GHS Sports News & Notes

Volleyball Sweeps Avon, Outlasts Bristol Eastern
GHS girls’ volleyball had a busy week, sweeping Avon (25-12, 27-25, 25-15) last Wednesday and then surviving a five-set match win Bristol Eastern (25-21, 25-17, 15-25, 26-28, 21-19) on Friday to improve to 5-4.
Junior Evelyn Brenton led the way with 13 kills in each of the two wins, adding five aces and four blocks in the marathon match verse Bristol Eastern. Setter Sara Wild totaled 56 assists in the two games and Ana Andriyashko chipped in with 13 total kills and fives aces.

Field Hockey Blanks Newington, Falls to Guilford
GHS field hockey traveled o Newington and shutout the Nor’easters 7-0 last Tuesday.  
Senior captain Molly Harding netted three goals and Kaitlyn Welsh added two more. Alicia Choquette and Allyson Collette each scored as well.
Goalie Kaitlyn Parent had a pair of saves, while the Guardians offense peppered Newington goalie Carley Rice with 19 shots.
The team suffered their first regulation loss (4-0) at Guilford last Saturday, falling to 4-1-1-1 this season.  

Boys Golf Remains Undefeated
 GHS boys golf won two more matches last week, defeating Newington (151-191) and Wethersfield (153-206)
 
Against Newington, the Guardians took advantage of great weather conditions to post another excellent team score at Indian Hill Country Club in Newington. Senior co-captain Connor Goode posted his first eagle of the season, posting a (-1) 35. Goode hit six greens in regulation and only needed 14 putts to earn the match medalist or co-medalist for the 6th time this season. Senior Nick DiNino followed with a 38, needing only 13 putts. Senior co-captain Charlie Dolan (hitting seven greens in regulation) and senior Nick Anderson rounded out the scoring, each shooting a 39. Head coach Tom Zelek said of the win, “The boys are able to take their fine scoring on the road to courses we don’t see very often, which will certainly help as we begin preparations for our end of the year tournament schedule.” 

Two days later, the team faced cloudy, cool conditions in the win over Wethersfield at Glastonbury Hills Country Club. Goode once again led the team and was the match medalist with an even-par 36. Goode continued his consistent play with seven pars and needed only 13 putts on the day. Dolan was close behind with a 37, needing only 12 putts. DiNino and Anderson were again solid as the team remain undefeated this fall with eight wins overall and seven within the conference. Zelek added, “Consistency, one of the hardest things to achieve in golf, has been one of our assets this year. As we enter the second half of our season we will hopefully continue doing what we have so far and work on other aspects of our game to continue being one of the top Division I teams in the state.”

Swim & Dive Sinks Middletown
 GHS girls swimming and diving team defeated Middletown (95-81) at the dark and gloomy Baldwin-Parmalee Pool at Middletown High School last Tuesday afternoon. The Guardians won 11 of the 12 events to move to 4-0 on the season and 8-0 all-time against Middletown. GHS was led by Annika Paluska and Riley Lord, who each had three wins. The double winners were Riley Kudlac, Brooke Sowka and Norell Paluska. The single winners were Rachel Davis, Katie Papa, Lauren Lord, Emily Booth, Avery Kudlac, Evie Christensen, Heather Newandee and Paeton Romero. Layla Solberg (diving) was the lone winner for Middletown.
 
Middletown High School currently has no restrictions on away team attendance, so the stands had many Glastonbury parents there to support the athletes. The meet started with a GHS 1-2 sweep in the 200 medley relay. The relay team of Riley Lord, Riley Kudlac, Brooke Sowka and Katie Papa easily won the event while the relay team of Julianne Lui, Avery Kudlac, Annika Paluska and Sofie Redfern placed 2nd. GHS was up 12-2 and the meet would never get any closer.
 
The 200 freestyle and the 200 individual medley were both 1-2-3 sweeps by the Guardians. In the 200 freestyle, Norell Paluska was 1st, Vivian Nguyen was 2nd and Emily Booth was 3rd. In the 200 individual medley, Lauren Lord was 1st, Belle Christensen was 2nd and Elizabeth Evans was 3rd. The 50 freestyle was a 1-3-4 finish for Glastonbury. Riley Lord was 1st, Margo Zhang was 3rd and Paeton Romero was 4th. The score of the meet before diving was 49-13.
 
Diving was once again a highlight even though Middletown’s Layla Solberg won the event with an impressive score of 210.25 points. The Guardians placed 2-3-5. Anna Hilary had a great day on the board as she placed 2nd, qualified for the Class LL Meet with her 197.70 point score and also produced the 8th highest score for 6-dives in school history. Lola DeFranco placed 3rd and also qualified for the Class LL Meet with her 164.70 point score. Hailey Zimmerman placed 5th to make the score 57-21 after diving.
 
The 2nd half started with a 1-2-4 finish in the 100 butterfly. Annika Paluska was 1st, Madelynn Booth was 2nd and Sophie Redfern was 4th. The 100 freestyle was a 1-2-3 sweep by GHS. Norell Paluska was 1st, Lauren Lord was 2nd and Lola Branson was 3rd. The long distance 500 freestyle would be the clinching event of the meet as GHS again placed 1-2-3 to sweep. Riley Lord was 1st, Lucy Boisoneau was 2nd and Julianne Lui was 3rd. The score was now 95-31 and GHS would swim the last 4 events exhibition.
 
The Guardians would touch 1-2 in the 200 freestyle sprint relay. The relay team of Riley Lord, Emily Booth, Brooke Sowka and Annika Paluska would touch 1st while the relay team of Julianne Lui, Madelynn Booth, Belle Christensen and Sophie Redfern would touch 2nd. The 100 backstroke and the 100 breaststroke would both be 1-2-4 finishes by GHS. In the 100 backstroke, Avery Kudlac was 1st, Rachel Davis was 2nd and Evie Christensen was 4th. Avery provided an unexpected highlight as she set a new Baldwin-Parmalee Pool Record for the 100 backstroke with her time of 1:01.88. The previous Baldwin-Parmalee Pool Record was set just 11 days ago on 9/17/21 by Farmington High School’s Jaee Raut with a time of 1:02.70. Avery also qualified for the Class LL Meet with that time. In the 100 breaststroke, Riley Kudlac was 1st, Brooke Sowka was 2nd and Sophie Redfern was 4th. Riley also qualified for the Class LL Meet with her time.
 
The final 400 freestyle relay would see GHS touch 1-2 again. The relay team of Evie Christensen, Heather Newandee, Annika Paluska and Paeton Romero would touch 1st while the relay team of Vivian Nguyen, Belle Christensen, Claire Ferony and Hannah Kaufman touched 2nd. The final score came to 95-81.
 
The upcoming schedule has an exciting new addition. There will be a dual meet scrimmage against the 2019 defending Class LL and State Open Champions from Cheshire High School on Thursday, October 7th at the Cheshire Community Pool starting at 7 PM. There is also a home dual meet against CCC rival South Windsor on Wednesday, October 13th at 3:45 PM. Contributed by Steve Hoyt.