The Manchester Essex cross country boys lost to Amesbury 31 to 24. Freshman Marco Bussone got his first win, beating the top Amesbury boy by 35 seconds. Also scoring for the boys were Colin Harrison, Eli Heanue, Logan Cooper and Max Kirk. Showing the most improvement in pace from the last race were Brian Andersen, 103 seconds; Tucker Bothwell, 60 seconds; Josef Vytopilova, 40 seconds; Luc Moruzzi, 32 seconds; Tyler Cronin, 26 seconds; and Tyler Erdmann, 10 seconds. The girls lost 50 to 15. Scoring for the girls were Jane Whitten, Olivia Ford, Olivia Turner, Vanessa Gregory and Althea Hurd. Showing the most improvement were Anna Whitten, 74 seconds; Mary Annabel Chrzanowski, 31 seconds; Vanessa Gregory, 15 seconds; and Jane Whitten, 13 seconds. Jane Whitten, a sophomore, has been climbing the ranks on the team, moving from sixth runner to third in her first year on the cross country team.
Amesbury and Triton hosted a freshman/sophomore meet to honor the late Coach Mike Farmer, this being the 7th successful year since the inaugural, and it has always been a pleasant race. While the air was cool, the sun was out, which aided in the stellar performances we had yesterday. Woodsom Farm is a notoriously difficult 2.6 mile course — long grass and three monstrous hills can slow times down, but our runners managed to have significantly great day. Our girls started first with Mary Annabell Chrzanowski and Sarah Braimon running 23:13 and 23:51, respectively. The boys followed shortly after with Luc Moruzzi in 18:56, Tyler Cronin in 20:03, Tucker Bothwell in 22:10, and Brian Andersen in 23:29.
The Manchester Essex golf team continued their winning ways last week with an important Cape Ann league victory over Georgetown. The team now stands at 7–2 and holds the top spot in the league’s Baker Division. In cold and windy conditions on Thursday, the Hornets beat Georgetown 109–99 at Essex. Seniors Spencer Meek and William Pollock were key contributors, with Pollock’s strong score sealing the victory.
This week, the Lady Hornets faced off against North Reading. After a tough 2–0 defeat, the Hornets are now 7–1–2 on the season. In the loss, junior Jennifer O’Neil played well on the defensive end, as did senior Cagney Pallazola. Senior Christina Bullock gave the offense a good push, but came up just short. Next, the Hornets face off against Masconomet and Amesbury.
It was an historic week for the boys soccer program, with the boys going 2–0 with wins over North Reading and Masconomet. On Wednesday, the boys played with all four captains healthy for the first time this season. Finnbar Kiernan rejoined the team after a concussion had kept him from game play and his presence was immediately noticeable, scoring the first goal of the match. The boys played an extremely disciplined, possession-style match against the physical, defensive-minded North Reading Hornets, who had only conceded four total goals during the entire season up until Wednesday. The second Manchester Essex goal came off a corner kick where Naderson Curtis floated a dangerous ball in and fellow sophomore Beren Schmidt calmly popped it over the keeper's head into the net.
On Friday, the boys went to Masco looking for the first victory in the history of the program over the perennial powerhouse Chieftains. The boys went down 1–0 just 10 minutes in but were not deflated. The end of the half saw a spectacular equalizer from Kellen Furse in the form of a bicycle kick (overhead volley) from the six-yard line. The second half began with another Masco goal off a switch of the field and a pass in to a striker who put it far post. The Hornets stayed resilient, and halfway through the second, Furse hit a shot from distance that forced a difficult save and a rebound for Beren Schmit, who pounced on it with a one-time, left-footed rocket past the talented Masco keeper. The match stayed 2–2 until the final 10 minutes when outside left back Thomas Birkeland megged the onrushing Masco outside middie and played sophomore Naderson Curtis through on a breakaway, who calmly deposited the goal to put the Hornets up 3–2 to stay. The back four played a brilliant game led by Jake Edwards and Kai Carroll in the middle and Jack Roberts and Thomas Birkeland on the outside. Goalkeeper Ben Goutal was outstanding as well with some excellent saves throughout along with solid communication to anchor the defense.
