Among the highlights of the winter sports season were a eighth-grade NEPSAC swimming champion, a record-breaking girls junior varsity hockey team, an all-time leading scorer on the girls hockey team, and two wrestlers who finished in the top 16 of their weight class—the best Williston finish in almost a decade.
Director of Athletics Mark Conroy announced the following highlights and individual award winners during assembly on March 21. The award winners were also recognized during winter sports team night on February 28.
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Girls Basketball
Boys Basketball
Girls Hockey
Boys Hockey
Boys Skiing
Girls Skiing
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Boys Squash
Boys Swimming
Girls Swimming
Boys Wrestling
Girls Varsity Basketball
This winter was another successful season for our girls’ basketball program. Varsity girls basketball, under Coaches Kudla and Whipple, had a roller coaster season as the team had a series of runs…win three, lose six, win four, lose three, win three.
The team finished with 10 wins—narrowly missing a place the NEPSAC tournament by one place. The team was an excellent free throw shooting team hitting 61 percent of its shots during the season. Key victories during the season included a terrific win at Suffield, a one-point thriller over Hotchkiss at home, a convincing win at Westminster and a season ending trouncing of Choate.
For her outstanding play during the Ray Brown Holiday tournament, sophomore and leading scorer Natalia Ovando was named to the all-tournament team. Ms. Ovando was also named to the NEPSAC Class B West All Star team along with classmate Maranie Harris-Kuiper.
Most Valuable Player Award – Natalia Ovando ‘15
Most Improved Player Award –Gabby Thomas ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Karly Simpson ‘13
Girls Junior Varsity Basketball
The JV squad had a strong season under Coaches Gross and Chambers. Highlights included exciting wins over Miss Porters, Cushing and Loomis.
Most Valuable Player Award – Yuchen Wang ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Jordan Capelle ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – Marie Innarelli ‘15
Girls Third Basketball
As is usual, Coach Garcia’s 3rds Team demonstrated great improvement throughout the season. Highlights included sweeping Stoneleigh Burnham and a decisive victory over Miss Porters.
Most Valuable Player Award – Margaret Cummings ’15, Maisy Glick ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Sabina Aslanova ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Caroline Channell ‘18
Boys Varsity Basketball
Under the leadership of Coaches Athas and Hart, the varsity boys’ basketball team entered the season with high hopes as it got off to a 4-2 start with exciting home victories over Berkshire and Pomfret to its credit.
Unfortunately, a series of injuries— including by Corey Palumbo’s season-ending knee injury—disrupted the team’s season. After the holidays, the team fought hard, but its lack of depth and experience proved tough to overcome.
Two highlights worth noting were a decisive home victory over Avon Old Farms and a season ending defeat of Kingswood-Oxford. Individual highlights during the season included Max Risch’s 35 points and 15 rebounds against Westminster and freshman Tyonne Malone’s 44 points and 23 rebounds against Berkshire. Mr. Malone’s stellar freshman season landed him on the All NEPSAC Class B first team.
“Dale Lash” Most Valuable Player Award – Tyonne Malone ’16, Max Risch ‘13
Most Improved Player Award – Stephen Goldsmith ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Omash Ekperigin ‘13
Boys Junior Varsity Basketball
On the lower levels, the JV, 3rds and 4ths teams all competed well throughout their seasons. The biggest highlight of the JV season was a buzzer-beating 43-42 victory over Berkshire on Tiger Liu’s last second shot.
Most Valuable Player Award – Mikey Thomson ‘14
Most Improved Player Award – Ben Sarat ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – Alex Bzdel ‘17
Boys Third Basketball
The Thirds team finished with a 6-5 record, sweeping rival Bement in both of their games.
Most Valuable Player Award – Charlie Fogg ’15, Davis Smith ‘16
Most Improved Player Award – David Yu ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Henry Chen ‘16
Boys Fourth Basketball
Coach Winston Miller’s 4ths team had a strong season finishing at 7-2 including a season ending victory over an Eaglebrook team that had defeated them earlier in the winter.
Most Valuable Player Award – Andrew Thomas ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Michael Tran ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Matt Channell ‘17
Girls Varsity Hockey
Girls varsity ice hockey enjoyed another terrific season under the leadership of Coaches Talbot and Davey finishing the season at 15-5-1. After starting the season with a 4-4 record in December, the girls had an outstanding January and February stretch with only an overtime loss to Loomis as its only defeat.
There were several highlights during this stretch, starting with a first ever 2-1 overtime victory at Tabor; beating Hotchkiss 3-0 in their annual Pink in the Rink game; a thrilling 2-2 tie with Choate; rallying from a three-goal deficit at NMH to win 5-3; and a tremendous victory over an undefeated Westminster team 1-0.
