HS track and field: Sun, warmth greets Ledyard competitors

The Ledyard Relays had built a reputation.
"Usually it's raining or snowing, and cold," NFA girls track coach Kara Kochanski said.
But for the second year in a row, blue skies and comfortable temperatures in the mid-70's greeted the coaches and participants at Ledyard High School on Saturday.
"The Ledyard relays is great," Griswold girls coach Chris Morth said. "You never get weather like this so when you come here and it's 75 degrees and sunny, the kids all get really into it."
That's because, according to the Griswold coach, that the athletes get to do some things they don't get a chance to do during dual meets.
That includes running relays which are sometimes skipped in the duals due to a lack of numbers as well as some other fun events such as the 4 x 1600 meter relay and the weight person 4 x 100-mter relay.
The other thing about the Ledyard Relays, as almost all coaches agree, it's the last "fun" event of the season prior to the tough and serious stretch that follows.
"You want to see them pop out a really good time here, but you also want it to stay under the radar," NFA assistant coach Chad Johnson said.
There were some performances that may find the radar.
Chris Antoine of NFA set a Ledyard Relay mark when he cleared six-feet-six-inches in the high jump. That was an inch better than NFA alum Mike Elliott, but there's another Elliott record that Antoine is really shooting for, his six-foot-eight mark at the ECC championship.
The only other record that fell came in the 4x1600-meter where the NFA quartet of Molly Kalla, Cassy Hunter, Kathleen O'Brien and Sarah Eagan, all seniors, breezed to victory.
The Wildcats also had Wahnetah Carty (long jump), Yana Babbitt (javelin), and Kaylan Pickford (pole vault) pick up individual firsts.
"I'm very pleased," Kochanski said. "I like the way it started out when we got the record in the mile race and then Wahnetah comes in and jumps her best in triple jump and Yana had a personal record in the javelin."

HS girls lacrosse: NFA happy with win over St. Bernard

NFA coach Eric Page had his team practice a little game of keep away.
“We practiced that for the last few days, up by one, down by one, what are we going to do,” Page said.
He had expected the Wildcats game with St. Bernard, after all, to be a “nailbiiter”.
Fortunately for Page, he didn’t have to chew his nails as his Wildcats posted a 15-12 win at Norwich Free Academy on Thursday.
His Wildcats (4-2) built a six-goal lead late in the game and then practiced what he had preached, kept the ball away from the Saints.
The Wildcats got a little helping hand from the Saints (4-1) who weren’t as aggressive as coach Tonya Acosta wanted.
For example, with a minute and a half left in the first half, the Saints had the ball behind the Wildcats net. They worked the ball front and back, but Chelsea Phillips could only get a desperation attempt as time ran out. It allowed the Wildcats to go into the half with a 7-5 lead, a lead they would build on in the second half.
“That was huge,” NFA senior Lucy Fernandez said of the early lead. “The most important part of the game is winning the draws so once we got the momentum and the lead and realized that we could win and that’s what kept us motivated.”
Fernandez added that once the Wildcats built the lead to five goals, that the Saints “got a little flustered”. To their credit, St. Bernard recovered and made it a three-goal difference with five minutes, 12 seconds left in the game.
The Saints momentum, however, disappeared when thunder and lightning suspended the game for 90 minutes,
NFA put the game away just two minutes after play resumed when Abbie McNomee put one past Saints keeper Erin Amarello.
“That was the real play of the game,” Page said. “Coming out after the rain, winning the draw and scoring the goal. It was a big confidence boost for us.”

HS baseball: Lyman struggles against another Large school

It was a battle of unbeatens that didn’t exactly go the way Lyman wanted.
Unfortunately, that’s been the norm rather than the exception for Lyman when it comes to playing crossover games against Large Division schools.
Wednesday was just another example as East Lyme handed Lyman its first loss in five games, 6-0.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game, but I feel like we’re where we want to be,” Lyman coach Marty Gomez said.
“We want to beat some of these (Large) teams and I think we have a team that can do that,” the Lyman coach added. “We always compete against them; we’ve beaten NFA, have never got to Fitch, have come close with Waterford, but it’s time that I think these kids want to win some of these crossover games against good baseball programs.”
Gomez added that Wednesday’s loss “was disappointing”, but he took solace in the fact that after East Lyme scored four runs in a first inning rally, the Bulldogs held them to two the rest of the way.
On the other side of the field, Vikings coach Jack Biggs was happy with his team which played well in all facets of the game. East Lyme failed to commit an error and turned two double plays defensively. Senior pitcher Alec Christian (2-0) allowed just three hits and the Vikings produced 12 hits, all of them singles.
“(Lyman starting pitcher Jared)Szuba is one of the best pitchers in the league, he’s been around for awhile, and he throws some good pitches,” Biggs said. “We did pretty well (Wednesday).”
The tests only get tougher for the Vikings this week as they travel to Groton on Friday for a 3:45 p.m. showdown with the Fitch Falcons.

