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02/14/2016 11:00 PMWrestling
Branford saw four athletes take second place with one finishing third and another fourth to help the Hornets score 91 points and claim sixth at the SCC Championship. Branford’s second-place finishers were Noah Pantani in the 113-pound weight class, fellow junior Willie Gambardella at 120, sophomore Zach Cash in the 145-pound bracket, and freshman Jackson Seward at 195. Sophomore Kyle Zalewski took third place in the 220 class and junior HyunJin Lim was fourth at 285. Foran finished first as a team among the 11-squad field at Cross High School on Feb. 13.
Pantani won a 4-2 decision against Hand’s Mark Hartmann and then beat Gino Esposito of Foran by an 8-6 count to make the 113 final, where he took a 12-3 defeat to Shelton’s Chandler Duhaime. Gambardella pinned Fairfield Prep’s Michael Shea in 3:40, gained a 9-6 decision versus Amity’s Jake Cala, and then dropped a 6-4 bout to Nico Distasio of Shelton in the final at 120. For the 145-pound weight class, Cash won via pin at 3:17 over Patrick Grasso of Fairfield Prep, followed by a 6-5 decision victory versus Shelton’s Kyle McGinnis en route to the title match, where he lost by pin to Foran’s Michael Ross in 2:43. Seward pinned Foran’s Nick Zavaglia in just 46 seconds for his opener in 195 action and followed with a 10-0 decision against Shelton’s Ray Weiner, after which he lost 6-4 to East Haven’s Tim Seksenski in the final.
Zalewski dropped a 4-2 decision in his first match at 220, but rebounded with wins against Shelton’s Dave Brown (pin at 1:23), Law’s Kevin Brocksom (5-0 decision), and Justin Fonacier of East Haven (5-4 decision) in the consolation bracket to claim third place. Lim was pinned by Foran’s Luke Edmondson for his first bout in the 285 bracket and then came back with victories versus Law’s Ireoluwa Opayemi (pin at 4:37) and Nick Photos of Amity (injury default) before losing a 7-6 contest to Edmondson and finish fourth.
Additionally for Chris Bonagiuso’s squad, Jordan Botte won a match by pin and then took two defeats at 152; plus Chris Travaglino took a loss, rebounded for a pinfall victory, and then lost a second match in the 170 class. Kelsey Anderson (138) and Jack Spencer (160) also competed for the Hornets at the meet.
Earlier in the week, Branford took a 49-26 loss at Guilford on Feb. 10 to finish the regular season with a record of 9-20.
Boys’ Basketball
Branford claimed victory in all three of its games last week to improve to 7-10 and stand just one win away from a spot in the Class L State Tournament.
First, the Hornets notched a 61-49 home win over East Haven on Feb. 9 that avenged an earlier loss to the rival Yellowjackets. Branford had another division game at Career three nights later and prevailed 61-47 to complete a season sweep of the Panthers and move to 4-3 in Oronoque games. The following afternoon, the Hornets defeated Guilford 69-50 at home for their second win against the Indians this season.
Girls’ Basketball
The Hornets split a pair of Oronoque games last week for an overall record of 4-14 with a mark of 3-4 in the division. On Feb. 10, Branford won at North Haven 58-42 to sweep the Indians this year. Then the next night, the Hornets lost a 52-38 home contest against East Haven.
Girls’ Indoor Track
Branford scored 15 points and finished in 12th place out of 27 teams at the Class M State Championship at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.
Claira Janover scored six points for the Hornets by taking third place in the 55-meter hurdles. Janover ran a time of 9.23 seconds for fourth place in the preliminaries and then came back with an 8.97 in the finals to grab third. She had recently won the event at the SCC West Sectional Championship. Janover also placed seventh in the high jump with a height of 4 feet-10 inches at the state meet. Fellow senior Etta Hanlon recorded six points with her third-place showing in the long jump event she had won at sectionals. Hanlon’s distance was 16-2.5 at states.
