THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 o
Two Hollidays is twice as much fun Poolesville boys on a five-game win streak
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A father of two Montgomery County high school girls’ lacrosse coaches, Frank Holliday, has been splitting his time between Quince Orchard and Thomas S. Wootton this season, supporting both of his daughters’ teams as he photographs their games from the sidelines. But on Monday — with Cougars coach Jennifer Holliday Mohr going against her younger sister, Patriots’ rookie coach Shannon Holliday — he had to keep a foot in both camps. Literally. “I had one foot on the 49 [yard line] of one side, and one foot on the 49 of the other,” he said. Jennifer and Shannon were teammates at Quince Orchard (2004) and at Longwood University (2008), but said this was their first time competing against one another. Though the game wasn’t as close as they’d anticipated — Quince Orchard won 21-13 — it was a memorable evening for the Holliday family. “This one was special. This was one I was looking forward to,” said Frank Holliday, who attended the game with his wife Tammy, his father, and other friends and relatives. Third-year coach Jennifer Holliday Mohr described the experience as “bittersweet.” On the one hand, it was her first time beating the Patriots, and her upperclassmen played at the top of their games on senior night. On the other, she said it was difficult coaching against her younger sister, who helped
LACROSSE NOTEBOOK BY ERIC GOLDWEIN
HOW THEY RANK Girls’ lacrosse n 1. Good Counsel n 2. Stone Ridge n 3. Sherwood n 4. Holy Cross n 5. Holton-Arms
Boys’ lacrosse BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Thomas S. Wootton High School’s Myles Romm throws during Saturday’s boys’ lacrosse game against Winston Churchill at Wootton. The Patriots won, 14-6. out on the Quince Orchard staff the past two seasons. “I kind of tried to not think that she was on the sideline, otherwise it was too emotional,” she said. Quince Orchard is on a four-game win streak and moves to 6-3 with the victory, while Wootton drops to 3-7. The sisters, who went to dinner with their family after the game, said they hope to meet again in the postseason. “This is probably a turning point in their season and hopefully it’ll be a wakeup call for my girls,” Shannon Holliday said.
Poolesville full of promise Josh Funk knew he had athletes when he took over as coach of the Poolesville boys’ team before the season. What he didn’t know is that they’d be able to develop into lacrosse players
this quickly. The Falcons (8-2) are on a five-game winning streak and have already doubled last year’s win total (4-9), with three games remaining on their regular season schedule. And here’s the kicker: They’re only getting better. The Falcons’ roster is packed with young, multi-sport athletes; the majority of the key players — including their topfive leading scorers — are juniors and sophomores. “It’s a very, very young but talented group,” said Funk, a Poolesville alumnus (2004) and All-Gazette Player of the Year. Junior Joel Hessels (28 goals) is Poolesville’s leading scorer while sophomores Adam Branscome (45 points) and Jake Armstrong (42 points) lead the team in points and assists. Junior Sean Parker, a football and basketball player, has
n 1. Georgetown Prep n 2. Landon n 3. DeMatha n 4. Thomas S. Wootton n 5. Quince Orchard
helped lead a defense that is surrendering only 6.4 goals per game. “His confidence grows every game. It’s been great to see his development,” said Funk, who played for Ohio State and the Minnesota Swarm of the National Lacrosse League. Poolesville is scheduled to host Richard Montgomery Wednesday, then plays Northwest on the road Friday before Monday’s season-finale at home against Winston Churchill. “A year makes a huge difference for some of the younger guys,” Funk said. “… Their confidence is only growing.” egoldwein@gazette.net
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Avalon, The Heights split season series
With the Old Line Conference playoffs set to get under way next week, Avalon did its part to secure the top seed in the tournament with a 5-1 victory against The Heights Thursday evening at Kelley Park. The Heights (7-9) won the first meeting earlier this spring, 3-2, on a solo home run by Matt McCreary. “[Thursday] was a great game and another intense game between our teams,” The Heights’ first-year coach Jon Fritts said. “It was scoreless through four innings, we get a run in the fifth, but then we could not hold it. “I thought Brady Hall threw an excellent game for me. He’s 3-6 on the season, but his earned-run average is somewhere around 1.75. He’s definitely my ace and I will ride him through the playoffs.” The Heights and Avalon will likely both host first round games and are expected to meet again in the Old Line Conference championship on May 10. “We really have to take it one practice at a time and one game at a time,” Fritts said. “We are certainly not looking past whoever we get in the semifinals. We’re not taking any games for granted.” Our Lady of Good Counsel (8-8) overcame a slow start to its season by winning four of its last five games heading into Wednesday’s home finale against Washington Catho-
BASEBALL NOTEBOOK BY TED BLACK lic Athletic Conference foe St. John’s. The Falcons lost to St. John’s 10-2 on April 10. Watkins Mill (4-8) lost its first seven games, which is nothing new for the Wolverines, who won only three games last season and only one game the year before. But from April 7-12, the Wolverines won three straight games and then returned from spring break to win their next game. “I think it was good for our kids,” said Watkins Mill firstyear coach Michael Celenza, a 2006 Quince Orchard graduate “I think it’s important for the kids to see that they can have that type of success. The games have been getting better and better and the practices. “It’s good to see kids that come out to practice and then want to stay after practice to get in extra work,” Celenza said. “That’s the only way we can build it back up. We’ve made good steps, but we’re capable of playing a lot better.”