HS softball: Waterford players happy with lofty ranking

Some of the Waterford players thought it was pretty cool.
“It’s a nice feeling, a little unexpected too and it gave us some extra motivation (Tuesday),” Waterford sophomore pitcher Kelli Connors said after the Lancers shut out Griswold, 1-0, for their fourth straight win.
Waterford coach Liz Sutman was not exactly in agreement with that statement about the latest New Haven Register poll which has Waterford ranked third in the state.
“I was joking with my Athletic Director (Dave Sousa) that when you see that in the paper, you get the target on your back,” Sutman said. “I kind of like the team flying under the radar and surprise teams with our good fundamental play.”
Forget it, the secret’s out.
Not that the Sutman and the Lancers didn’t expect it anyway. They’re off to a 4-0 start, have their No. 1 pitcher back and have beat some respected programs in Bacon Academy, Southington and Griswold.
“Surprised? I wouldn’t say that,” Waterford shortstop Katelyn Sykora said of the early respect. “It’s a good feeling, though, we’re playing strong, we’re playing well.”

HS Baseball: New London struggling early

New London baseball coach Mike Wheeler wasn’t all that happy on Monday afternoon.
In the midst of a game that his Whalers would eventually lose to Montville, 10-3, his Whalers weren’t executing even the most basic of plays.
Montville had Kyle Holland on first base and Casey Zalagens on third with two out in the fifth inning when Montville coach Phil Orbe called for Holland to attempt a delayed steal.
The object was to draw the throw to first and have Zalagens score before Holland was thrown out. The ploy worked as Zalagens scored, but what made it worse was the New London couldn’t execute the rundown properly and Holland was safe at second. It was part of a four-run fifth inning that guaranteed Montville the win.
“We’re working on all these things in practice that we made mistakes on (Monday) and a lot of these mistakes are mental,” a frustrated Wheeler said after the loss. “I would say we had five or six mental mistakes in addition to the three errors we had; taking bad angles to the ball, not knowing what we’re doing and we work on these things every day.”
Wheeler said he wasn’t sure if it was fallout from last year’s state title game that has helped New London lose three of its first four games.
It hasn’t helped that Yohendy Gonzalez – counted on to be a key player this season – has a hamstring injury which kept him out of the first two games and even limited his play against Montville on Monday when he was noticeably limping.
The Whalers will try to turn things around on Wednesday when they send Gonzalez to the hill against Bacon Academy.

HS boys lacrosse: Growing pains hurt East Lyme

East Lyme is not as explosive as it has been in the past.
“Not at this point,” East Lyme coach Gary Wight agreed after his Vikings downed Norwich Free Academy, 10-5, in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Large division match Thursday night.
But can it become just as explosive as it was last season when it made it all the way to the Class M semifinals?
“I’m optimistic, but I think we definitely can,” Wight said.
The Vikings had to overcome not only losses from graduation, but early injuries and that cost them in their first two games against Guilford and Ledyard.
Now, it’s just a case of working together to get better.
“We have to get on the field and practice more, but things are starting to come together,” Wight said. “We need to get our timing down.”
The two losses, although they certainly won’t help come seeding time for the state tournament, weren’t all that detrimental. Ledyard was a non-divisional league matchup and Guilford was a non-league game.
“A lot of it has just been a learning curve and both Guilford and Ledyard are good teams, give them credit,” East Lyme senior captain Mickey Fiorillo said. “We’re working really hard in practice, especially on moving the ball, so we’re looking forward to seeing where things go.”

HS Baseball: Large Division title up in the air

Woodstock surprised a lot of people last year when it came from just about out of nowhere to capture a share of the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division title.
After a close, 5-4, loss to Fitch on Wednesday in Groton, Woodstock coach Dave Austin wasn’t about to rule out another run at the title in 2010.
“I would like to say we’ll be competitive,” Austin said. “They’re a good team and we proved a lot to ourselves and (his team) proved a lot to me and I’m very happy with them. We will show up to play and compete. I would like to say we would like to defend our share of the title and that we’re more than capable of doing that.”
The coach in the other dugout, Fitch’s Marc Peluso, wouldn’t be surprised if that that happened. In fact, he feels just about anything can happen in the Large Division this season.
“It’s wide open and it’s been like that since I started three years ago,” Peluso said of the battle for the title in 2010.
It certainly appears to be that way considering the team that many thought was the team to beat, Waterford, lost with its ace on the mound on Monday. Colin O’Keefe pitched a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but tired and the Lancers fell to East Lyme, 7-4.
All I can say is, stay tuned.

