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01/15/2017 11:00 PMBoys’ Swimming and Diving
The Hand boys’ swimming and diving team is performing great in the pool this far this season. The Tigers stand at 4-1 with wins over North Haven (96-85), West Haven (98-59), Law (101-68), and Haddam-Killingworth (93-68), as well as a recent 97-88 loss to Cheshire.
Facing Law, the Tigers took first and second in the 200 medley relay and they also 1-2-3 in the 200 free (with Jack Stein, Chris Cheslog, Finn Hamblett), the 200 individual medley (Dan Chen, Sean Laragy, Dan Smyth), 50 freestyle (Dylan Merritt, Chris Hall, Edmund Huminski), the diving competition (Teddy Zeng, Declan Maloney, Jess Murphy), 100 butterfly (Chris Wu, Tyler Merritt, Laragy), and the 100 free (Nate Imbergamo, Griffin Mascia, Huminski). In the 500 free, the Tigers took first and third (Stein and Cheslog, respectively). Hand also took 1-2-3 in the 200 free relay. In the backstroke, Smyth was first and Chris Hall placed third. The Tigers ended the night by taking 1-2-3 in the 100 breaststroke (Paul O’Connor, Liam Pavlovic, Mascia) and the 400 free relay.
Against H-K, the 200 medley relay of Chris Wu, Paul O’Connor, Mike Healey, and Merritt captured first with a time of 1:48.22. Imbergamo took first in the 200 free at 1:57.32, while Stein finished third with a time of 2:11.30. In the 200 IM, Beecher Porter won with a time of 2:12.54 and Laragy finished third at 2:24.91. Wu took first in the 50 free with a 22.52. In the 100 fly, there was a close race between Healey (1:02.26) and Dylan Merritt (1:02.89) as they finished first and second, resepctively. Tyler Merritt won the 100 free (52.57) with Imbergamo taking second (54.68). In the 500 free, O’Connor placed first (5:08.97), while Eric Swenson swam to third (6:05.08). The 200 free relay of Chen, Porter, Dylan Merritt, and Wu took first with a season-best time of 1:38. In a close race in the 100 backstroke, Healey (1:04.14) and Smyth (1:05.50) were second and third, respectively. Another close race in the 100 breaststroke saw first- and second-place finishes from Chen (1:14.00) and Pavlovic (1:15.19), respectively. The 400 free relay squad of Porter, O’Connor, Tyler Merritt, and Wu finished the meet by taking the top spot (3:31.60).
“We start going up against many of the strongest teams in the SCC very soon and look forward to the challenges that will bring,” said Head Coach Christina Forristall. “This team has been training very hard this season. We are a younger squad this year with almost half our team consisting of freshmen.”
Girls’ Basketball
The Hand girls’ basketball team won two games in Oronoque Division play last week to clinch its spot in states with an overall record of 8-2. The Tigers are also now 3-0 in Oronoque games. Hand defeated North Haven 68-14 on Jan. 11 and then posted a 69-45 triumph over Law two nights later to punch its state tourney ticket.
Versus North Haven, Gabby Egidio hit eight of her nine shots to score a game-high 16 points for the Tigers. Gabby Martin added 14 points, five assists, and four steals. Sara Wohlgemuth totaled 11 points and four steals. Emma Sullivan chipped in five points, seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Hand shot 65 percent from the floor in the first half and 50 percent for the game, while forcing North Haven into 28 turnovers. North Haven hit a three-pointer to trail 10-5 midway through the first quarter, but after that, the Tigers prevented the Indians from scoring again until its their possession of the second half. Hand scored next 37 points while shooting a blistering 65 percent from the field, as well as going 5-for-5 from the foul line. Nine different players scored for Hand in the lopsided victory.
“North Haven is a very young team and they’re going through some growing pains right now. We wanted to make sure we got everyone involved, but still worked on our stuff with the intensity we need to be successful with our schedule,” said Head Coach Tim Tredwell. “I thought our ball movement was very good tonight, which led to a lot of quality shots. Not only that, but our defensive energy was very strong. When all those things are working, we can be a pretty tough team.”
In the Law game, Gabby Martin was a perfect 8-of-8 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the line for 22 points. She also added six assists, five steals, and four rebounds, and didn’t commit a single turnover. Kaitlyn Martin posted 10 points and eight rebounds, while Halle Freund totaled nine points, eight rebounds, three blocks, two steals, and two assists for the Tigers. Colleen Caruth chipped in eight points and four assists. Hand shot 15-of-16 from the foul line and forced Law into 21 turnovers.
Hand jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead, going 3-for-3 from the floor on its first three possessions. Hand stretched that lead to 13 by the end of the first quarter and Law would get no closer the rest of the way. Hand’s ball movement was crisp and the bigs played well off each other inside as the Tigers stretched the lead to 24 heading into the half. The outcome was never in doubt as Hand’s lead grew as large as 31 on its way to the 24-point win.
