Basketball sweeps week, including win at the buzzer against Hillhouse, Christian Fillion becomes first wrestler to get 100 victories, indoor track places sixth at SCC Championship Meet, hockey splits the week, and swimming fell in their lone meet of the week in a busy late January week of Notre Dame sports.
Wrestling — It’s hard to do something for the first time in school history, especially at a school like Notre Dame, whose rich athletic tradition dates back to the 1950’s. However, Christian Fillion did exactly that as he notched three wins at the Foran duals, which increased his win total to 101 for his career. In addition to being the first four-year wrestler in school history, Fillion etches his name into the wrestling record books becoming the first to reach the 100-win plateau.
As a team, the Green Knights beat Stratford and Oxford while falling to Killingly in three separate dual matches. Earlier in the week, the four Notre Dame wrestling seniors (Fillion, Jeff Bracale, Khorbin Kern, and Ron Quagliani, each won their final home match on Senior Night but the Green Knights eventually lost the SCC Division II match to Amity 38-24 on Jan. 29.
Basketball — Coach Shea’s squad moved to 16-0 with a three-win week, including a buzzer-beating win over Hillhouse on Friday, when Zach Laput found Connor Raines for a layup and 42-40 come-from-behind win. Raines and Laput then combined for 22 first-quarter points in an 85-33 win over East Haven the following afternoon. The week started with a 77-52 win over Shelton where the Green Knights seized control with a 15-0 run in the first quarter, where Notre Dame held Shelton to six points.
Indoor Track — Led by four third-place finishes, the Notre Dame indoor track team placed sixth at the SCC Championship Meet held on Friday at the New Haven Athletic Center. This was an eight-team jump from the Green Knights 14th-place finish last February. Notre Dame scored 36 points during the meet. Hillhouse won the meet with 78 points. Cross and Xavier rounded out the top three teams.
Head Coach Glenn Xavier received third-place finishers from the following: Warren Murphy in the 300-meter dash; Jason Sawicki in the high jump; Johan Klein-Robbenhaar in the shot put; and the 4×400 relay team (Murphy, Daniel Range, Neel Agir, and Christian Panagrossi.
Swimming — Bill Hinckley and Alex Ozonoff won two individual events, however, the swim team fell 95-73 in an SCC Meet with Shelton on Jan. 28 at the Shelton Community Pool. Ozonoff, swimming against his hometown team, won the 200 freestyle in 1:57.77 and the 500 freestyle in 5:14.82. Meanwhile, Hinckley won his two specialties as well touching the wall first in the 50 freestyle (24.39) and 100 freestyle (53.17). The Green Knights, now 2-5 on the season, also won the 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay.
Hockey — The hockey team finally returned to the ice following an 11-day layoff when they hosted Greenwich and Hamden in the span of 48 hours. The result was a split, beating Greenwich, 4-1, while falling to Hamden, 5-2.
Two goals in a 90-second span late in the second period led to an eventual 4-1 non-league win over Greenwich at the Bennett Rink on Thursday.
Charlie Andriole and Jack Luzzi scored to give the Green Knights a 3-1 with 52 seconds left in the second period. Luzzi added an empty netter to finalize the win. Justin Childs and John D’Errico gave Notre Dame a 2-1 lead over Hamden early in the second period but Hamden erupted for four goals over the final 10 minutes to earn a 5-2 win and split the season series between the two teams.
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