A tournament berth was hanging in the balance when the team earned a decisive 3-0 victory at BB&N on the last Saturday of the season. The team’s tremendous season resulted in our third postseason berth in the last four years. This year’s team earned a No. 7 seed but lost to a very tough Choate squad in the opening round rematch.
Most Valuable Player Award – TBA
Most Improved Player Award – TBA
“John R. Gow” Sportsmanship Award – TBA
Girls Junior Varsity Hockey
The JV team, led by Coaches Valine and Ward, made Williston history this winter by enjoying the best season in Williston JV Girls Hockey history. They finished with a record of 10-1-1. The team won nine of their last 10 games, including giving up one goal or less in seven of those games. The season ended fittingly with an exciting 7-5 victory over an always tough Choate squad.
Most Valuable Player Award – Emily Cavazutti ’14, Kaylee Largay ’14, Janelle Parker ‘13
Most Improved Player Award – Emily MacDonald ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Molly Zawacki ‘17
Boys Varsity Hockey
Under Coaches Cunha and Hanford, the varsity boys hockey team had a season full of adversity, particularly when it came to injuries. Combined, the boys missed a total of 97 games. Despite these challenges, the team hung together under the terrific leadership of captains Jean-Gabriel Lacombe and Tim Keegan.
As is always the case, the boys played a very competitive schedule against the majority of the top teams in NEPSAC. Highlights included wins over Hoosac, Worcester, and Vermont; a convincing 10-4 road victory over Albany; and a strong 1-1 tie against playoff bound Millbrook.
As is usually the case, the home Deerfield game was a highlight for the team in terms of both the tremendous community support it enjoyed during the game and raising almost $1,000 for cancer research.
“Daniel D. Carpenter” Most Valuable Player Award – A.J. Unker ‘13
Most Improved Player Award – Tim Mercer ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – J.F. Boucher ‘13
Boys Junior Varsity Hockey
The JV boys hockey team, led by Coaches Fay and Demerath, finished with a 5-7-2 record. The team played exciting hockey all season—nine of its 14 games were decided by a goal or less. The highlight of the season was a 3-0 shutout victory at Pomfret.
Most Valuable Player Award – Conor Archbald ‘13
Most Improved Player Award – Francis O’Brien ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Terry O’Brien ‘14
Boys Varsity Skiing
Led by captain Alec Guay, the varsity boys team had a successful season highlighted by its fifth-place finish in the league. The team should be strong next year since they only lose Mr. Guay and fellow senior Eric Tallman. In the final individual standings, eighth grader Devin DeVerry finished in the top 10 in the slalom competition.
On the JV team, Alec Johnson finished in the top three of the league in individual standings. At the end of the season Alec Guay was presented a very special award by the league—the Zephyr Rapinchuk Award. This award is given “to a student who best exemplifies kindness, enthusiasm, love of skiing and mentoring others.”
The ski teams are excited to host the New England Class B championships next winter.
Most Valuable Skier Award – Devin DeVerry ‘17
Most Improved Skier Award – Eric Tallman ‘13
Sportsmanship Award – Alec Guay ‘13
Boys Junior Varsity Skiing
Most Valuable Skier Award – Alec Johnson ‘14
Most Improved Skier Award – Tomoya Morita ‘13
Sportsmanship Award – Bryan Bates ‘16
Led by Coaches Hing, Kennedy, and Bradley, our ski teams enjoyed successful seasons competing in the Mountain Institute League with other private schools in Western Massachusetts. While the girls’ team was small in number again this winter, and the girls suffered a big loss when Maddie Dirats was lost for the season, the team had another successful year.
Three new racers demonstrated great improvement throughout the season: Lena Gandevia, Brittany Engelman, and Elyssa Katz. In the final standing of league competition, the team finished in third place out of nine in the final league standings.
Most Valuable Skier Award – Jen Carellas ‘15
Most Improved Skier Award – Elyssa Katz ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Brittany Engelman ‘15
The girls squash program enjoyed a successful winter season as 30 girls competed under the leadership of Varsity Coach Peter Gunn, JV Coach Logan Brown and Thirds Coach Adeleen Brown.
While the girls varsity squash team enjoyed victories over Ethel Walker, Canterbury and Choate during the season, the highlight of the season’s dual match season took place in the final match when they lost 3-4 to a good Kingswood team. There were some incredibly exciting individual matches on this day highlighted by three girls—Alysha Wong, Shaina D’Souza and Devon Greenwood—winning 11-9 in the deciding fifth game.
The team followed up this match with a very strong showing at the season ending New England Class C tournament held at Millbrook. The team finished in third place. Led by co-captains Devon Greenwood and Ashby McCoy, the girls earned five top three finishes including: Shaina D’Souza and Olivia Foster earning third at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively; Camila Paiva and Haoshu Xu earning second at No. 3 and No. 7; and Alysha Wong winning at No. 5.
