Word from the Woods: Week of April 16

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Track and Field
Both the boys’ and girls’ track squads are off to fast, 5-0 starts to the season. Last week, both the boys and girls swept quad-meets from Seymour, Derby, and Sacred Heart before wiping out Wilby and North Branford on Tuesday. Both teams’ closest meets were against Seymour; the boys beat the Wildcats, 90.5-59.5 while the girls won, 80-70. Early standouts for the boys include the 4-by-800 and 4-by-100 relay teams, Brandon Fowler in the hurdles, Chris Savvidou in short distance, Tyler Murphy in long distance, and Dan Park in jumping. Stars for the girls include the 4-by-100 and 4-by-400 relay teams, Alyssa Marti in the hurdles, Brittany Battis in pole vault, and Crystal Steinfeld, Brittany Albright, and Melissa Kiley in long distance. Both squads take on Wolcott, Kennedy, and St. Paul next week.

Tennis
Like the Hawks’ track teams, both tennis squads have also started this spring undefeated. The girls are 4-0 with wins over Ansonia, Holy Cross, Wilby, and St. Paul, while the boys are unblemished with wins over Naugatuck, Kennedy, and Wilby. Ace Steph Badale is 3-1 in her second year as the number-one player, her lone loss coming to Holy Cross’ Dre Moschello. Number-two player Megan Wester is also 2-2 to start the season. Brooke Dragon is 3-1 and the team of Sam Angeloszek and Jill Pagoni is 4-0. For the boys, Mike Krakowski, Pat Bradley, and Stephen Pec are all undefeated in their first three matches. Krakowski and Bradley have made a formidable doubles team as well, going 3-0 as a duo. Both the boys and girls have tough tests against Torrington and Watertown in the next week.

Golf
The Woodland golfers narrowly lost their first match of the season, losing to Shepaug Valley on Monday by just two strokes, 192-194. Anthony Memoli was the medalist of the match, carding a 44 on the par-36 course at Oxford Greens. Pat O’Dell was second on the team with a 48, while Marissa Noto and Nick Veneri both posted scores of 51. Woodland’s lone match of the upcoming week is a showdown with Naugatuck on Thursday at Hop Brook.