Director of Athletics Mark Conroy announced the winter season athletic awards and spoke about the nine winter teams during assembly on Friday, March 28th. Below are the sport highlights and award winners for each team.
Girls Basketball
This winter was another successful season for our girls basketball program. The JV squad had a very strong season under Coaches Thompson and Schneider, finishing with a 10-5 record. Highlights included an exciting two-point victory at Westminster and decisive victories over rivals Suffield and Wilbraham and Monson.
Under Coaches Fulcher and Whipple, varsity girls basketball had a very competitive season and went toe to toe with the finest teams in Western New England. While they enjoyed nine victories—including sweeping rival Suffield for the first time in years—some of their finest games were in tough losses where they demonstrated great competitiveness but just came up shor. They lost at Deerfield by one point and had a tough overtime loss to No. 2 ranked Pomfret late in the season. The team’s nine wins and 8-3 record in Class B earned them the No. 8 seed in the Class B Tournament. The team showed its resiliency and heart by playing No. 1 seeded Tilton, but fell in the second half.
For her outstanding play during the Ray Brown Holiday tournament, junior and leading scorer Natalia Baum was named to the All-Tournament team. As was mentioned earlier in the year, Natalia broke the 1000 point milestone during the season. She was also named to the NEPSAC Class B West All Star team for the second consecutive year.
Girls Varsity Basketball
Most Valuable Player Award – Natalia Baum ‘15
Most Improved Player Award –Fiona Bundy ’18, Madison Fulcher-Melendy ‘18
Sportsmanship Award – Melissa Falcone ‘15
Girls Junior Varsity Basketball
Most Valuable Player Award – Yuchen Wang ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Vivien Shao ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Shoshi Wintman ‘17
Boys Basketball
Under the leadership of Coaches Athas and Hart, the varsity boys basketball team enjoyed its finest season in recent memory—just missing out on a tournament bid with their 10 wins and a 7-6 Class B record. Coach Athas noted three games as the team’s biggest highlights: a clutch road victory at Canterbury led by Joey O’Connell’s 35 points; an exciting victory at home over Deerfield led by Mat Sulda’s 26 points; and beating Loomis for the first time in seven years at home. The team also finished on a high note, winning three of their final four games. For their outstanding play during the season, two boys garnered postseason recognition on the All New England team. Joey O’Connell made the Second Team while Mat Sulda was named Honorable Mention.
On the lower levels, the JV, 3rds and 4ths teams all competed well throughout their seasons. The biggest highlights of the Coach Cullen- and Ketcham-led JV season was a buzzer beating 44-43 victory over Pomfet and a thrilling 54-53 season ending victory over KO. The thirds team finished with a 7-4 record, with victories over Loomis and Easthampton as highlights. Coach Mikey Cai’s halftime adjustments proved crucial in the Loomis victory. Coach Miller and Harper’s 4ths team had a strong season, finishing at 5-2 and winning their last four games.
Boys Varsity Basketball
“Dale Lash” Most Valuable Player Award – Mat Sulda ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – Brian Schmidt ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – Kevin McLaughlin ‘14
Boys Junior Varsity Basketball
Most Valuable Player Award – Mikey Thomson ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – Milo Cowles ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Edgar Lai ‘14
Boys Third Basketball
Most Valuable Player Award – Ian Ostberg ‘17
Most Improved Player Award – Cody Cavanaugh ’17, David Yu ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Henry Chen ’16, Soma Mizobuchi ‘17
Boys Fourth Basketball
Most Valuable Player Award – Sebi Herrera ‘17
Most Improved Player Award – Long Nguyen ‘17
Sportsmanship Award – Robby Hill ‘19
Girls Hockey
The varsity girls ice hockey team enjoyed another terrific season under the leadership of Coaches Talbot and Davey and finished its season with a 18-6-3 record. The 18 wins over prep school competition sets a new school record for the most victories in a single season in our program’s history!
Highlights of their terrific season included shutting out Milton 7-0; winning the Exeter Tournament with five wins in three days, including three shutouts; a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory at Berkshire; shutout victories over Gunnery and Kent, the latter our annual Pink in the Rink game, which raised over $1000 to fight cancer; beating Choate for the first time in 24 years; and finishing the season with three wins in three days. The team’s outstanding regular season earned them their fourth postseason berth in five years.
Individual accomplishments included Christina Zalewski surpassing the 100 point milestone. In recognition of their outstanding seasons, both Christina and fellow senior Alicia Barry were named to the All New England Second Team.
The JV team, led by Coaches Valine and Ward, made Williston history for the second year in a row this winter by enjoying the best season in the team’s history. They finished with a record of 11-1. Led by its 10 seniors, the team played dominant hockey throughout the season and notched seven shutouts. It is certainly worthy of mention that two members of the team achieved the milestone of surpassing 100 points in their careers at Williston. In fact combined these two girls scored 266 total points during their careers—including 146 goals! Congratulations to Emily Cavazuti and Kaylee Largay!
