The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Some heady times for area teams
February is still young, and yet the area’s high school scene already has a state champion in indoor track (Xavier), conference champs in wrestling (Xavier) and gymnastics (Mercy), and a boys basketball team (Cromwell) two wins away from a 20-0 season.
And there could be bigger rewards ahead for others, too. Time for a spin around the county.
** Xavier won the CIAC Class L indoor title on Friday night, its first at the state level in 20 years. On Saturday, the Falcons’ 4x800 relay team, one of the fastest in the nation, checked in at the Millrose Games at the Armory in New York.
Pierre Sylvain, Ryan Grochowski, Peter Schulten and Will Curran on the anchor leg turned in another 8-minute performance, a time that got them a Millrose invitation two weeks ago. They finished in 8:00.34, eighth in the 12-team field. Xavier was the only Connecticut representative in the relay.
“The experience was really neat, just to be in the same building as professional and top collegiate athletes,” coach Chris Stonier said. “We went out to lunch afterward and went back to see the main event, the televised part. That was really neat.”
The winning time in the relay was a scorcher, 7:43 by St. Benedict’s Prep of Newark, a Millrose Games record by four seconds.
Sylvain and Grochowski also were part of the 4x800 race at the Class L meet in New Haven the night before, so they had little time to recover.
“Our performance at the Millrose, I think the guys did the best they could,” Stonier said. “A cou-
ple of them ran season best times. Ryan ran a personalbest split, but I could tell Friday night definitely took something out of them. That’s a lot of mental energy (used up) in a 24-hour span. We put a lot of attention on winning the Class L meet, so you could tell guys weren’t 100 percent sharp.”
Stonier and the Falcons’ four were grateful for everything the Millrose experience offered, but winning a state championship “means so much to the alumni and to the school,” the coach said.
“We kind of put aside our individual goals that day and really just tried to do whatever we could for the team. We brought 11 and all 11 scored. What more can you ask for as a coach?”
* *Xavier’s wrestling team won the Southern Connecticut Conference title for the third straight year in remarkable fashion Saturday. The six Falcons who reached the finals in their weight classes won them all.
The next stage is the Class L meet, which could be the most intriguing of the state finals. Xavier and Bristol Eastern have deep, well-tested teams. Eastern has won the last two L titles. Middletown is not as deep but is in the mix, having defeated Xavier and Bristol Eastern during the dual season.
All are ranked in the latest Wrestling Online Top 10 poll as well — Eastern third, MHS seventh and Xavier eighth, and No. 2 Simsbury is in Class L as well.
“It’s exciting to be in the position of being in the conversation,” Middletown coach Mark Fong said. “I would say we are definitely the underdogs in this situation, but from where we’ve come from since the beginning of the year, losing 57-6 to Simsbury, then to beat them in a tournament a couple of weeks ago, is a great accomplishment for my team. They have worked hard to get better.”
The CIAC will post seedings for each weight class in each state tournament on its website on Monday night. The Class L meet is Friday and Saturday at Bristol Central.
** Mercy takes a 12-game state winning streak into Monday’s basketball regular-season finale at East Haven, the last SCC team to beat the Tigers (54-52 on Jan. 4)
East Haven (16-3) projects as the top seed for the SCC tournament, which starts Thursday. Mercy (14-5 overall, 12-3 SCC) will be the four seed if it wins and five if it loses. Either way, pretty good considering its 2-4 start to the season.
“It’s a big game for us
just for momentum,” Tigers coach Tim Kohs said. “It would be nice to keep a positive vibe going.”
Mercy beat East Haven in last year’s SCC final before going on to win the Class LL championship. The Tigers are hovering as the 10th seed in the current LL rankings. They would get at least one home game in the tournament if they hold their spot.
One theme to the Tigers’ winning streak: They didn’t play well start to finish and still one those games.
“We are not loaded with super players at each spot, but I look at our competition and still think we can beat anyone on any given night,” Kohs said. “There is much more balance in LL field this year. We can play with all those teams, but we have to play well for a full 32 minutes.”
The SCC tournament pairings will be known after Wednesday’s games.
WCNX Radio (1710 AM, wcnxradio.com) will be in East Haven, with Dan Zumpano and Meghan DeVille calling the action. DeVille was the center on the 2018 Class LL title team.
ELSEWHERE IN THE SCHOOLS
** Junior Gabe Charleston had a 31-point game, his career high, and Nick Wright added 21 in Cromwell’s 80-58 win over Morgan on Friday.
“Morgan played some 3-2 zone against us and Gabe shot well from 15 feet, near the free-throw line or on corner jump shots,” Cromwell coach John Pinone said. “The second half, we were in transition a lot and he had some dunks and made good passes to guys for open shots. It was an up-and-down game in the second half and he’s much better in the open game.”