Senior Issy Bysiewicz took eighth place in the 600-meter run at 1:45.13 and was also eighth for the prelims in the 55 hurdles (9.59). Bysiewicz additionally ran with freshman Liante Claude, Janover, and senior Cyrene Nicholas on the 1,600 sprint medley relay that took fifth place (4:25.93) and scored two points.
“Claira Janover had an outstanding meet. Breaking nine seconds in the hurdles was really important to her. She helped us out with a big leg in the SMR and had another strong event—the high jump,” Head Coach Kevin Connell said. “Etta Hanlon has had a strong season in the long jump and came up big in the end to finish third. Cyrene Nicholas only competed in one event, but put in a exceptional 800-meter leg [2:26] in the SMR. We were behind and she went right to the front, made a gutsy effort, but ran out of gas near the end. They ran 10 seconds faster than their seed time.”
Branford’s other point was tallied by sophomore Bridget Wirtz, who cleared 9 feet in the pole vault to claim sixth place. Taylor Brown took eighth (8-6) in the vault and Hanlon was 12th (7-0). Keira Integlia threw 31 feet to finish 10th in the shot put.
“Keira Integlia showed tremendous improvement to finish in the top 10 in the shot. She has put in a lot of effort to get to this level. Bridget Wirtz cleared the same height as [the second-place finisher] and showed how perseverance has paid off,” said Connell. “The pole vaulters have been a great group all season—a real tribute to the work John Case does with them throughout the year.”
Additionally for Branford, Courtney Cosgrove ran to 12th in the 1,600 with a time of 5:56.86, and Anneliese Troidle took 17th place in the 1,000 (3:23.76). Gerling Daniels placed 10th in the prelims for the 55-meter dash in 7.82 and Claude was 38th (8.34). The Hornets’ 4x200 relay of Claude, Brown, Hanlon, and Daniels went a 1:57.13 and finished in 11th place.
“This was a tough meet on several accounts. Most of the girls had not competed in two weeks due to cancellations and that left us a bit rusty. I give them a lot of credit. The weather has limited our practices, but they gave it all,” Connell said. “We have several girls moving on to the State Open and the SCC Championship.”
Boys’ Indoor Track
Freshman Marzio Mastroianni notched a time of 4:50.45 to finish 10th in the 1,600-meter run and lead the Hornets at the Class M State Championship on Feb. 13. Luke DiStasio was the Hornets’ other individual competitor and the senior took 19th place in the 300-meter dash with a mark of 39.68 seconds.
Branford also saw two relays hit the track at states. The 1,600 sprint medley relay of DiStasio, Daniel Lau, Emmon Duffy, and Seraphin Tala came in 14th place (4:05.55), while the 4x400 of Lau, Duffy, Tala, and Joe Borst finished 18th at 4:09.50.
Boys’ Swimming and Diving
Branford-Guilford took a 103-72 loss to Fairfield Prep at Walsh Intermediate School on Feb. 9 to sit at 4-3 for the season.
Corey Gambardella claimed first place in two events by winning the 200 freestyle in 1:52.69, plus the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:01.84. Eric Weideman swam to first in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.74) and the Hornets’ 400 freestyle relay of Cole Horton, Thomas Shao, Weidman, and Gambardella were also first at 3:26.31.
Boys’ Ice Hockey
The Hornets had just one game last week and it was a division duel at Watertown-Pomperaug on Feb. 13. Branford came away with a 6-2 defeat and now stands at 5-8-1 on the season. The Hornets need at least five points in their last six regular season games to be assured a berth in the Division II State Tournament. Wins are worth two points and ties are one.
Girls’ Ice Hockey
Branford-East Haven-North Branford played three games last week and dropped contests against two of the top teams in SCC Division I to go with an 11-5 victory versus Guilford. The Hornets are now 8-9-1 this winter.
On Feb. 10, Bfd-EH-NB took a 6-0 loss to East Catholic-Glastonbury-South Windsor in Newington. Facing off with SCC DII opponent Guilford in East Haven the next night, the Hornets skated to a six-goal win to cap a season sweep of the Indians. Then on Feb. 13, Bfd-EH-NB had another home game and took a 5-0 defeat to Conard-Hall.