This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
02/02/2020 11:00 PMGirls’ Indoor Track
The East Haven girls’ indoor track team put forth a superb performance to earn runner-up honors at last week’s Southern Connecticut Conference West Sectional Championship meet. Led by victories from Kisha Francois and Morgan D’Auria in the long jump and pole vault, respectively, the Yellowjackets posted a total of 73 points to finish second at sectionals at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven on Jan. 28. Wilbur Cross took the title by scoring 108 points as a team.
Francois reached a distance of 17 feet-3 inches to win the long jump, edging out Bianca Kaye of Sacred Heart (17-2.5) for first place. She also placed second in the 55-meter dash for East Haven. Francois took second place in the preliminaries of the 55 with a time of 7.65 seconds and then came back to finish second for the finals at 7.61.
In the pole vault, D’Auria cleared the bar at 7 feet on her way to taking first place. Junior teammate Samantha Franceschi was second in the event with a height of 6 feet-6 inches.
The Yellowjackets saw a few other athletes come in second place at the sectional meet. Sophomore Emily Mazzucco finished second in the high jump for East Haven. Mazzucco and North Haven’s Lorelei King both cleared 4-10 and thus went to a jump-off to decide the victor. King had the best height of 4-8 during the jump-off to earn first place overall in the event. The top-four finishers were King (1st, 4-10), Mazzucco (2nd, 4-10), East Haven freshman Jessica Urban (3rd, 4-10), and D’Auria (4th, 4-8).
Senior Edith Kwadan-naab finished second in the 55-meter hurdles for the Yellowjackets. Kwadan-naab was second in the prelims with a 9.34 and then ran a time of 9.29 to claim second place in the finals. Urban finished fifth (10.11) in the prelims and was seventh (12.55) for the finals.
Franceschi came in third place in the 55-meter dash by clocking in with a time of 7.68 in the final heat. She had previously finished third in the prelims at 7.76. Junior Adrianna Franceschi finished 15th (8.03) for the 55 prelims and also placed 22nd in the 300-meter dash (49.07).
East Haven’s 4x200 relay finished in third place at sectionals. The quartet of Francois, Samantha Franeschi, Kwadan-naab, and Adrianna Franceschi recorded a time of 1:53.87 to take third.
Sophomore Juliana Espinoza placed eighth in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:42.48. Sophomore Princess Aggrey finished 11th in the shot put with a throw of 24 feet-6.5 inches for the Yellowjackets.
Boys’ Indoor Track
Senior Ian Loehmann took second place in the high jump to help the Yellowjackets finish seventh as a squad at the SCC West Sectional Championship at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Jan. 28. East Haven scored 27 points on its way to placing seventh in sectionals. Wilbur Cross finished in first place at the meet.
Loehmann cleared a height of 5 feet-8 inches to earn runner-up honors in the high jump for East Haven. He also finished in second place for the 55-meter hurdles. Loehmann ran a time of 8.46 seconds for third place in the preliminaries and then timed in at 8.47 to claim third place in the finals. Junior Radames Figueroa was fourth (8.65) in the prelims of the 55 hurdles and also finished fourth (8.85) for the finals.
Calvin Nelson took fourth place in the shot put by launching a toss of 44 feet-5.5 inches at the sectional meet. Junior Frank Piscitelli finished fifth in the 300-meter dash with a time of 40.16. The Yellowjackets’ 4x200 relay of senior Andrew Jiminez, Piscitelli, senior Dante Sigular, and Figueora came in fifth place by posting a mark of 1:41.73.
Junior Kevin Francois placed sixth in the long jump with a distance of 18-4.25 at the West Sectional Championship. Junior Matt Battaglino cleared a height of 5-2 in the high jump to take seventh place.
Piscitelli finished 12th (7.16) in the preliminaries of the 55-meter dash with Sigular in 15th (7.18) and Jiminez in 16th (7.22). Junior Dhruv Patel came in 15th place for the prelims of the 55-meter hurdles by running a time of 10.15.