Girls Varsity Hockey
Most Valuable Player Award – TBA
Most Improved Player Award – TBA
“John R. Gow” Sportsmanship Award – TBA
Girls Junior Varsity Hockey
Most Valuable Player Award – Emily Cavazutti ’14, Kaylee Largay ’14, Rosie Lacas ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – Nell Heidinger ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – Alyssa Cote ‘14
Boys Hockey
Under Coaches Cunha and Hanford, the varsity boys hockey team enjoyed a terrific season and finished with a 13-10-2 record. The team narrowly missed out on a playoff berth by a mere 4/1000th of a percentage point in the RPI. Despite this, it was still a great season. Highlights included first ever victories over Nobles, St. Sebastian’s, and Northwood, and our first victory over Westminster since 1987.
Individual highlights included Max Willman and Brandon Borges breaking the 40 point mark, with 44 and 41 points, respectively. In net, senior Tim Nowacki played almost 1100 minutes and registered an impressive .924 save percentage. An unsung hero of the team was the team reporter, Nate Gordon, who did a great job of reporting the news throughout the season, even traveling to the tournaments.
Postgraduate Max Willman was selected to the West Region All-New England Team. Max’s selection to this prestigious all star team is the first for the program in the last 10 years.
The JV boys hockey team, led by Coaches Fay and Demerath, finished with an excellent 10-3-1 record. The team played exciting hockey all season, highlighted by three shutout victories and exciting wins over Pomfret, Cathedral, and NMH.
Boys Varsity Hockey
“Daniel D. Carpenter” Most Valuable Player Award – Max Willman ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – RJ Guardia ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Matt Arnold ‘14
Boys Junior Varsity Hockey
Most Valuable Player Award – Quinn Griffin ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Michael Janocha ‘18
Sportsmanship Award – Terry O’Brien ‘15
Ski Teams
Led by Coaches Hing, Kennedy, and Horton, our ski teams enjoyed very successful seasons competing in the Mountain Institute League. Benefiting from early season training at Mt Snow and Butternut, the team enjoyed a great deal of success during the weekly Wednesday races held at Berkshire East. The season began on a high note for both the girls and boys varsity teams. Competing in sub-par conditions on a very icy slalom course, the girls finished in second overall and the boys came in third. This was the beginning of several strong performances in league competition.
The season culminated with the New England Class B championships that Williston co-hosted with New Hampton School at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. Both of our teams had terrific days, competing with 14 other schools. Highlights for the girls included junior Jen Carellas finishing in 7th in Giant Slalom, while senior Maddie Dirats finished 7th in the Slalom. On the boys team, JJ Celentano finished in 7th in the slalom, while ninth grader Devin DeVerry finished 5th in the Giant Slalom and 6th in the slalom.
As a team, the girls finished in 6th place, while the boys finished in third place. Interestingly enough, the boys result was not announced to the majority of the crowd at the award ceremony, as the race-scorer made an error in calculating the team standings. Coaches Hing and Kennedy noted that the boys showed great sportsmanship by not complaining to officials when the award was initially incorrectly announced, which was in-stride with the behavior they exhibited through the entire season.
Boys Varsity Skiing
Most Valuable Skier Award – Devin DeVerry ‘17
Most Improved Skier Award – JJ Celetano ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Jesse Ware ‘14
Boys Junior Varsity Skiing
Most Valuable Skier Award – Bryan Soder ‘18
Most Improved Skier Award – Gavin Girardin ‘19
Sportsmanship Award – Cal Poulin ‘15
Girls Varsity Skiing
Most Valuable Skier Award – Jen Carellas ‘15
Most Improved Skier Award – Mia Bacon ‘19
Sportsmanship Award – Maddie Dirats ‘14
Girls Junior Varsity Skiing
Most Valuable Skier Award – Maisie McDonald ‘19
Most Improved Skier Award – Caitlyn Reid ‘19
Girls Squash
The girls squash program enjoyed a successful winter season as nearly 30 girls competed under the leadership of Varsity Coach Peter Gunn, JV Coach Logan Brown, and Thirds Coaches Adeleen Brown and Rachel Chambers. The JV and Thirds teams both made terrific progress during the season. The JV team finished its season on a high note with an exciting 4-3 victory over Pomfret.
The girls varsity squash team enjoyed a terrific season. During the season, the team finished with a 7-8 record, including victories over Millbrook, Canterbury, and Pomfret. The highlight of their season took place at the NEPSAC Class C Championship at Millbrook. This was the third year we have competed in the Class C championship, finishing in 5th and 3rd the past two years. This year, the team played tremendous squash and five players won New England championships in their individual flights: Olivia Foster, Caroline Borden, Hannah Lee, Kira Wilson, and Alysha Wong. For Alysha, this was her second individual championship in two years. Seniors Shaina D’Souza and Camila Paiva won crucial matches that proved critical to our team’s one-point victory over runner-up Kingswood Oxford. This was Williston’s first ever NEPSAC Class C championship.
