ME Hornet Brennan Twombly goes to the net through a high-leaping Georgetown defender during Friday night’s joust at home. The Hornets prevail 52-42.
Boys & Girls Ski
The Manchester Essex Alpine Ski teams began racing on Wednesday January 12. To date, the teams have raced against St. Johns Prep, Haverhill, Andover, Masconomet and North Andover and will finish out the season with races against Newburyport, Austin Prep and Swampscott.
"It was good to finally get the team on snow and skiing," said Coach Tim Wonson. "The team has put in a lot of effort already, running and training together since the end of November. The team always tries hard but I have to say I was extremely impressed with Peter Shaw and Ernest Taylor during dry land. They put in great effort and were fun to coach."
The alpine teams are young this year with only five seniors filling out the 32-spot roster. Returning Captains Cameron Light and Emma Wonson are two of those seniors. Wonson, crashed during the first race but skied well in their other two races grabbing valuable points. Senior Gracie Susko has skied well and is consistently on the front page of the score sheet. Sophomore Anya Bixby is skiing well and continues to improve. Light has skied well in both of the boys’ races along with teammates Owen Bappe, Tristan Rogers and Finnegan Straub.
"Peter had a good second race," said Wonson. "He will be starting in our third spot in the race on Tuesday, January 25 against North Andover and Haverhill. I'm happy to see his hard work pay off."
The real highlights of the season have come thus far from the younger races on the junior varsity roster. Rose Warner has won all three races. Kiernan Day has come in second. Owen McLain has won both of the JV boys’ races while Gray West has a third-place finish and Tucker Nichols cracked the top 10 with a seventh-place finish.
"It's fun to see our eighth graders taking on high school racers from the other schools and truly excelling! Rose and Owen are both really talented racers with bright futures in this league. Every time they click in and push out, they are exciting to watch. They ski fantastically and they ski fast!"
Girls Basketball
The Manchester Essex Girls basketball team traveled to Georgetown on Friday night, January 21, and picked up their first win of the season. After a back-and-forth battle, the Hornets found themselves trailing by 3 at the half. The third quarter was all Hornets as they outscored the Royals 25-3 in the frame. A strong fourth quarter extended the lead and the Hornets won 74-49. Calista Lai led the balanced offense attack with 21 points. Mercedes O'Neil and Emma Fitzgerald were also in double digits for the Hornets with 13 and 12 points respectively. O'Neil had 4 from behind the arc. Parker Brooks and Kendall Newton each added 8. Mackay Brooks added 6, Phileine Dewidt 4 and Ella Arntsen 2 in the effort.
The team hosts North Reading, Swampscott and Bedford this week.
Boys Basketball
The boys’ basketball team continued to win with a victory over Cape Ann League rival Georgetown High School on Friday, January 21. The team had three players in double figures; AJ Pallazola, Cade Furse, and Brennan Twombly. The team currently has a record of 8-1 and hosts North Reading on Tuesday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m. and travels to Rockport on Friday, January 28 for a 6:30 p.m. start.
Boys and Girls Track
The teams travelled to the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston on Saturday, January 22 for the Division 5 Relays. Though the teams didn’t score any points both teams did have some notable performances. On the girl's side, the 4 x 800 team finished seventh overall (10:49.62) which should be a strong enough mark to get them in to the Division 5 Championships.
The 4 x 4 team had a strong race as Amy Vytopilova, Sabine Cooper and Caroline MacKinnon all ran PRs by almost two seconds each. Amy also ran a PR in the 200 as part of the 4 x 200 relay. Bridget Carovillano ran a PR in the 400 as part of the Sprint Medley Relay as did Greta Gado in her 200-meter leg. The boys were led by a tenth-place finish in the 4 x 400 with Nate Gardner, Logan Cooper, Tyler Cronin and Jack Newton all running personal bests to finish with a time of 3:51.95. That is the ninth fastest time run in M-E indoor track history and they too have a shot at qualifying for the Division 5 Championships. The team of Jack Newton, Nate Gardner and Nicky Clements finished eleventh in the long jump relay with a team distance of 48' 4" which is second all time in M-E track indoor history. The 4 x 800 team finished fifteenth overall with Jack Newton earning a PR for his leg in the race, the sprint medley eighteenth. The Distance Medley and Shot Put Relays finished twenty first. Connor Morgan ran a PR in the 200 leg of the sprint medley for the boys. Nicky Clements and Tyler Cronin also scored personal records in the 4 x 200.
Next up for the teams is the Cape Ann League Open Championships on February 8 in Boston.