HS Baseball: Montville gains from loss to Fitch

There are times when a loss may not be all that bad a thing.
Not that any coach, player or team likes to lose, but sometimes it can be a learning experience.
That’s what Montville coach Phil Orbe qualified his Indians’ 15-2 loss to Fitch on Monday after his team came back on Tuesday to down Norwich Free Academy, 4-3.
“I thought the kids learned from it, really came on (Tuesday) and put it behind us,” Orbe said.
There were times the Indians certainly could have done that, like in the fifth inning when the Wildcats scored all three of their runs.
Zach Beckwith’s two-run triple was a solid hit, but the two batters who preceded the NFA shortstop got on with a little help from Montville. An infield error allowed Dan Simoneau to reach and a good throw could have got Kevin Kneer who reached on an infield single.
“We gave them those three runs on the six outs we gave them and the one mental error, we could have hung our heads,” Orbe said.
The Indians, instead, rallied when Tyler Contillo doubled and scored in the fifth and sophomore Max Hart (2-3, 1 run scored) started the game-winning, two-run rally with a double to lead off the sixth inning.
“Max really put a great at-bat on hitting the ball the other way and used his legs from there,” Orbe said.

HS Baseball: Bobcats looking for mound help

Bacon Academy will be tough to reckon with when UConn-bound senior Dave Mahoney takes to the mound.
But as Waterford proved on Monday, the Bobcats are vulnerable when he’s not.
“We have to find a No. 2 and a No. 3 pitcher,” Bobcats coach Dave Shea said. “We’re going to put some other guys out there on Wednesday (at home against Griswold) and see what they can do.”
Bacon Academy lost their second and third pitcher from last season to graduation and “have to keep experimenting” according to Shea.
The Bobcats found themselves in trouble early against the Lancers, the No. 5 ranked team in the state in the New Haven Register’s preseason media poll.
Waterford scored three runs in the first inning without a hit and added three more prior to the fifth inning. That’s when they put nine batters to the plate without making an out , getting help from four Bacon errors which broke open a close game.

HS Baseball: Plainfield struggling early

The issue for the Plainfield Panthers is pretty simple; they don't have the arms they would like to have.
That's not an easy problem to overcome when you are playing in the Medium Division of the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
The Panthers lost their second straight game Saturday as Griswold beat them, 11-4. Plainfield also took it on the chin earlier in the week when they lost to Montville, 8-2.
"We have to learn how to pitch backwards a little bit more," Plainfield coach John Schiffner said. "We can't afford to walk anybody, we can't afford to make any errors, we need to rely on our defense."
It doesn't make it any easier that Plainfield, due to its school enrollment, has been bumped up to the Medium Division.
"Well, what are you going to do," Schiffner said of the bump up. "Baseball is baseball. In other sports, it might be a bigger factor, but we'll play with anybody and try to keep getting better."
If there's any consolation, it's just a one-year engagement as the Panthers - thanks to Putnam's departure from the ECC - will drop back into the Small Division next season.
"We're working hard, we have a really good group of kids, so we'll see what happens," Schiffner said.

Woodstock sophomore perseveres in debut

Woodstock Academy sophomore Gen Cohen had a little baptism of fire on Wednesday in the season opener for the Centaurs in Waterford.
Cohen, who was named All-Norwich Bulletin as a freshman doubles player for the Academy last season, is now the No. 2 singles player for Woodstock. In the season opener, she matched up with Emily Qian of the Lancers and it took more than a little while to decide, like 3 ½ hours.
“It’s an honor to play singles, but it’s just so much harder,” Cohen said. “I could never even imagine playing 3 ½ hours.”
Fortunately for Cohen, it was 3 ½ hours that turned out to be time well spent. She beat Qian 6-7, 7-4, 6-2, 7-5 to help her teammates down Waterford, 5-2.
“You don’t even realize how long that is,” Cohen said. “Even when the professionals play, it rarely goes to that unless its (Roger) Federer and (Rafael) Nadal playing. It came down to who was going to get the volley.”
You can read more about the Woodstock Centaurs girls tennis program in this Sunday’s Norwich Bulletin.

All-Norwich Bulletin selections revealed Sunday

For the many who are wondering when the all- Norwich Bulletin section is coming out, the wait is almost over.
The full-color, 16-page section complete with the best athletes who competed in basketball, indoor track, wrestling, hockey, gymnastics and swimming, will be on your doorstep and on the newsstand this coming Sunday.
How do we choose the all-Norwich Bulletin athletes?
The Bulletin sports staff has seen just about every team play this past winter and we use that information, statistics, and input from coaches (when we feel we need even more information) to make the choices.
There may be a few surprises and I will be able to write more about some of the selections after we reveal them on Sunday.
In the meantime, the high school spring sports season begins today, but our spring sports previews continue. In today’s edition, check out the girl’s lacrosse preview including a story about the new coaching staff at East Lyme.
On Thursday, we preview the boy’s tennis season as well as give you all the results from the first day of spring competition.