Girls Varsity Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Camila Paiva ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – Caroline Borden ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Olivia Foster ’14, Alysha Wong ‘14
Girls Junior Varsity Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Olivia Berk-Krauss ‘16
Most Improved Player Award – Cici Zhang ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Sophia Triana ‘16
Boys Squash
Boys Squash enjoyed another very competitive season. The highlight of the JV team’s season included two thrilling 4-3 matches over Berkshire and Suffield. The JV team was led once again by our venerable veteran Stan Samuelson. As many of you know this was Stan’s final season on the squash courts. He has been the face of boys squash at Williston for more than a quarter century. I would like to publicly thank him for his selfless leadership over these many years. On our staff of coaches, he has been the ultimate team player. Thank you, Stan!
Under Coach Ryan Tyree’s guidance, the varsity boys squash team enjoyed a very competitive season. Highlights of their season included three thrilling 4-3 victories over St. Mark’s, Trinity Pawling, and Millbrook. The team finished their season with a strong showing at the NEPSAC Class B Tournament, held at Pomfret. Individually, senior Alex Kozikowski had a terrific season and finished on a high note by making it all the way to the finals of the No. 6 flight. According to Coach Tyree, other standouts during the season included sophomore Kevin Li at No. 5 and senior Oliver Demers at No. 4. Oliver played his best squash at the end of the season in the tournament.
Boys Varsity Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Edwin Kim ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – Nile Buranasiri ’15, Phillip Lee ‘16
Sportsmanship Award –Nick Pattison ‘15
Boys Junior Varsity Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Loren Po ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Ben Scheifele ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Vasken Fereshetian ‘16
Third Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Ari Koumentakos ‘19
Most Improved Player Award – Mika Sovjani ‘18
Sportsmanship Award – Alana Serafino ‘18
Boys and Girls Swimming and Diving
Both the boys and girls teams trained hard all winter and enjoyed very competitive seasons. Their hard work led to steady improvement throughout the season—resulting in most of the team setting personal records at the season-ending NEPSAC Division II championships at Westminster.
The boys count a tri-meet sweep of Avon and Wilbraham and Monson as the highlight of their dual meet season. At the Bud Erich Invitational, the boys finished in 5th place out of the 13 schools that participated. At the NEPSAC championships, one boy earned All New England for a top three finish. Freshman David Fitch finished 2nd in the 200 Free. This was the second year in a row that David earned All New England recognition.
The girls team enjoyed a very successful dual meet season with a record of 6-2, including victories over Westminster, NMH and Kingswood. At the Bud Erich Invitational, held in late February at Hopkins School, the girls all swam very well. They finished in 3rd place out of the 14 schools that competed. The girls followed up this strong performance by also swimming very well at the New Englands.
Three individuals are worth noting for their o
utstanding performances. All three finished in the top three to gain All New England recognition: 8th grader Maya Soley finished 3rd in the 200 Individual Medley; freshman Natalie Aquadro was crowned a NEPSAC champion for third consecutive year when she won the 100 breaststroke and set a new meet record; 7th grader Sally Alrutz earned All New England in two events. Sally placed second in the 100 butterfly and broke an 11-year-old Williston school record with a second place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.09.
Girls Varsity Swimming
Most Valuable Swimmer Award – Natalie Aquadro ’17, Sally Alrutz ‘19
Most Improved Swimmer Award – Violeta Ilina ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Maddy Stern ‘14
Boys Varsity Swimming
“Wilmot S. Babcock” Most Valuable Swimmer Award – David Fitch ‘17
“Robert J.H. Kiphuth” Most Improved Swimmer Award – Sitai Chen ‘17
Sportsmanship Award – Alex Li ‘15
Wrestling
The varsity wrestlers had a terrific start to their season. They won seven of their first eight matches before injuries impacted their ability to field a full lineup. Highlights of their season included defeating Pomfret, Deerfield, and Worcester. The team had a particularly strong performance at the Resmini Invitiational held at Tabor in December with a third place finish. At the league championships held at Loomis, seven boys finished in the top eight.
Individually, senior Pat St. Martin had an outstanding season in his 195 pound weight class. Pat won a number of tournaments, including the Resmini, the Northern New Englands and the Class A Tournament held at Loomis. At the New England’s held at Brooks, Pat had a tremendous tournament. He lost a hard-fought battle in the finals to finish in second place. At the national tournament at Lehigh, Pat won two matches to finish in the top 16 in the country. Congratulations on a great season, Pat!
Varsity Wrestling
“Donald J. Knauf” Most Valuable Wrestler Award – Pat St. Martin ‘14
Most Improved Wrestler Award – Arvin Fieldman ‘17
Sportsmanship Award – Sam Atkins ’14
“Peter M. Edgerton ’74” Most Pins Award – Pat St. Martin ‘14
Junior Varsity Wrestling
Most Valuable Wrestler Award – Erin An ‘15
Most Improved Wrestler Award – Sam Colenback ‘19
Sportsmanship Award – Matt Channell ‘17