joked, “I guess we’ve made a sacrifice in a way by donating some of our strength to the girls, who have had a great season this year.”
Nevertheless, the boys are proud of their wins this season. Sociable swimmer Daniel Fallahi ’09 commented, “Our success has been a real team effort, but many swimmers have stepped up to the occasion and have done extremely well in important and tense times.”
Although the Dolphins have struggled this season, they have put every effort in overcoming their great loss of talented seniors from last season. Proud swimmer Connor Murphy ’09 stated, “This year has been a challenging year for us compared to prior seasons. We lost a large pool of talent from the past few years, as only three seniors remain on our team this year: Oumarbaev, Li, and Adams.”
The members of the Choate Swim Team have pushed each other to his full potential, as they continuously support each other and amiably socialize before and after swim practices. On numerous occasions, the swim team can be sighted eating dinner in the dining hall, and walking around campus in large clusters. Murphy ’09 stated, “As many people on campus know, we share a tight bond.”
The swim team credits the Dolphins’ coaches, Sara Massa, Mr. Currie, Ms. Perkins, and Ms. Erika, for their success. The fierce coaches have supported the team, regardless of the number of wins or losses the team has experienced. Murphy ’09 appreciated the strong coaching staff: “Our team has done a lot of great work this season…while the results could be attributed to the swimmer’s hard work, the entire coaching staff has done a great job guiding and channeling our focus onto the right targets.”
As the post season rapidly approaches, the Choate Dolphins have started to prepare for the arduous upcoming meets. The boys have begun to taper, or save up energy by decreasing the amount of swimming in the next few days. The boys enjoy preparing for the upcoming post season, as Murphy 09’ explained, “Preparing for the highly competitive swim meets at the climax of our season is something every swimmer looks forward to. The practices get less intense from a training aspect, and there is more focus on technique. This results in a tremendous increase in overall energy and speed during races, so we can all perform our best.”
In the New England meet, individual swimmers will receive points depending on their performance in their race. These points will add up to influence the team score, and which team goes home in first place.
The Choate Varsity Boys Swimming Team can only keep their heads up and hope to come home with the gold.
Girls Swimming
The Girls Varsity Swimming team has ended a near perfect season, and has begun to prepare for the Western New England Championships, on February 24th, and the New England Swimming and Diving Championships at Deerfield Academy on March 4th, 2007.
The Dolphins have finished the regular season with seven wins, and only one loss to Hopkins School. The controversial loss to Hopkins was due to an eight point penalty that was given to Choate after the score sheet had an accidental error in pairing the correct swimmer with the correct lane. The Choate Dolphins lost this meet by only four points, unable to come back from the eight point penalty.
The swimmers have had numerous memorable wins during their winning season. Swimming speedster Caroline Wilson ’09 stated, “One of the most memorable moments for our team was winning the meet against Andover, a five time New England champion.” Captain Valerie Atwood ’07 also shared here most memorable moment saying, “The swimmers made the Kingswood-Oxford meet a great time for all of us seniors.”
The Dolphins’ coaches, Sara Massa, Mr. Currie, and Ms. Perkins, have all worked hard to bring the swim team to its highest level, but the swimmers have done the grueling hard work day in and day out. Valerie Atwood ’07 proudly stated, “The Choate Swim team has worked together and pushed each other to get to where we are now…I admire each and every member of the team for deciding to work so hard this winter and make it so worthwhile. Not everyone can do what the Choate swim team does daily in the pool.”
The Choate Dolphins have already begun preparing for the post season meets. In addition to their hard work throughout the season to be in the best shape possible for New Englands, the girls have begun to taper, which means the amount of swimming in each meet becomes less and less to save up energy for New Englands.
The top four Choate swimmers in each category will qualify for New Englands, which amounts to a large portion of the team. The New England meet depends on individual swimmer’s points, which add up to factor into the overall team’s score. Captain Valerie Atwood ’07 added, “Swimming is often thought of as an individual sport, but every point counts, without the effort from the entire team we would not be where we are right now. Everyone will do a great job at New Englands.” The girls hope to prove their dominance by being the top team at New Englands this year.
The Choate swimming program is only getting better and better. Caroline Wilson ’09 noticed, “We have gotten a large number of talented under formers this year to make up for all the seniors we lost last year, and our swim team has only gotten better.”
The Dolphins hope to end their excellent season on a high note, and will work hard in these last few weeks to finally end their strong season.
Wrestling
The season for the Choate Varsity Wrestling team has been one of many ups and downs. It has been a rough year, since the squad starts every match in a deficit. Since there are no heavyweight wrestlers on the team, Choate had to forfeit points to its competitors in nearly all of its matches. There were also many new underclassmen on the team this year. Yet, the Wrestling team still managed to have a solid season. They posted a record of 7-17 while facing some of the toughest teams in New England. Coach Chris Milmoe scheduled many matches in the hope that it would help strengthen the inexperience of the rather young team. Captain Christian Duffy ’08 echoed these same thoughts, “We suffered a couple losses due to injuries and other implications and we are a relatively young, inexperienced team.” With Choate losing very few wrestlers due to graduation, next year should be an amazing season for the Boars.
The varsity team’s season ended this past Saturday with a 10th place finish out of 15 in the Class A Tournament. The team will not qualify for the New England Tournament, but several individuals had strong showings. The highlights of the tournament were the four Choate grapplers who placed in this very competitive tournament. Duffy ’08 placed 3rd in the 152 pounds weight division. Also, Lane Franklin ’09 placed 3rd in the 135 pound weight division. The other two Choate wrestlers who placed in the tournament were Kendall Thigpen in 6th place in the 171 lbs division and Chris Douglas ’08 came in 5th in the 160 pound division.
Though the season is now over for much of the wrestling team, Lane Franklin and Christian Duffy still have two tournaments left. By finishing in the top three in their respective division at the Class A tournament, Lane and Christian have gotten the opportunity to represent Choate at the National Prep School Tournament, and at the New England Championships. Lane and Christian will be traveling to Pennsylvania to participate in the National Tournament this weekend, and then will take part in New England’s from March 2nd through the 3rd. The JV wrestling team will also be participating in New England’s this coming weekend, and they will showcase some of the future of Choate Wrestling. The JV team along with Christian and Lane will culminate what has been a season full of new experiences. Overall, though the year is not completely finished yet, it has been a success for the Choate Wrestling teams.
Claire Monagan ’08 shields the ball from a NMH defender on February 10, 2007. Monagan and the rest of a strong junior class are one reason why the squad has a record of 13-5 and are expected to do well in the postseason. PHOTO/ian morris