Most Valuable Player Award – Haoshu Xu ‘13
Most Improved Player Award – Ashby McCoy ‘13
Sportsmanship Award – Devon Greenwood ’13, Hannah Lee ‘14
Girls Junior Varsity Squash
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 Deerfield.
Most Valuable Player Award – Abbie Foster ‘16
Most Improved Player Award – Sofia Triana ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Julia Valine ‘15
Under the guidance of Coach Ryan Tyree, the varsity boys squash team enjoyed a season of great camaraderie and significant improvement.
Led by Captains David Fay and TJ Kim, the team opened their season on a high note with a strong showing at the Hopkins Tournament in New Haven. According to Coach Tyree, highlights of their season included a season opening 4-3 victory over St. Mark’s; defeating Berkshire on the road 5-2; and convincing victories over both Canterbury and Kingswood.
The team finished their season with a strong showing at the NEPSAC Class B Tournament held at Avon Old Farms. With six returning players, the boys look forward to an even stronger showing next winter.
Most Valuable Player Award – Evan Jacobson ‘13
Most Improved Player Award – Oliver Demers ’14, Alex Kozikowski ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – T.J. Kim ’13, Nick Pattison ‘15
Boys Junior Varsity Squash
Led by Coach Stan Samuelson, the JV squash team finished their season on a high note by soundly defeating Kingswood.
Most Valuable Player Award – Nile Buranasiri ‘15
Most Improved Player Award – Calvin Ticknor-Swanson ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Loren Po ‘15
Thirds Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Nick Hill ‘17
Most Improved Player Award – Noah DeVos ‘17
Sportsmanship Award – Tyler Greenwood ‘17
Instructional Squash
Most Valuable Player Award – Mike Huang ‘16
Most Improved Player Award – Vivian Tin ’16, Cici Zhang ‘16
Sportsmanship Award – Fiona Li ’16, Sarah Lucia ‘16
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. Most of the swimmers set personal records at the season-ending NEPSAC Division II championships.
The highlight of the girls’ dual meet season was a big victory over Westminster. At the Bud Erich Invitational held in late February at Hopkins School, the girls all swam very well; they finished in eighth place out of the 14 schools that competed. The girls followed up this strong performance by swimming very well at the New England’s.
Three individuals are worth noting for their outstanding performances—all three finished in the top three to gain All New England recognition. Seventh grader Maya Soley finished third in the 200 Individual Medley; junior Sam Frye finished third in the 100 backstroke and eighth grader Natalie Aquadro was crowned a NEPSAC champion for the second consecutive year when she won the 100 breaststroke.
Ms. Aquadro actually broke the meet record twice—once in the prelims and again in the finals! Ms. Aquadro also earned All New England in a second event when she finished third in the 500 free.
Most Valuable Swimmer Award – Natalie Aquadro ‘17
Most Improved Swimmer Award – Joy Chen ‘15
Sportsmanship Award – Emily Grussing ‘15
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 ninth place out of the 15 schools that participated. At the NEPSAC championships, one boy earned All New England for a top three finish. Eighth grader David Fitch finished second in the 500 free. Both teams had excellent days as the entire team had significant drops in their times.
“Wilmot S. Babcock” Most Valuable Swimmer Award – David Fitch ‘17
“Robert J.H. Kiphuth” Most Improved Swimmer Award – Sebastian Rivera ‘13
Sportsmanship Award – Matt Freire ‘13
Under the guidance of Coaches KaneLong, White and Sanders, the varsity wrestlers had another strong season and the team finished with a 10-9 record in dual meets. One of the highlights of their season took place during their opening home match when they won three of four matches defeating Wilbraham & Monson, Worcester and Tilton. The team also enjoyed terrific wins over both Deerfield and Salisbury.
At the NEPSAC wrestling championships held at Choate, three boys earned All New England recognition for their top eight finishes: junior Pat St. Martin at 195, and senior captains Andy Pierce at 152 and Nick Kioussis at 170. All three of these boys qualified to compete at the National Independent School Championships held at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. In a great finish to their careers Mr. Kioussis and Mr. Pierce both won two matches each to finish in the top 16 in their weight class. This was our best finish in the past decade!
“Donald J. Knauf” Most Valuable Wrestler Award – Nick Kioussis ’13, Andy Pierce ‘13
Most Improved Wrestler Award – Kaissar Sarsenov ‘14
Sportsmanship Award – Mikey Lloyd ‘16
“Peter M. Edgerton ’74” Most Pins Award – Andy Pierce ‘13
Junior Varsity Wrestling
Most Valuable Wrestler Award – Hunter Adams ‘17
Most Improved Wrestler Award – Parker Sweet ‘17
Sportsmanship Award – Dillon Watson ‘13