Athletes Shine on State's Stage

Now that most of the team competition (except softball--see below) is finished this spring, individual athletes in both tennis and track have their chances to make their marks on the rest of the state in individual and group tournaments and meets.

Track and Field

State competition is now underway, and the boys' track and field team certainly left its mark on the Class M meet. The Hawks won three events: junior Dan Park in the triple jump (45 ft, 1 in), junior Brandon Fowler in the 300-meter hurdles (39.58 seconds, winning by .01 seconds), and the 4-by-400-meter relay team of junior Tyler Murphy, junior Chris Savvidou, Fowler, and senior Zak Favoccia (3:27.03). All three winners achieved All-State honors and qualified for the State Open to be held June 8 at Willowbrook Park in New Britain.

Overall, the guys finished second in the class, racking up 60 points, second only to league rival Seymour, which finished with 97. Other top-ten finishers for the boys included Savvidou in the 400-meter dash (52.94--7th place), Murphy in the 800-meter run (2:01.71--3rd), Fowler in the 110-meter hurdles (15.78--4th), the 4-by-100-meter relay team of sophomore Chris Williams, Savvidou, junior Mike Uszakiewicz, and junior John Plaskon (45.75--7th), the 4-by-800-meter relay squad of Favoccia, senior Josh Fitzpatrick, freshman Eric Dietz, and Murphy (8:19.42--4th), Park in the long jump (20 ft, 1 in--5th), and Fitzpatrick in the triple jump (41 ft, 1 in--3rd).

The girls did not meet the same success as the boys, finishing 26th in the class with two points. Top-ten finishers for the girls included junior Alyssa Marti in the 110-meter hurdles (17.42--9th), junior Brittany Battis in the pole vault (9 ft--7th), and sophomore Kelsey Deegan in the javelin throw (85 ft--10th).

(See full results from the Class M meet here.)

Tennis

In the Naugatuck Valley League tennis tournaments last week, junior Stephanie Badale and senior Joe Rosa both captured silver medals in singles competition. The doubles team of juniors Sam Angeloszek and Erika Barnett also won bronze.

After the girls' team dropped a narrow, 4-3 decision to Holy Cross in the opening round of the Class S state tournament, only the singles and doubles tournaments remained for Woodland's tennis contingent.

In the boys' Class M draw, which does not feature a team aspect but rather only singles and doubles tournaments, the Hawks sent three singles players to Yale on June 3 to open up competition. Woodland's usual number-two and -three players, sophomore Mike Krakowski and senior Jon Trapp found themselves in opening round matches to play their ways into the main draw. Krakowski pushed Joel Simonson of Waterford to three sets, but fell short, losing 6-3, 5-7, 6-7 (2-7). Trapp also bowed out to Sheehan's Christopher Early, 0-6, 3-6.

Rosa played his first match in the first round against Platt's Ryan Smith and easily won in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1. Rosa moves on to the second round, where he will face Nick Vonderheyde of Jonathan Law, who shut out his opponent in his first match of the draw. The winner of the second-round matchup could face the number-one seed in the tournament, Darien's Kane Gebauer, in the third round. Rosa's second-round match is scheduled for June 4 at Hamden.

Rosa update: Rosa defeated Vonderheyde, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, in the second round of the tournament, and moves on to face #1 seed Kane Gebauer on Saturday.

The girls' singles and doubles State Open tournaments begin next week with four Woodland players participating--the number-one and -two doubles players, Badale and sophomore Megan Wester, and the number-one doubles team of Angeloszek and Barnett.

Wester will be playing in the opening round of the singles draw against Rebecca Vulcano of Brookfield with the winner moving on to the first round against 12th-seeded Liza Blank of Avon. Badale moves right into the first round to play Ridgefield's Carolyn Sanderude. Angeloszek and Barnett's first-round opponents are Northwest Catholic's team of Kathleen Baldassarre and Lizzie Olszewski.

(See the boys' Class M draw here. See the girls' State Open draws here.)

Softball

The only team left in tournament play is the softball squad. The sixth-seeded girls easily advanced to the quarterfinals of the Class M tournament, beating 27th-ranked Granby, 6-1, on Monday before handling 11th-seeded East Catholic, 4-1, on Tuesday. Both senior Kelley Mollor and junior Katie Alfiere have pitched well for the Hawks in the opening two games and will need to continue to do so in order to advance through the tournament.

The Hawks will face third-ranked Rocky Hill (20-2) on Friday at 2:00 PM in Rocky Hill. The winner advances to the semifinals next week to take on either second-seeded St. Joseph or 23rd-ranked Holy Cross.

(See the Class M softball bracket here.)

Of course, stay tuned for updates of every Woodland athlete still involved in state competition right here on WRHSonline.net.