H.S. roundup: Eagles upset No. 1 Woodstock 3-2 to win NHC tournament title
Pomfret — The third-seeded Eastern Connecticut Eagles captured the 2022 Nutmeg Hockey Conference tournament championship on Saturday night with a 3-2 victory over No. 1 Woodstock Academy.
The Eagles (9-12-1) avenged a pair of regular-season losses to the Centaurs.
Drew Sager (East Lyme), assisted by Anthony Gesino (East Lyme) and Josh Bertelli (Waterford) gave the Eagles an early 1-0 lead and they added a second goal before the first period was over when Dylan Relaz (Norwich Tech) found the back of the next with Cade Waters (Waterford) assisting.
Noah Sampson scored a power play goal to pull Woodstock within a goal in the second period, but Gesino, assisted by Declan York (Ledyard) and Joe Cafro (Norwich Tech) scored the game-winner late in the second period to make it 3-1.
Woodstock added another power play goal in the third period, but the Eagles managed to kill off a penalty in the final 1:30 to preserve the win.
Cam McCollum (East Lyme) was called upon to make 42 saves in goal for the Eagles, who begin play in the CIAC Division II tournament on Monday at top-seeded North Haven.
Indoor track
• East Lyme's Savannah Soleau and Stonington's Ryan Gruczka were the top local finishers at the New England Championships at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center in Boston. Soleau placed seventh in the girls' shot put with a throw of 37 feet, 4.5 inches and Gruczka finished seventh in the boys' 1,000-meter race in a personal best 2 minutes, 33.42 seconds.
Soleau was joined in the girls' shot put by Bacon Academy's Jennifer Whipple, who placed 10th (35-4), and St. Bernard's Lindsey Reilly, who finished 24th (31-3.5), while Gruczka's Stonington teammate Ryan Orr finished 10th in the 1,000 in 2:36.06, also a personal best.
Other local performers were Stonington's Nancy Inthasit (11th in the girls' 55 dash, 7.38 seconds), Ledyard's Kate Littler (12th in the girls' 600, with personal best of 1:38.77), and NFA's Michaelly Luc (15th in the boys' long jump, 20-1.75).
Wrestling
• Ledyard's Connor Doran, the State Open 132-pound champion, fell short of earning a medal in the New England Championship tournament at the Providence Career and Technical Center. Doran, a senior, lost to Adam Schaeublin of St. John's Prep (Mass.) 5-2 in the quarterfinals. He came back to beat Danbury's Jesse Defonce 8-1 in the consolation quarterfinals before losing to Aidan Robichaud of Coventry (R.I.) 4-2 in sudden death in the consolation semifinals. Waterford's Mason Concascia (152) was also eliminated with a 1-0 loss to Greg Deeley of Wayland (Mass.) in the consolation third round.
The ECC did have one New England champion as Killingly's Jack Richardson (145) beat Mark Botelho of Hingham (Mass.) 8-6 in the final. Teammate, Kaden Ware (126), finished fourth.
Richardson was one of three New England champions from Connecticut, joining Fairfield Warde's William Ebert (170) and Guilford's Christopher Murphy (195). St. John's Prep won the team title 95 points while Xavier (82) finished second and Killingly (53) was seventh.
Gymnastics
• East Lyme's Kaitlyn Abbey placed seventh in the State Open all-around competition at New Milford. Abbey finished with 24.975 points, including a fifth on the uneven bars (9.125) and a tie for sixth on the floor exercise (9.0). She added scores of 8.7 on vault and 8.15 on the balance beam.
Stonington's Lydia Laskey also competed in the all-around competition, finished 16th with 33.975 points. She had an 8.55 on vault, 8.4 on bars, 8.325 on beam and 8.7 on the floor exercise. In addition, Stonington's Mary Lord tied for 29th on beam (8.10) and NFA's Emma Field was 23rd on beam (8.35) and tied for 23rd on floor exercise (8.15).
It was a big day for Woodstock Academy and Taylor Markley. Woodstock won the team title with 141.525 points and Markley swept the individual competition for the Centaurs, winning the all-around with 38.776 points while capturing the vault (9.8), beam (9.65), bars (9.75) and floor exercise (9.575).
H.S. fencing
• Three local athletes reached the semifinals of the Connecticut Individual Fencing Championships at North Haven. Waterford's Taylor Wininger-Sieve (girls' foil), Fitch's Elaina Brookhart (girls' epee) and St. Bernard's Gianni Torres (boys' epee) all made it to the final four in the single-elimination format before losing.
In addition, St. Bernard's Zhuning Gao reached the quarterfinals in girls' foil as did East Lyme' Greta Schwartz and Ledyard's Marsela Wilhelm in girls' epee, East Lyme's Jackson Matlock in boys' epee and East Lyme's Benjamin Tan and NFA's Noah Harris in boys' foil.
Girls' basketball
• No. 3 Coventry ousted No. 19 Lyman Memorial 63-30 in the second round of the CIAC Class S tournament on Friday night. The Bulldogs, who finish 11-12, were led by Taylor Pankowski with 14 points.
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