“Law graduated its top three players, but has played a tough schedule to this point, and has some very capable young players. We wanted to be sure to assert ourselves early. I thought we passed the ball very well, our bigs did a great job moving without the ball and looking for each other, and our defense was stout,” said Treadwell. “Halle played as complete a game as she had all season. I was so impressed with her movement and her ability to finish around the basket. She’s looking more and more confident every night. Kaitlyn seemed to be everywhere tonight. Gabby Martin was simply remarkable. If there’s such a thing as a perfect game, she had it tonight. I’m sure we could nitpick about how our communication wasn’t as good as we’d like or how we had lulls in our intensity at times, but overall, I like where we are at the midway point of the season.”
Boys’ Basketball
Hand is now 0-9 on the season after taking three defeats last week. The Tigers took a 78-32 loss to Hamden on Jan. 9 before a 59-53 defeat against Cheshire on Jan. 11. After that, the Tigers dropped an 87-50 contest versus Hillhouse.
Against Cheshire, Kenny Ciotti netted 15 points with four three-pointers, while Garrett Noonan added 11 points for Hand.
“We were tied after three quarters, fell a little short at the end. Hard-fought game,” said Head Coach Jim Economopoulos. “ I was happy with the way we battled and scrapped, but unfortunately, we just did not get a late-game stop that we needed on defense.”
Gymnastics
Hand swept a tri-meet on Jan. 12 by scoring a 131.4 to defeat Norwich Free Academy (126.35) and Stonington (108.1) and move to 3-0. On the vault, Lily Spencer was second (9.2) for Hand. Erin Naclerio was runner-up on bars (8.6), while Spencer placed third (8.1). Noelle Bergere won the beam (9.2) and Grace Rogers was third (8.7). Spencer won the floor competition (8.8) and Bergere finished third (8.1). Spencer was second in the all-around (34.1), while Bergere finished third (32.5) for the Tigers. Hand’s other performers included Olivia Finke (31.05 all around, 8.0 on vault) and Sam Mayhew (8.1 on vault).
“This is only our second meet of the year, so this is a strong showing. We’re still working on some new skills and combinations and making some physical mistakes, but the girls are progressing and showing what the potential of this team will be. We’re still pushing hard in practices this early in the season, even the day before a meet, so today I think the girls were a little physically tired, but performed well nonetheless,” said Head Coach Kelly Smith. “Competing after conditioning will only make them stronger for down the line this season. Lily had a solid all-around score for the second meet in a row and we’re happy to have her back after her absence last season. She does clean, big gymnastics and still has potential for higher scores later in the season. Her vault score of 9.1 the last two meets has been our vault high score. Noelle, last year’s SCC beam champion, put all of her difficulty back into her routine tonight and nailed it to score the 9.2. She had the only 10.0 start value on any event for any competitor tonight, which shows the level of difficulty that she brings to the balance beam. As we move forward, we’re looking to eliminate all of our falls and start to work on the smaller details like connections and form. We have a long way to go, but we’re looking strong so far.”
Girls’ Ice Hockey
Hand collected its sixth victory of the season with 2-1 win over Masuk-Barlow-Newtown-Oxford on Jan. 12. The Tigers then played to a 1-1 draw with East Catholic-Glastonbury-South Windsor on Jan. 13 to go to 6-2-1 on the year.
In the victory, the Panthers got on the board first with a shot from the slot just 1:10 in. However, Masuk only took four more shots on goal for the rest of the game. Hand put up its first score at the 2:59 mark of the second period, when Grave Lavin got free on the left side of the net and squeaked the puck in between Masuk’s goaltender and the post. Going into the third tied 1-1, the Tigers got the game-winner from Libby Licari off a great pass from Kaitlyn Sandor.
“We really played well as a team,” said Head Coach Tad McGwire. “We moved the puck and skated hard. We have to be smarter about taking penalties.”
Wrestling
Hand went to 6-1 with a 55-16 win over Branford on Jan. 10.
Winning for the Tigers on that night were Kyle Davern (106-pound weight class, via forfeit), along with Dylan Brochard (113, pin at 0:48), William Sobran (126, by 11-3 decision), Jared Puricelli (132, pin at 0:21), Charles Jenson (138, via forfeit), Sam Williams (145, via forfeit), Zakery Santoemma (152, via forfeit), Mitchel Kuperstein (170, pin at 2:51), Alec Dube (182, by 6-2 decision), and Michael Burchell (285, via forfeit).
At the Hand Duals on Jan. 14, the host Tigers took the competition by defeating East Haven 35-30 in the final. In pool action, Hand defeated Hall (45-20), Newington (75-3), and Wilton (57-21) to also improve its record to 10-1.