Horoho making a big impact for Middlebury College

BY BILL ARSENAULT

Jake Horoho has had some big games in goals for the Middlebury men’s hockey team this season and the junior will need one of his biggest when the seventh-seed Panthers face No. 4 Trinity Saturday in the semifinals of the New England Small College Athletic Conference Tournament in Hartford, Conn.

Horoho, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior from East Greenwich who played junior hockey with the South Shore Kings (Mass.) had 32 saves in a 5-1 upset victory over No. 2 seed Bowdoin last Saturday in Brunswick, Me. That is the seventh time that he has picked up 30plus saves in a game.

Middlebury (8-13-4) played Trinity twice during the NESCAC regular season, losing 3-2 on Jan. 6 and 3-2 in overtime on Feb. 3. Horoho had 19 saves in the first game and 32 in the second.

On the season, Horoho has played in 20 games with 17 starts and is 7-9-3 with two shutouts. He has given up 46 goals (2.47 goals against average) and has 515 saves (.918 save percentage).

Joziah Fry (Coventry) The junior wrestler hopes that history repeats itself when the Johnson & Wales standout competes in the Division III NCAA Mideast Regional this Saturday and Sunday in Worcester, Mass. The Coventry High graduate finished 43-0 and captured the Division III 125-pound championship to earn All-american honors last season. This season, Fry is 28-1 and is ranked first in the Mideast Region and first in the latest Division III rankings. The Division III Championship will be held March 15-16 in La Crosse, Wisc.

Hannah Benevides (Hope Valley)

The junior led the Rhode Island women’s swim team to its best finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship last week in Hampton, Va. The Rams finished 10th with 148 points. The Chariho Regional graduate finished sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.52. She finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:15.25. Benevides, who earned 25 team points in the two events, also picked up points for helping the 400 medley relay finish ninth (3:47.45) and the 200 medley relay finish 11th (1:44.00).

Haley Oliver (Coventry)

The Rhode Island College sophomore was named the Little East Conference Women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year on Feb. 21. The Coventry High graduate established school records in the mile (5:07.26) and 3,000-meter run (10:17.89). She won both of those events at the LEC Indoor Championship. She recorded that mile record when she finished 12th at the Division III New England Championship last Sunday in Boston.

Mike Macchioni (North Kingstown)

The Fitchburg (Mass.) junior scored just one goal last week but Monday he was named Massachusetts State Athletic Conference Player of the Week. The goal came nine minutes into overtime to give the Falcons a 2-1 victory and earn a berth in the conference championship against Plymouth State Saturday in Plymouth, N.H. A graduate of the Kents Hill School (Maine) , he has five goals and six assists for Fitchburg which will take a 15-9-2 record into the title match.

Kaylie Armitage (Exeter)

The junior is a standout cross country and distance runner for the Furman women’s track team, but the La Salle Academy graduate didn’t run a race at the Southern Conference Championship last weekend in Lexington, Va. The Paladins don’t have a shot put performer and Armitage filled in an finished 16th with a toss of 22 feet, 7 inches. She finished second in the mile in last year’s meet. In the spring, Armitage usually performs in the 800, 1000, mile and 3,000. But now, she may just add the shot put to her events.

Rylee Shunney Greenwich)

The Massachusetts freshman finished seventh out of 30 entrants in the mile in her first appearance at the Atlantic 10 Conference Indoor Track Championship last weekend in Virginia Beach, Va. The East Greenwich High graduate was the first freshman to cross the line, coving the distance with a time of 5:03.94. Shunney also ran the anchor leg on the DMR which finished fifth with a time of 11:53.28. The DMA time qualified the Minutewomen to compete in the IC4A/ECAC Championship next month.

Tim Andrews Greenwich)

The freshman helped the Bryant men’s swim team finish second in the Amer

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(East ica East Conference Swim Championship Feb. 14-17 in Lexington, Va. The Bishop Hendricken High graduate finished seventh in the 200 butterfly (1:50.86), eighth in the 100 butterfly (49.17) and 11th in the 200 IM (1:52.20). His twin brother, Nick, swam the leadoff leg on the 4x800 relay which finished third (6:43.34). The Bulldogs finished behind Binghamton with 709.5 points.

Ryan O’donnell (Wakefield)

The 5-foot-10 freshman forward played in 16 games for the Nichols (Mass.) men’s hockey team, the Bison finishing 6-16-4 on the season. The South Kingstown High graduate picked up his first collegiate point when he had an assist on the team’s only goal in a 1-1 tie with Western New England on Nov. 11. O’donnell scored his first collegiate goal in a 4-2 victory over Worcester State on Dec. 5 and came back four days later to score his second collegiate goal in a 5-3 loss to Umass-dartmouth.

Anna Nichipor Greenwich)

The 5-foot-3 freshman scored the first goal of the game, but the Suffolk women’s hockey team dropped its final game of the season to Curry on Feb. 16. The game ended 1-1, but Curry captured the shootout 3-2 and the Rams finished 8-152 overall and 7-9-2 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. Nichipor, a graduate of the Lawrence (Mass.) School, finished with six points on three goals and three assists. She scored her first collegiate goal in a 5-1 victory over Umass-boston on Nov. 21.

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