GHS Sports news & notes

Mount Southington Finale for GHS Ski
The boys and girls ski team had their fifth and final race of the season at Mount Southington on Feb. 2.

The girls finished in 5th place of the 13 teams competing. The girls were led by senior co-captains Sara Wertsching and Katie Murphy who finished 24th and 30th respectively overall amongst the 182 girls racing this night. Freshman Ainsley Latz was close behind finishing in 34th place overall. Rounding out the scoring were sophomore Eva Giliberto, junior Lauren Carlino, and sophomore Sydney Waltz. The girls finished the year with an overall record of 39 wins and 22 losses. This excellent record has qualified them to race in the State Open. 
           
The boys ski race team finished in 10th place of the 14 teams competing on this night. The boys were led by senior co-captain Matt Bulger and his brother, freshman Alex Bulger. The Bulger brothers finished in 6th and 11th place respectively overall amongst the 209 boys racing. Contributing to the team score were senior co-captain Ryan Murphy, juniors Nate Zimbelman and Tim Kohlun followed by freshman Ryan Sarni. 
           
“I’m not surprised the girls qualified for the state tournament. They have consistently put up excellent times all season and have worked hard during conditioning and also practice to hone their skills,” stated head coach Tom Zelek. “The boys had only one bad race unfortunately otherwise they also would have qualified. We are looking forward to the State Tournament and then the Shootouts to compete against the best high school ski racers in the state.”
 
 
GHS Swim & Dive Defeats Amity
 The Glastonbury High School boys swimming and diving team took down perennial downstate power Amity High School, 93-88, on Feb. 1. 
           
It was the depth of the Guardians and the huge advantage in diving that made the difference in this meet. Amity actually won 7 of the 12 events behind the strength of their top-end talent, but Glastonbury scored more points in 6 of the 12 events along with splitting the points in one event. The meet victory raises the GHS regular season record to 8-1 and 18-11 all-time against AHS with nine GHS wins in a row.
           
The Guardians were led by Campbell McFall who had three wins. Jay Shah, Jack Watson, Sander Silverman, John Redfern and James Liao all had one win each. The Spartans got three wins each from Seamus Hennessy and Ben Frazer. Adam Liu and Connor Hallstrom each added two wins. The single winners were Allen Liu, Kevin Sweeney and Henry Atwood.
           
Two of the three relays were strategic as GHS head coach Suzie Hoyt split them in order to try and garner 2nd and 3rd places. It worked to perfection in the opening 200 medley relay as GHS did just that by placing 2-3. The relay team of Jack Watson, Will Torrey, John Comite and John Redfern placed 2nd while the relay team of James Liao, Isaac Shen, Connor Lieu and Ryan Lieu placed 3rd a second ahead of the Amity B relay. This made the score 8-6 in favor of Amity after 1 event.
           
At this early stage of the meet, a shocking turn of events occurred as the top 200 freestyle swimmer from Amity had to scratch just seconds before the start of the event due to a sudden illness. Amity had to leave lane 3 empty and only compete with 2 swimmers against the 3 from Glastonbury. GHS took full advantage and placed 1-2-4 in the event. Campbell McFall was 1st, Brian Pawlowski was 2nd and Myles Murphy was just out-touched by 0.07 of a second at the end and placed 4th. That is a 12-4 event score and now the lead changed as GHS was now ahead with the score 18-12.
           
Amity immediately started to chip away at this slim lead as they placed 1-3 in the 200 individual medley with Seamus Hennessy winning the event by a second. GHS placed 2-4-5. James Liao was 2nd, John Redfern was 4th and Ethan Hipsky was 5th. The event score was 9-7 in Amity’s favor and now the meet score was 25-21.
           
The 50 freestyle was a huge event for Amity as they placed 1-3-5 with sprint specialist Ben Frazer winning the event. All the times very close together but GHS had to settle with 2nd and 4th place from Sander Silverman and Nick Roberts respectively. The event score was 10-6 in favor of Amity and now the meet was deadlocked at 31-31 entering the diving event.
           
Amity historically always has several good divers, but for some reason they don’t have a single one on the roster this year. This resulted in a massive 1-2-3 finish for GHS and an event score of 13-0. Jay Shah was 1st, Evan Scott was 2nd and Max McCurdy was 3rd. The meet score was now 44-31 in favor of the Guardians.
           
The next three events went a long way to seizing control of the meet for Glastonbury as they out-scored Amity in all three. The 100 butterfly was a 1-3-4 finish for GHS. Jack Watson was 1st, Connor Lieu was 3rd and John Comite was 4th.
           
Sprinter Ben Frazer from Amity was back in the water and quickly won the 100 freestyle. Glastonbury flexed its strong depth and finished 2-3-4 to out-score Amity in the event 9-7. Sander Silverman was 2nd, Brian Pawlowski was 3rd and Myles Murphy was 4th as all of them did 52’s and came into the wall as a team.
           
The 500 freestyle really solidified the chances for victory as Glastonbury went 1-3-4. Campbell McFall dominated for the win as he won by 5 seconds. John Redfern was 3rd and Ethan Hipsky was 4th.
           
Coach Hoyt also split the 200 freestyle relay and it worked as planned once again as GHS easily placed 2-3. The relay team of Sander Silverman, Connor Lieu, Myles Murphy and Brian Pawlowski placed 2nd while the relay team of Nick Roberts, Ryan Lieu, Leo Wong and Campbell McFall placed 3rd 7 seconds ahead of the Amity B relay.
           
The 100 backstroke was a stalemate as the event score was 8-8. Seamus Hennessy got his 2nd individual win of the meet for Amity. GHS placed 2-3-5. James Liao was 2nd, Jack Watson was 3rd by only 0.02 of a second and John Comite was 5th.
           
Amity would dominate the 100 breaststroke, but it was too little too late for the Spartans. Adam Liu won the event for Amity. GHS could only manage 3rd and 5th place. Will Torrey was 3rd and Isaac Shen was 5th. The 12-4 event score in favor of Amity made the meet score 93-76 and now the meet victory was clinched for Glastonbury since Amity could only reach 88 points with 1 event left. GHS would swim the last event exhibition.
           
GHS was all-in for the last 400 freestyle relay as they placed 1-3. The relay team of Campbell McFall, Sander Silverman, John Redfern and James Liao blew everybody out of the water as they won the event by 7 seconds. One of the best races of the day was the last leg of the relay between Ben Frazer and Brian Pawlowski as they battled for 2nd place. Brian left it all in the pool, but was just out-touched by Ben. The final score came to 93-88. For a meet that was knotted at 31 just before diving, the Guardians showed some moxie and made pretty easy work of it in the 2nd half of the meet.
           
​The upcoming schedule has two home CCC divisional dual meets. GHS swims East Hartford High School on Tuesday, February 15th at 3:45 PM and then swims Windsor High School on Thursday, February 17th at 4 PM. Contributed by Steve Hoyt.