Just a little more than two weeks into the spring sports season in WW-P, the season is already shaping up to be a good one.
The hottest teams right now are the North girls’ lacrosse and South tennis teams, both of which remain undefeated so far and were not scheduled to play on Thursday, April 15.
For the North girls’ lacrosse team, off to a 5-0 start, Jacquie Mihalyi has scored 16 goals and 6 assists so far. She leads the team in points, already having racked up 25. The girls defeated Robbinsville on April 13 to give coach Beth Serughetti her 100th career win.
Meanwhile, North’s boys (5-1) are also on top of their game, led by Todd Petrone who has scored 18 goals. Petrone has a total 25 points.
The Pirates — both boys and girls — have also played well, with the boys posting an opening record of 4-1 and the girls beginning with 5-1. For the boys, Alex Rohrbach already has 21 points.
The boys’ lacrosse teams face off on Saturday, April 17, at 1:30 p.m. at North. The girls will meet each other in May.
South tennis remains undefeated at 6-0 after overcoming North, 3-2, on April 7, handing North its only loss of the season so far.
In softball, this is the first year for the Knights in the Colonial Division, moving up after having taken home the Valley Division title four times in the school’s short history. So far, so good with a 6-1 record and a defeat of crosstown rival South, 7-1, on April 8.
The team has strong leadership in seniors Lexi Forsell and Alexandra Niciforo. Also leading the Knights this year are seniors Shiffa Rizki and Onaisa Rizki, juniors Kaitlyn Nelson, Jennifer Dowling, and Sydney Turchin, and sophomores Sarah Bush, Brianna King, Kaitlin Perrine, Taylor Phelan, Sara Rosenthal, and Emily Weinberg, as well as freshmen Samantha Buckley, Kristie O’Cone, and Jessica Pe.
In baseball, North (3-4) defeated South, 7-5, on April 10. Last season, the Knights went 23-4 — including a 14-1 performance in the Colonial Division — and took home their first NJSIAA Group III title.
But the team lost Scott Kelly, Mike Tartaro, Eric Rosenbaum, Eric Wisotsky, and John Sullivan, to graduation, as well as David Bachner, who died suddenly shortly after graduation.
The team has strong returning players, including senior pitcher Kyle Reed, and seniors Chet Otis, Ryan Billek, Ryan Phelan, Mike Voltmer, Chris Hase, Brandon Rodriguez, Andrew Vogt, and Varun Padmanabhan . Also returning are juniors Marcus Hendersen, Ethan Kaye, Ryan DeMouth, David Bizenov, Doug Dougherty, Chris Fania, Joe Jensen, Neal DeVincenzo, Tim Hui, and Greg Wiesbecker.
After a slow start, the boys have won three in a row.
South The Pirates began their season with a record of 1-6. They finished last year at 9-14. The prospects look food for the team this year, though, which returns 11 seniors including Jared Rubenstein, Jon Redmond, Zack Donohue, Phil Trachtenberg, Matt Redmond, Alex Nagler, Mike Skapyak, Ralph Aurora, Alex Campbell, Bobby Grbic, and Evan Smith.
A strong supporting core of juniors and sophomores will help boost the team’s chances of improving. They include juniors Adam Bacall and Joe Cirafici and sophomores Ben Ruta, Josh Rose, Ryan Dontas, Chris Campbell, and Chris Skolka. Freshman Paul Balestrieri joins the lineup this year.
Meanwhile, the North spring track season got off to a good start when Joe Rosa, Chris Banks, Jon Squeri, and Jim Rosa combined to finish first, with a time of 10:19.59, at the inaugural Blue Devils Distance Medley Qualifier in Westfield on April 1. The boys will also return Corey Abernathy at shot put.
For South, Sam Macaluso, Brian Schoepfer, Max Margiotta, and Nick Schmidt are also returning.
The golf teams at both schools are also off to good starts. North’s boys took first place, with a score of 223, at the Cherry Valley Invitational on April 12 behind the performances of Charles Cai, who finished 1-under-par 71 and Dan Trink, who finished with 75.
