SPORTS
The SPOKE Commitment Corner Page 10
Girls rugby team plays at State Championship Final Page 11
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Crew team makes history Page 10
Softball team holds victory streak Page 11
Alex Gurski/The SPOKE
Taking it all the way: Sophomore Rachel Clark scores a goal for the girls lacrosse team in the state quarterfinals game against Downingtown West on June 1. They lost the game 12-11, meaning disqualification from the State Championship. The boys lacrosse team has moved on to the semifinals, which will be June 4.
Girls and boys lacrosse teams win District Championship Sports Editor
“I feel like we all deserved this win. Everyone on the team has worked so hard to get here,” said junior Julia Littlewood, who scored the girls lacrosse team the winning goal in the District Championship game. “This team is special, we all want to work for each other and not just for ourselves.” After heated games against Harriton High School and Garnet Valley High School, respectively, the girls and boys lacrosse teams won their District One Championships on May 23.
“I was really pumped up, I knew how hard everyone had worked to get where we were and I knew everyone wanted to win that game,” Littlewood said. The teams moved forward to begin their state title run on May 29, both winning the first game of their state runs against Wilson High School and Downingtown East High School, respectively. While the girls team lost their quarterfinal game against Downingtown West on June 1, junior Alex Aufiero is still proud of how the season went. “I am so proud of my team’s performance this year because
we came together and played for each other throughout the
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Beating Garnet Valley in the District Championship is the best feeling I have had so far this this season. PJ Hewitt
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Ananya Kulkarni
Student
entire season,” Aufiero said. “We meshed so well and everyone
stepped up after losing some of our strongest players to injuries. We didn’t expect to end the season with a loss, but we played so many amazing games in the central league and districts.” The boys team is now in the final four, with only two games standing between it and the State Championship. For senior PJ Hewitt, having the team behind him serves as his main motivation. “Being a part of a team like this makes you want to win for your teammates just as much as you want to win for yourself. Every time out on that field I can expect my teammates to
have my back just like they can count on me,” Hewitt said. “At this point in the season it’s win or go home — and as a team, none of us want that to happen until it’s the state championship game.” The boys team will now head to semifinals on June 4 in order to make it past the next round of elimination and will play in the finals on June 8 should they win their upcoming game. “Going into States we feel confident,” Hewitt said. “But we also know every team will be giving us their best shot so we have to play to our potential if we want to keep winning.”
Freshman Liz Zhang makes waves with synchronized swimming Katherine Lee Webmaster
Courtesy Miya Walker
Dancing in the water: Freshman Liz Zhang performs at a competition. She has been a part of the Freedom Valley Synchro Team for five years. She hopes to raise awareness and recognition for the sport.
“All of us were so burnt, and our whole backs were peeling. Whatever you did, you just had to keep pushing through.” Freshman Liz Zhang is describing the physical demands that accompanies the rigor of the camps she has attended. According to Zhang, synchronized swimming is often underestimated. It’s a sport that requires hours of intense training to reach a certain level of strength and control. Last summer, at the invitational National Talent Development camp, Zhang trained under Reem Abdalazeem, an Egyptian Olympian and the current USA Synchro senior national team coach. Zhang has also attended several prestigious invitational summer camps and clinics, including the East Zone Camp and the Lake Placid Clinic in 2017, both hosted by Olympic synchronized swimmers. The swimmers often train for the whole
day, in some cases for 16 hours, and are put under a strict diet. “Your goal is to just try and do your best,” Zhang said. “You have to have a particular mindset because it’s very stressful.” When not at camps, Zhang trains for four days a week, three to four hours a day, at the Phoenixville YMCA for Philadelphia Freedom Valley Synchro. At each practice, she spends at least two hours on cardio, weight training and lung exercises. In order to hold their breath and keep themselves above the water without touching the bottom of the pool, lung exercises are particularly emphasized. The second half of the practices are spent in the pool, working on routines and performances as a team. “Our goal is to make it look easy, but people don’t understand how much it takes to make it look that easy,” Zhang said. “It takes a lot of strength and we have to work up to that.” Synchronized swimming, also known as artistic swimming, is a combination of swimming, dance and gymnas-
tics. In either solo or team performances, swimmers execute an elaborate routine of moves in the water. “It’s kind of like dancing upside down in the water. It’s also a team-centered sport, because it requires everyone to work together,” Zhang said. Zhang first tried out synchronized swimming when she was five years old and began taking it seriously when she was seven. Zhang has competitively engaged in the sport for seven years. Zhang has numerous accomplishments throughout those years, a few of which include making the East Zone All-Star team, attending the East Zone Silver Clinic, and prequalifying for the National Team Trials Phase 2. Recently, at a Junior Olympics qualifications meet on May 11 and 12, Zhang qualified for 16-19 duet and 13-15 combo. 16-19 and 13-15 represent the age range of the divisions in which she qualified. Although there are around 20 synchronized swimmers in the middle schools, Zhang is currently the only one at ’Stoga.
Often overshadowed by its more popular counterpart, regular swimming, synchronized swimming is often underestimated and not given recognition compared to other sports. According to Zhang, synchronized swimming receives less funding, and her team has to share pool time with swimming teams, so half of the time during practices are spent out of the water. Therefore, Zhang hopes to raise awareness and recognition for the sport. This year, she attended an Aquatic convention in Florida as a representative of Pennsylvania for USA Synchro to speak out for the representation of the sport. Additionally, she participates in water shows over the summer with her team, where they go to different places in the country and put on performances. They also have Try Synchro days where younger kids can come and try out synchro. “I think my end goal in a bigger picture would be to get more people to know about synchro and really understand what it is as sport,” Zhang said.
SCORELINE Baseball
B Lacrosse
G Lacrosse
scores as of 5/31
G Rugby
B Rugby
G Track
B Track
Softball
B Tennis
W
6
19
19
3
4
1
0
19
16
L
14
3
3
4
5
10
11
3
4
T
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0