Only Haddam-Killingworth on Tuesday and Old Lyme (also unbeaten in the Shoreline) next Monday are in the way of a 20-0 regular season. Cromwell is 29-1 in its last 30 games, the one loss to East Hampton in the 2018 Shoreline tournament final. The Panthers, who won the Division V state title last March, are the only undefeated team in D-IV.
** The Portland girls (10-8) have played their way into the Shoreline and Class S tournaments by winning six of their last seven. Kaitlin Capello scored 21 and 17 in wins over Old Saybrook and Westbrook last week. Teammate Ashley Garen had 15 points, seven rebounds and six steals in the Westbrook game.
** After stagnating near .500, the Coginchaug girls (12-7) have won four in a row and are locked on the fifth seed in the Shoreline tournament. The defending Class S champs wrap up the regular season Monday night at home against North Branford.
** One down, four to go for the Middletown boys. The Blue Dragons (4-12) blew out Platt last week as Tejan Lanser hit seven 3-pointers and scored 29 points and Dante Pope had 21 after a 38-point game against Windsor last Monday. MHS needs to win its last four games to get into the state tournament, starting with Maloney at home Tuesday.
** Of the top six boys basketball teams in Division V, three are from the Shoreline. Valley Regional (12-4) is one of the three, and could be the dark horse in a field that includes Innovation (16-1), Old Lyme (14-1) and Somers (13-4) out front.
Valley bounced back from a six-point loss to Cromwell with a 53-38 win at Coginchaug on Friday. Gavin Grabowski, the team’s leading scorer, had a game-high 29 points. The Warriors’ best defensive effort came in that loss to Cromwell — they allowed only 42 points — and they didn’t have Grabowski, who was out because of illness.
“Grabowski’s 29 might have helped Tuesday,” coach Kevin Woods said in jest.
Watch out for the Warriors in March. Most of their impact players are juniors or younger.
“We’re kind of done with moral victories,” Woods said after the Cromwell game. “At the same time, the effort we put forward defensively, that’s a championship effort, or very capable of winning the Shoreline or at least compete for a title in the Shoreline and in Division V. This is a very hungry group. They are determined to get better and they will get better.”
** The Middletown girls visit highly regarded Berlin on Monday night with a berth in the CCC tournament on the line. This will be a tough one for the Blue Dragons (11-8), who will be in the Class LL field. Berlin’s two best players are junior combo player Lyzi Litwinko, who averages a double-double, and shooting guard Ashley Wenzel (18.1 ppg).
“They are a one-two punch that can play with anybody,” Middletown coach Rob Smernoff said. “The goal is to try to contain them and hope one is off. The night we played them here (a 62-54 Berlin win), neither one would miss.”
** Mercy AD Tim Kohs on the school winning the SCC championship in gymnastics in its fourth year as a varsity program: “The kids that are seniors have grown with the program. Winning the SCC is great for the school and it’s great when any new program does well. We added gymnastics because we want to offer kids different opportunities. It’s nice to see it reap some rewards.”
FRANK ROBINSON: 1935-2019
How I wish I had been old enough to see Frank Robinson play the game. His credentials are the stuff of lore: only player to win the MVP in both leagues; fourth on the all-time home run list at the time of his retirement, long before the steroid era infested the sport; and Major League Baseball’s first AfricanAmerican manager.
In his later years, he became MLB’s executive vice president of baseball development, with a focus on increasing AfricanAmerican participation in the sport. Taken together, his achievements put him in a category of one.
Many pieces written about Robinson in the days since his death Thursday at age 83 have characterized his career and contributions to the game as “underrated” or “underappreciated,” and they were. Why? It’s hard to comprehend. Who Frank Robinson was was summed up best in a story relayed by Jim Palmer, his Orioles teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, to the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy late last week.
“One night in Fenway, he hit a shot off the Wall that he thought was going to be out. He jogged out of the box. But the ball didn’t go out and Yaz played it for a single. We won the game, something like 9-4, so it didn’t really matter, but it mattered to Frank.
“When (manager) Earl (Weaver) got to his office after the game, there was a note from Frank and a couple of $100 bills. The note said, ‘I embarrassed the ball club, I embarrassed myself. It will never happen again.’”
THIS AND THAT
** I bumped into Shirley Salafia last week and she happily reports that husband Jake is doing well and watches wall-to-wall college basketball. Jake Salafia is 90 and among the most accomplished high school basketball coaches the area has ever known. Shirley said he takes in games when he can at the gym named after him at Cromwell High.
** Destiny Chandler was one of three Middletown seniors recognized before the team’s home finale Thursday. She was hurt in practice last week and did not appear in her team’s 52-40 win over Platt.
** Finally, Jim Palmer’s story is a stark contrast to what Manny Machado has in store for whichever team signs him as a free agent. The former Oriole told The Athletic recently that he isn’t “the type of player that’s going to be ‘Johnny Hustle’ and run down the line and slide to first base … that’s just not my personality, that’s not my cup of tea, that’s not who I am.”