Loehmann finished 19th (12-10) in the long jump for the Easties. Sigular was 22nd (42.20) in the 300 with Jiminez in 34th place (43.44). Sophomore Kevin Phan finished 24th in the 600-meter run with a time of 1:45.03.
Girls’ Basketball
East Haven played a pair of SCC Hammonasset Division opponents on the road last week. The Yellowjackets took each end of the set by beating both Amity and Shelton to move to 10-5 overall on the year.
The Easties started off their week by earning a 46-45 road victory against Amity on Jan. 27. East Haven jumped out to a 12-4 lead after the first quarter, but the Spartans outscored the Yellowjackets 14-9 in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 21-18 at halftime. The teams traded runs during the third quarter and East Haven took a 29-24 lead into the fourth. After Amity started the fourth quarter with a run to tie the game, the Yellowjackets grabbed the lead for good with five minutes left and went on to get the one-point win.
Senior Bella Ragaini scored 13 points, while junior Taylor Salato netted 12 points for East Haven. Junior Erin Curran scored seven points, and senior Alexis Pendziwater added six points on the night.
Three nights later, the Yellowjackets won a 47-41 contest at Shelton in another divisional game. East Haven now has a record of 4-1 in the Hammonasset Division. The Yellowjackets jumped out to a 12-9 lead after the first quarter and were up 26-11 at halftime. The Gaels rallied to the cut the deficit to 33-30 entering the fourth quarter, but East Haven outscored Shelton 14-11 during the final frame to walk off the floor with the win.
Pendziwater scored 21 points to lead East Haven. Salato, Curren, and junior Angelina Munoz netted six points apiece.
Boys’ Basketball
The Yellowjackets took two recent defeats in SCC Housatonic Division action and are now 3-10 on the year. East Haven dropped contests to Xavier and Fairfield Prep in last week’s games.
On Jan. 28, East Haven played a road game against Xavier and lost by the score of 74-44. Three days after that, the Yellowjackets took a 71-33 home loss to divisional foe Fairfield Prep to move to 0-4 in the Housatonic.
Previously, on Jan. 24, East Haven hosted one of the best teams in the SCC when Shelton came to town. The Yellowjackets took a 48-44 overtime defeat to Gaels, who they had lost to by 27 points at the beginning of the season. Junior Alias Ford scored 19 points to lead East Haven.
Wrestling
East Haven hit the road to take on Ellis Tech for a non-conference meet on Jan. 29. The Yellowjackets claimed a 53-30 victory versus the Golden Eagles and now have an overall record of 14-5 on the season.
East Haven won seven bouts in its victory against Ellis Tech. Junior Dominic Milano prevailed by pinfall at the 4:52 mark of his 120-pound bout. Junior Matt DiVito won via a 17-0 decision in the 126-pound match for the Yellowjackets. Senior Alec DiVito pinned his opponent at the 1:07 mark in the 132-pound bout, while fellow senior Tanner DiVito won by pin at the 3:50 mark at 138 pounds. Senior Fabricio Bugatti earned a win on a pin 1:08 into his 170-pound match. Senior Jesse Borchert and junior Gunner Horton triumphed by pin at 182 and 220 pounds, respectively.
Girls’ Ice Hockey
The Branford-North Branford-East Haven girls’ ice hockey team was scheduled to play a road game against Notre Dame-Fairfield/Law/Foran/Weston/Pomperaug on Jan. 29, but the contest was postponed. With their record of 3-9-1, the Wings will be back on the ice when they host Guilford at Patsy DiLungo Ice Rink at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8. After that, the Wings will make up their game versus the Notre Dame co-op when the two clubs face off at the Sports Center of Connecticut in Shelton on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 3:45 p.m.
Boys’ Swimming and Diving
The Greater New Haven Warriors boys’ swimming and diving team had the week off in terms of competitions last week. The Warriors, who have a record of 3-2, will take on West Haven-Platt Tech for a meet at West Haven High School on Friday, Feb. 7. Then on Monday, Jan. 10, the Warriors will face Foran-Law at Foran High School. Both meets begin at 4 p.m.