Sweeps week for girls tennis team

BY JOE McCONNELL

With three straight wins — starting with a 3-2 conquest over Danvers on May 8 — the Marblehead High girls tennis team (9-1 in the Northeastern Conference) is rounding into form for a long June run in the Division 2 state tournament.

Coach Tracy Ackerman called the Danvers victory “a great team win.” “Danvers came out strong, and we were down in all singles matches,” she said. “But we clearly stayed the course, mixing up consistent and aggressive play to secure the win.”

First singles Pauline Geissler went up against a much-improved Madison Savage and lost, 1-6, 3-6. Second singles player Andrea

Potvin had a super close match against Abby Lyman before losing 3-6, 6-4 (10-8). Third singles player Charly Cooper played a consistent match to get the win over Sophie Sanidas, 6-2, 6-3.

The first doubles team of Courtney Yoder and Aviva Bresnahan beat Eva Nadeau and Josie Vogel in a close first set and then cruised the rest of the way, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

The Marblehead second doubles team of Anna Ratner and Victoria Quagrello shutdown Jenny Patel and Raince Langbis, 6-0, 6-0.

The team beat rival Swampscott by the exact same score the next day. Geissler got it started by defeating Veronika Isagulya, 6-2, 6-2. Potvin dropped a 4-6, 3-6 straight-set second singles match to Laine Foutes. But Cooper got the point back after cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Sydney Antonelli in third singles.

Yoder and Bornstein fell to Anna Ratner and Victoria Quagrello in first doubles, but Levin and Bresnahan took care of Ana Eccles and Tessa Prendergrast in second doubles, 6-2, 6-2.

Last Thursday, May 11, the Magicians shutout Saugus, 5-0. Eight games of pro sets were played in order to avoid the pending rainstorm.

Geissler, Potvin and Cooper all won their singles matches against the Sachems, 8-0. Yoder and Levin teamed up again in first doubles to win, 8-1. Sami Dosch and Reese Friedman experienced the same results in second doubles, 8-1.

SPRING

Magicians come up short twice

Teams keep Masco meet close with outstanding efforts

BY JOE McCONNELL

The Marblehead High spring track teams lost a couple of close meets to Masco at Salem on May 5, with the boys (2-2-1) losing, 70-66, while the girls (3-2) dropped a 80-56 decision.

“With the Northeastern Conference FreshmanSophomore Meet scheduled for the following day, we didn’t deploy our full team against Masco, with the majority of our freshmen and sophomores competing in shorter events or no events at all,” said coach Nolan Raimo.

Girls sprints Ava Machado (12.8) ran away from the pack in the 100 meters against the Chieftains to finish up with her best time of the year.

Le’Daisha Williams (26.6) won the 200, and Cate Trautman (61.9) the 400.

“Considering Cate’s workouts during the week before the meet, floating around the one-minute mark is impressive,” Raimo said.

Boys sprints Harrison Curtis won the 100 with a time of 11.4, beating out Masco’s Nathan Molina, who is one of the top sprinters in the Northeastern Conference.

Sebastian Pantzer (23.8) secured a victory in the 200. David DiCostanzo and Curtis (53.8) battled for the top two spots in the 400, with DiCostanzo (53.3) coming out on top.

The boys 4x400 relay team of Ryan Thompson, Gabe Bayramian, DiCostanzo and Magnus McCarthy, deserve much recognition for their efforts, according to their coach.

“We didn’t know the score going into the relay, and we thought the meet was on the line, but Ryan, Gave, David and Magnus ran superbly to win it in a time of 3:42.1,” Raimo said.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Errol Apostolopoulos (62.6) took home the top spot.

In the 110-meter hurdles, Alex Hersey trucked hurdle seven but still won it in 16.3. Apostolopoulos finished second with a time of 16.7, a .05-second personal best.

Whalen remains perfect in two events

Devin Whalen was a double winner in the 400-meter hurdles (73.3) and the 100-meters hurdles (16.2) to remain undefeated in both events.

Hersey wins long jump, triple jump

Claire Davis finished third in the long jump with a leap of 16-4.5 and also the triple jump (32-.05). Keira Sweetnam cleared 5-2 on one attempt to easily win the high jump.

Alex Hersey finished first in both the boys long jump

(20-5.5) and triple jump (40-5)

“Alex outjumped Nathan Molina in the long jump, who jumped 22 feet last season,” said Raimo. “Technically, they tied their first jumps, but the tiebreaker is the next best jump, and that’s where Alex clinched it.”

Raimo added, “Alex’s triple was a great jump, and in the context that he competes in five-plus events it was even more impressive.”

Ryan Thompson joined the high jump squad following a two-month layoff, but still cleared 5-6 to tie for second.

Albert perseveres to clinch discus

Rachael Albert won the discus with a throw of 91-7.

“Rachael had a couple of fouls early on, but she persevered to still win the event,” Raimo said. “Rachael also had a personal best in the shotput to finish second with a throw of 28-11.”

Asher Oren (115-3) threw nearly a 10-foot personal best in the javelin to finish second.

Graham Firestone (852.5), who rejoined the team after an injury sidelined him for most of this season, ended up fourth in the discus.

Piper leads way in 2-mile

In the 2-mile, Cat Piper (13:02.4, a four-second personal best) came out on top.

“This was the best race I’ve ever seen from Cat Piper,” Raimo said. “She stayed consistent throughout it to push the pace on the final two laps, which concluded with a great closing kick.”

Isaac Gross (10:06.9) won the boys 2-mile.

In the girls mile, Martha Heffernan (7:05.6) was fourth, just ahead of Summer Genovese (7:25.4), who ended up fifth.

Gabe Bayramian (4:56.1) officially broke the fiveminute mark to come in third in the boys event.

Ryan Blestowe (5:06.3) was fourth.

In the girls 800, Kate Twomey had her best race of the season, staying right on the heels of her Masco counterpart Elizabeth Green (2:26.4), who is one of the fastest mid-distance runners in Division 3.

Twomey finished second with a very fast time of 2:26.9, a foursecond personal best and a 10-second improvement in just two weeks. Cat Piper (2:53.6) and Max Arbo (3:12.6) rounded out the Marblehead runners in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Thompson (2:11.6) won the boys 800, while Xavier Grazado (2:16.1) and James Marcey (2:31.6, a nearly three-second personal best) came in fourth and sixth, respectively.