While the students had a nice extended break, the winter athletes were busy representing our teams over the Holiday break! From hockey winning three games in Boston and basketball capturing the Winter Snow Jam, it was a successful span for the Green Knights winter teams.
Basketball — Coach Shea’s squad has gotten off to a fast start, both in their record and scoring totals. Notre Dame has won their first five games and have scored 75 or more points in four of the five games. In fact, the Green Knights scored 196 points in less than 24 hours in the two Christmas tournament wins. ND beat Holy Cross and Stamford in that event and also has wins over Amity, East Lyme and cross town rival West Haven on Friday, January 3. Zach Laput has led the way averaging over 25 points per game.
Hockey — The hockey team is also off to a great start. After a season opening win over Immaculate, the Green Knights went to Boston to play in the Catholic Memorial Christmas Tournament. They won all three games to come home with the hardware. After a 5-3 win over Bishop Feehan, John-Michael Childs scored the lone shootout goal as ND beat the host school 4-3. Connor Smith then made 29 saves in a 1-0 win over Valor Christian from Colorado. Then, ND erupted for four second-period goals in a 5-1 win over Hamden on New Year’s Day and followed that up with a come-from-behind 3-2 win at Simsburty on Saturday. John D’Errico scored with 3:10 left to break a 2-2 tie.
Indoor Track — With teams from all across the nation competing at the Hispanic Games, Jared Russo came in sixth place in the high hurdles. Russo set a personal record completing the event in 7.94 seconds. He was the top Connecticut finisher in this event. A quartet of freshmen made their presence felt also. Cayden Drost placed third in the high hurdles. Malcolm Benton and Donovan Davis placed fourth and fifth in the dash and the trio combined with Jalen Sutton ‘23 to take third place in the 4×200 relay. Russo won the same event at the SCC Developmental on December 23 while Max Bothwell placed second in the pole vault, clearing 12-feet.
Swimming — Alex Ozonoff and Sean McDermott have swam well and won their mainstay events but the Notre Dame swim team has lost a pair of close decisions to West Haven on December 20, 2019 and Lyman Hall/Coginchaug on January 3, 2020. Ozonoff has won both the 200 and 500 freestyle events in both meets. McDermott has won the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM at both meets.
Wrestling — Luis Stephenson had the match of the season so far. Trailing 39-36 heading into the final match against Cheshire, Stephenson was matched up against the Rams’ Zach Coleman. Stephenson would via pin to give Notre Dame a thrilling 42-39 win. The wrestlers also finished second at the Law Duals on Dec. 28, where they went 3-1 on the day. Jackson Paulishen has been a force winning the majority of his matches.
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