Weekly Athletic Update, 5/03/16
What a week for Worcester Academy Athletics! Three former WA football players from the Class of 2011—Canaan Severin, Jordan Lucas and Stephen Daniels—were either drafted or invited to an NFL training camp in this weekend’s National Football League draft. Congratulations to the trio on this incredible accomplishment and thanks to everyone here at Worcester Academy who contributed to their successful run and their preparation for this amazing opportunity. Canaan, Jordan and Stephen epitomize the true notion of a scholar-athlete having attended and graduated from three of our nations finest universities: University of Virginia, Penn State University, and Boston College respectively!
Two former Worcester Academy greats, Michael Wilhelm ’86 and Daniela Faas ’00, were honored last week as our 2016 Varsity Club Award winners. It was a wonderful evening bringing the “past” together with our current athletes to share an evening about WA athletics and the critical role it plays in shaping the lives of so many of our student-athletes.
Onto the playing front for the week and once again our teams continue to demonstrate great resolve on multiple fronts:
- Coach Jim McNamara’s Baseball team sits atop the NECPSBL sporting an overall record of 13-4. The team will conclude a challenging stretch of road contests as they travel to St. Sebastian’s School on Monday hoping to build on recent wins against NMH and Tabor. Senior Brian Eddy spun a beauty against NMH (no hitter through 5 innings) and settled for a tidy 11 strikeout effort and junior co-captain Mariano Ricciardi, senior co-captain Ryan McDermott and senior Seth Learned led the way in the Hilltoppers 12-3 win over Tabor on Saturday.
- Girls Lacrosse is coming together nicely and scored a decisive home win against the Waring School, 13-7. Lexi Cooper ’17 and goalie Maggie Reiter ’17 played key roles in that contest!
- Bob Thorn’s Varsity Golf team captured two matches during the week edging toward the .500 mark.
- Track & Field teams continue to shine as well. Despite suffering their initial loss of the season (71-138 to Thayer) our girls team (12-1) marches on with solid wins over Middlesex and Rivers School. Hannah Lowe ’17 won the discuss and Lillie Dumas ’19 nearly broke the school record in the high hurdles. Junior Abby Flaherty was just 1.2 seconds off the school record in the 800 meters. The boys had a very crisp showing at home on Saturday as well, earning wins against the Rivers School, Thayer and Middlesex. Amir Miller ’16 won the Javelin and Matt Adiletta ’17 nearly smashed the school record, winning the 400-meter as well as the 200-meter.
- Varsity Boys Tennis evened their record (3-3) with a road win at Cushing and a competitive, tough loss at Tabor. John Nichols-Daly continues a nice run at the #1 singles spot and double partners Jack Scheman and Tony Wang won in convincing fashion as well.
- Amy Herlihy’s Tennis squad beat both the Bancroft School and Wilbraham & Monson Academy (for a sweep of the spring series) as they continue to receive steady play up and down the ladder.
- The Girls Softball team banged out 17 hits en route to a convincing 15-3 win over Newton Country Day School on Wednesday, but the tables were turned in a home loss to the Governor’s School on Friday afternoon.
- David Baker’s Crew team continues to improve shaving time off their runs and making inroads on the placement end as well. Both the girls and boys #1 boats finished 3rd out of 6 teams in Sunday’s race at Lake Qunisigamond while the #2 boats finished 2nd (girls) and 4th (boys) respectively. The team will travel to Vermont on Sunday for their lone road race of the spring.
- Coach Zak Johnson’s “nine” rebounded well from their lone loss on the season, taking a 12-2 contest from Wilbraham & Monson on Saturday. Casey Sullivan spun another beauty keeping the opposition off balance with a strong 4-inning performance. Kyle Hackett led the way with 2 base hits.
Athletes of the Week
Matt Adiletta ’17 – Track & Field
Lily Dumas ’19 – Track & Field