HOW THEY RANK n Baseball n 1. Poolesville n 2. Gaithersburg n 3. Georgetown Prep n 4. Thomas S. Wootton n 5. Our Lady of Good Counsel
Blake softball team rallies around pitcher after mother’s sudden death Freshman’s mother passed away, used softball for outlet n
Softball pitchers, by nature, tend to be among the strongest players, mentally, on the field. Given the impact their position has on each game, they almost have to be. James H. Blake freshman pitcher Ellie Smethurst has displayed strength and maturity beyond her years this spring, Bengals coach Nicole Wallace said. Just before she pitched her first regular season game, Smethurst’s mother died in her sleep from a blood clot that had traveled into her lungs. Smethurst said she never considered walking away from the team or the sport, but rather, something she has always loved, it has become an outlet for her during a tremendously hard time that no teenager should be faced with. “[The softball field] is a place I can come and do what I do and not worry about anything,” Smethurst said. The left-hander certainly did what she does quite well in a one-hit, 5-0 shutout of perennial contender Thomas S. Wootton for her fourth victory of the spring; Blake is now 103. Smethurst said she feels like she is playing for a bit more this season.
SOFTBALL NOTEBOOK BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN So do the Bengals, Wallace said. While, understandably, Smethurst said she doesn’t spend much time talking about the recent tragedy, she said she is grateful for the support from her teammates, many of whom she was just starting to get to know. “Ellie is one of the strongest players out there, mentally,” Wallace said. “This team is kind of quiet on the field but she is one of the first who is coming out of her shell and it’s surprising giving everything thing she’s going through. ... I feel like we’re playing for a little bit more, this season. We barely knew her [when it happened] but it brought us together so quickly. It’s so, so unfortunate, I do think it forced us immediately to be family.”
Northwest in danger of losing seeding The defending state semifinalist Northwest High School softball team has won seven consecutive games after a surprisingly mediocre 2-2 start to 2014 en route to capturing the Montgomery 4A/3A West Division title — the Jaguars clinched
HOW THEY RANK n 1. Sherwood (12-0) n 2. Montgomery Blair (14-0) n 3. Col. Zadok Magruder (11-2) n 4. Northwest (9-2) n 5. James H. Blake (10-3)
that with a 16-6, 6-inning win against Quince Orchard April 23. Sophomore pitcher Bridgette Barbour, who has held opposing teams to a .232 batting average against her, appears to be finding her late-season form. Just last week alone she struck out 47 batters in 24 innings. Barbour’s .667 batting average is second on the team to catcher Jordan Sheppard (.676 batting average) but she leads the team with 20 runs batted in. With five games remaining Northwest’s biggest concern at this point will be fitting in the minimum of 14 games by Monday —— the draw is Tuesday — that are needed to qualify for seeding in the Class 4A West Region tournament, according to Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association rules. The Jaguars are currently 9-2, three games shy of that number, with a less than desirable forecast for the majority of this week. “We’re cutting it kind of
KEEPING IT BRIEF Bullis wins bronze medal at Penn Relays Bullis School’s Simone Glenn, a senior transfer, has been a vital part of the Bullis team this season and on Friday she helped the Bulldogs place third (47.54) in the 400 relay small schools championship at the Penn Relays. Glenn was joined by Alexis Pastell, Kyla Lewis, Gabrielle Tielman — all part of the Glenarden Track Club.
— ERIC GOLDWEIN
Kennedy senior takes 11th at Penn Relays John F. Kennedy’s Alieu Cole doesn’t usually compete in the 400 hurdles — the event isn’t usually part of Maryland meets — so his strategy going into Saturday’s championship at the Penn Relays was to run it like a 300 and make his move after 200 meters. In hindsight that was a little too early, he
said, but the senior still managed to take 11th with a 55.07. “I mean, I just wasn’t adjusted,” said Cole, who last ran a 400 hurdles over the summer. “I might have run the race a little too hard … I was just trying to bring it home the last 200 meters.” Cole recorded the best county hurdle time since 2006, according to mocorunning.com.
— ERIC GOLDWEIN
Poolesville senior shines It’s not the final lap of the 3,000 that gets to Poolesville’s Chase Weaverling, but the one before, he said. “It’s really two laps to go when I really feel like, ‘Oh my God, I have 800 meters left,’” Weaverling said. “That’s when you need to mentally get strong and pick it up.” But Weaverling did exactly that, going out with a bang in his second and final Penn Relays. The senior finished the 3,000 in 8 minutes, 33.73 seconds, improving on
last year’s time (8:36.97) by more than three seconds. Weaverling, a University of Virginia recruit, placed 18th, with Loudoun Valley’s Andrew Hunter winning the race (8:16.31).
— ERIC GOLDWEIN
Ledecky earns three more major wins Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart junior Katie Ledecky won three events at the Mesa Grand Prix in Arizona last week. After wins in the 400-meter freestyle Thursday and 200-meter freestyle Friday with a personalbest time of 1:56.27 — Ledecky has proven she is not just a distance freestyler — the 2012 Olympic gold medalist won the 800-meter freestyle Saturday by nearly 13 seconds with a time of 8:20.10 seconds. The time, according to USA Swimming, was this year’s third fastest in the world.
— JENNIFER BEEKMAN
close, this rain forecast is killing me,” Corpuz said. “I’ll do whatever it takes [to get the games in], I’d like to get in all 16 if we can.” For the first time, each region has been divided into two sections, the winners will meet for a spot in the state semifinals. There will only be two seeded teams per section. Northwest will play in six-team Section II, along with last year’s region fi-
nalist Clarksburg and Col. Zadok Magruder, which has only lost to undefeated Sherwood and Montgomery Blair. The Jaguars are poised to nab a top seed, which would give them a first-round bye and extra practice time — something that has fallen by the wayside with all the rain postponements early in the season — but will fall into the random draw if it doesn’t play at least three games
by Monday. “You really want to get that seeding, you really do like that extra time to sharpen up on some things and make sure you get a game plan and are focused, extra preparation time is a good thing,” Corpuz said. “It also allows the girls to rest a little bit to freshen up. It’s a long week if you’re going to make it to the region final.”