Students Honored at Winter Sports Awards

The auditorium buzzed with praise and the achievements of the athletes honored at the 2009-2010 Winter Sports Awards on Wednesday, March 24.

Lance Jacobs started out the night with praise for this past season's athletes and a surprising statistic.

"Since the fall of 2006, at least one Dayton athletic team from Fall, Winter, and Spring has qualified for New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) post season games," Jacobs said before asking: "What's in the water at Dayton?"

The first awards of the night went to the Cheerleading team coached by Dana Rutkowski and Jennifer Rego. The team has the longest season of any team at Dayton, spanning from August to the beginning of March.

Next up to the stage was the Bowling team coached by Felix Fabiano. The always-exuberant coach of the champion Boys Soccer team brought a surge of energy into the Halsey Hall when introducing the revived Bowling team. This year the Bowling team finished 2nd in sectionals and 4th in states. Mark Masucci was introduced as the Captain of the team with the highest average. Mark finished 1st with the highest individual score in the Union County Individual Tournament. Fabiano "unveiled" his secret weapon for the years to come, freshman Chris Masucci. Chris has showed promise and talent in this past season and with practice could have a 210 average. He finished by announcing, "Bowling is here to stay!"

Coach Brian Luciani, who is retiring this year, had nothing but the best things to say about the Jonathan Dayton students on the Brearly team. Khasen and Khusen Taramov were recognized as some of the best wrestlers on the team. "The Twins" weren't there to hear their achievements, but Luciani mentioned that Khusen has 90 career wins.

Next to receive their awards was the Swimming team. This year, coached by Traci Dombrowski and Valerie Gino, the Swimming team went 13-9-1. Anthony Don received an honorable mention for finishing 12th in the 200-meter medley.

Ice Hockey followed. First year coach, Andrew Trimble, made sure that his team was recognized. He made a point of recognizing his devoted managers Sara Berkowitz, Rebecca Frank, Leah Cunningham, Lindsay Gaon, and Ilyssa Frank. Matt Neubauer was mentioned to be a part of the All State hockey game.

The Girls Basketball team received their awards after Hockey. Coach Rennie made one o the best speeches of the night. For the first time, Girls Basketball was beat Union at Union. They won their Holiday Tournament and had a 16-9 season. He outlined their season, but the bulk of his speech was a heart-felt connection he shared with his team.

He mentioned that as the season progressed the freshmen got more playing time and that even the loss against Oak Knoll was rewarding for the players, especially the freshmen who made up half of the starting line-up. Jennifer Kuczynski had 58 three-pointers and was the MVP of the Holiday Tournament. Anna Lies led the team in assists and two pointers to name a few of her many achievements and accumulated 457 points in the last two years. Emily MacDonnell finished the season with the most ­points per game with an average of 14 points and has 517 points over the last two years.

The Boys Basketball team's coach, Robert Martin said he believed that this was the most rewarding season he has ever coached. The team went 18-7 in the past season. Martin didn't have a lot of things to say about the team's season, but more about the player's attitudes. Ronnie Herman showed the most dedication Coach Martin has seen. Ronnie had a broken bone and on a Friday morning he got the cast off and that afternoon, he was in the gym ready for practice. Elliot Karp had the best attitude and mentality on and off the courts. Additionally, Karp was select to play in the Union County All Star game. Alex Popolani had an astonishing near 300 career rebounds. It was clear that Coach Martin was very close with his players on an emotional level.

The final speech of the night was made Coach Jackie Zika of the Indoor Track team. The Girls placed 3rd at sectionals this year. Some honorable mentions went out to Alex Sturm, a thrower, and Ben Castor, a distance runner. The most recognized player of the night was Alexa Williams. Alexa is the best high jumper in Union County and placed 1st in the Team All Group 1 High Jump. With an astonishing high jump of five feet six inches, Alexa Williams placed 9th in the Nation.

Sports Awards:

Cheerleading:

No Captains

No Gold Letter Recipients

Wrestling:

No Captains

No Gold Letter Recipients

Indoor Track:

No Captains

Gold Letter Recipients: Casey Friedman, John Ghilino, Alexandra Policastro

Girls Basketball:

Captain: Sami Cariani

Gold Letter Recipients: Sami Cariani and Melissa Mansur

Boys Basketball:

Captains: Elliot Karp, Alex Popolani, Jonathan Wortman

No Gold Letter Recipients

Bowling:

Captain: Mark Masucci

No Gold Letter Recipients

Boys Ice Hockey:

Captains: Brian Camp, Daniel DuBeau, Michael Tarantula

(Alternate Captains: Matthew Neubauer and Aaron Hinkes)

Gold Letter Recipients: Todd Bohrer, Brian Camp, Daniel DuBeau, Aaron Hinkes

CO-ED Swimming:

Captain: Alexa Martinez

Gold Letter Recipients: Alexa Martinez