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AMSA, Algonquin claim state titles

By Chris Wilson Contributing Writer REGION - The spring season concluded last week with area schools wrapping up MIAA tournament play.

Algonquin’s rugby squad took home the Division II State Championship with a win over Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

That game kicked off on June 30 but was postponed due to lightning. It resumed July 1 with Algonquin already leading by a score of 10-7.

Rumbling to the victory, Algonquin celebrated its state championship as the final step in an undefeated season.

Elsewhere, the AMSA’s Girls Tennis team defeated Man-

HIGH SCHOOL SCOREBOARD

The Algonquin rugby team poses for a team photo after winning their state championship, last week.

chester Essex to win a historic Division III State title. Not only was this the first such title for the Girls Tennis program, it was also the first state championship in school history.

The Shrewsbury’s Girls Tennis squad and Westborough’s Boys Tennis team also competed in State Championships.

Shrewsbury dropped its Division I championship matchup to Acton-Boxborough in a 5-0 sweep.

Westborough mustered a win in one of its sets but also lost, in its case by a score of 5-1.

“This team is special and they have a lot of good years ahead of them,” Westborough High School Athletic Director Johanna DiCarlo tweeted after that game.

On the baseball field, AMSA broke open a pitching duel in Oakmont to win its district championship on June 28. That punched a ticket to the state tournament, which kicked off on June 30 against Taconic.

As with the Algonquin rugby team, thunderstorms and persistent rain quickly postponed AMSA’s game. Unlike Algonquin, though, the Eagles then had to wait until July 2 for a chance to further advance in the playoffs.

Taconic ultimately came out on top, ending AMSA’s season.

See full scores…

ALGONQUIN

RUGBY – JULY 1 Algonquin – 34, Cambridge R&L – 14

AMSA

BASEBALL – JUNE 28 AMSA – 4, Oakmont – 0 GIRLS TENNIS – JUNE 30 AMSA – 4, Manchester Essex – 1 BASEBALL – JULY 2 AMSA – 2, Taconic – 4 SHREWSBURY

GIRLS TENNIS – JUNE 29 Shrewsbury – 0, Acton-Boxborough – 5 ST. JOHN’S

WRESTLING – JUNE 28 St. John’s – 3, St. John’s Prep – 65 WESTBOROUGH

BOYS TENNIS – JUNE 30 Westborough – 1, Brookline – 4

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Shrewsbury rowing star competes in World Championships

By Kevin Stone Contributing Writer SHREWSBURY - Shrewsbury High School alumnus Collin Hay (2018) earned entry to the U23 World Rowing Championships on June 15 and is now representing both Shrewsbury and his country in the championships in Racice, Czech Republic, from July 7-11.

Hay and his pair partner competed against three other crews at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida, winning with the time of 6:50.51 on the 2000m course.

It’s not often you hear about such success at the local level in this particular sport, so how did Hay get started?

“I started rowing in the fall of 2014 with the Shrewsbury High School crew team,” he recently explained via email. “Simply put, I started because I thought I’d get bored in the fall and a neighbor at the time happened to be a former captain of the team.”

Hay trains at the Quinsigamond Rowing Club. As he has worked, Hay has been on a mission to represent his country for quite a while now.

“I think the quest really began when I finished my first season of rowing,” he said. “I knew that’s all I wanted to do and I knew I wanted to be good at it. “It started off as daydreaming, where I’d picture myself winning crazy international races I knew I’d never have a shot in.”

“It was a slow evolution from a dream to an actual goal as I found myself training more, getting more race experience, getting fitter, and rowing better,” he continued. “Things really clicked after I hopped into some smaller boats during college.”

“I started to realize they were moving pretty fast and we were definitely exceeding expectations,” Hay said. “That’s when I first decided I’d give the national team trials a swing.”

Of course, the dream started in Shrewsbury, so does Hay still use any lessons he learned while wearing the blue and gold?

“You can always choose your frame of reference,” he said. “We typically raced local teams and created this bubble of standards that didn’t necessarily apply everywhere else.”

“There’s sayings like ‘big fish in a little pond’ or ‘small fish in a big pond’ and, in my experience, it’s always better to make yourself the small fish in the big pond, even if you can’t be in the big pond physically,” Hay explained. “If I found myself doing well locally, it was time to start thinking how I stacked up nationwide.”

“Even now, I find myself comparing my fitness and form to some of the greatest of all time,” he continued. “And even though there’s some serious disparity in skill and speed from myself and the greats, it breaks barriers of what I think ‘is’ and ‘isn’t’ possible.”

With the Olympics set to begin soon, it’s hard not to wonder if Hay will one day be rowing at that level. The thought has crossed his mind.

“I hope to do my community proud,” he said. “I feel an enormous amount of support from home and couldn’t do this without all the generosity from others. For that, I feel the need to show their kindness has made a difference and has allowed me to pursue this dream.”

“As for the Olympics, it’s definitely on my radar,” he explained. “Due to the participant volume constraints of the Olympics, not every boat is an Olympic class boat, so I’d likely switch to the Olympic-class lightweight men’s double sculls after this year’s world championships.”

Hay has also been using a GoFundMe to pay for the trip to the Czech; learn more at the link below. gofundme.com/f/u23worlds-light-pair-fund

Shrewsbury’s Collin Hay is rowing in the U23 World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic.

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