The Sports Watch for August 15 - 19

It's Sunday, and you know what that means. It's time for the Sports Watch, the fastest three minutes in Weston Sports coming your way right now:

Well, Rivers School sophomore Declan McCabe has been selected to enter the US Soccer Under-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Florida starting in the fall. McCabe is one of just 40 chosen players under 15 who will go to prepare for the U17 World Cup in two years. 

McCabe, a midfielder, is just the third player from Massachusetts to be selected since the program began in 1999. Among the others was Sheanon Williams, who left Rivers after the ninth grade in 2005 to go to Florida. Williams is now the starting right back for the Philadelphia Union in the MLS.

Meanwhile, Weston High track standout Abigail Pohl, who will be a junior this fall, finished in second place at the recent Falmouth Road Race Mile. Pohl crossed the line at 5:26.57, overtaking third-place finisher Colleen Sands of Waschusett with 300 meters to go. Madison Granger of Belchertown won the event in a time of 5:22.52. Sands finished in 5:31.05.

And, folks, everything is cool in the pool (Editor's note: The following article was contributed by the Weston High School Athletic Department).

As families begin to prep for the 2011-2012 school year, the 2010-2011 winter swimming and diving season is a distant memory.  Nevertheless, the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) has just announced their final National Dual Meet Team Rankings for the past season, and there was excellent news for both the Weston girls’ and boys’ programs.

On the male side, Weston stormed their way to a 2nd place overall finish in the country for small schools, behind national champion Hamilton High School (Michigan.)  The runner-up slot extended a Tide run of 30 straight seasons in the National Top Ten.  The Weston boys have been National Champions three times (in 2001, 2003, and 2005), and taken the second slot on seven occasions, including both last year and this.  In the female competition, the GLOWS took 9th overall.  (The national champion for 2011 was Hutchinson, Minnesota.)  The girls have been in top ten for the past twelve seasons, with a top finish of 2nd, in 2003.

Team rankings are determined based on entries completed in the spring.  Coaches fill in their best dual meet line up, with three athletes in each individual event, and two entries in each relay.  Each time is then converted to a point value according to a scale and those values are totaled to get a team score.  “When a kid scores 100 points or more in an event, you’re talking some fast swimming or excellent diving,” commented Head Coach Claude Valle.

The boys had twelve, 100-point performances.  Seniors Will Brewer and Nick Peacher, juniors Tyler Lewtan and Kian Nowrouzi, sophomores Jack Blyzinskyj, Ryan Burrow, Ian Delaney, Jamie Packs, and Tommy Peacher, and freshman Sam Cekala, each cracked the century mark in at least one individual event.  Blyzinskyj’s 53.14 clocking in the 100-yard backstroke was the highest rated performance on the team, garnering 130 points, though Packs’ 255.65 score in diving (for 128 points), and Lewtan’s 52.90 in the butterfly (124 points) weren’t far behind.

Rookie Diving Coach Luke Henesy’s trio provided Weston with its top event; it was the only event in which all three boys – Packs, Brewer, and Nowrouzi – scored 100 points or more.  The boys’ top relay was their state champion, 1:28.55 swim in the 200 freestyle relay.  That combine of Blyzinskyj, Lewtan, Delaney, and Tommy Peacher recorded 399 points.

Seven other athletes made big contributions to the team total.  Seniors Jonny Greb, Fred Lee, and Ryan Szeto, junior Tommy Fitzgerald, sophomores Drew Alcaide and Geoffrey Pendergast, and freshman Jamie Noonan, each filled critical roles in leading to Weston’s 4,569-point total.

In the girls’ competition, the GLOWS posted five 100-point performances on the female scale.  Seniors Cheryl Lang and Dale Ziobro, junior Bianca Tocci, and sophomore Camille Casey each hit triple digits in the competition at least once.  Tocci – the EMass girls’ swimmer of the year – was the top scorer based on her 24.09 performance in the 50 free (good for 137 points) and 52.08 in the 100 free (138 points).  Ziobro’s January Pool Record of 376.15 for 11 dives was good for 128 team points, and led the way in Weston’s strongest event.  (Casey tallied 108 points and junior Eliza Robson notched 98.)

Weston’s top relay was their pool record-setting 200 freestyle relay quartet.  Last January, less than half an hour after Ziobro’s new diving mark, the foursome of senior Seena Potter, freshman Victoria Bryson, Lang, and Tocci stormed to a shocking time of 1:38.89, good for a whopping 420 points on the NISCA scale.  (Prior to that race, the team’s best time was 1:44.47.)  “That’s easily the most improbable school record we’ve ever posted,” said Valle.

Other significant contributions to the Weston total were made by senior Trish Blanchard, juniors Laura Beaudry, Kate Bui, Julia Meehan, and Stephanie Palocz, sophomore Katie Kim, and freshmen Wendy Dong, Anna Neufeld, Hart Rippe, and Rachel Yan.  Each filled key slots that led to Weston’s 4,128-point total.

Head Coach Claude Valle was pleased with the pacing of both squads: “Our boys had a very strong dual meet team and it showed in the rankings; two years in a row at 2nd is pretty darn impressive.  And nobody gave our girls a shot to be even a .500 team in the DCL before the season started, so to be 9th nationally is simply fantastic.  I couldn’t be more proud of our kids.”