Sports
Boys High School Sports Round-Up
Enfield basketball in the semi-finals, hockey victory and defeat and a preview of the swimming championship are included here. The E.O. Smith/Tolland co-op team will compete in the Class L meet on Tuesday at Wesleyan.
ONE GAME AWAY
The Enfield boy’s basketball team is one game from the Class M finals at Mohegan Sun. The Raiders reached the semifinals on a game-winning three-point play by Hugh Lindo (11 points), which lifted them to a 52-50 victory over a stubborn Ansonia team Friday night.
The Raiders got 21 points from Tre Preston and 18 points from Paul Lima.
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The victory sets up a semifinal meeting with Career Magnet-New Haven at Central Connecticut State University on Tuesday.
Career (22-1) beat Weaver-Hartford in another tight quarterfinal game and relies on the inside-outside combination of Kevin Hoff and Brandyn Benson and wing Treyvon Moore. The Panthers play defense and make free throws and should be every bit as difficult an opponent as Ansonia.
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Enfield has a great equalizer in its ability to make threes and its tournament experience. Plus they have Preston, who has not yet found an opponent who can guard him the entire game. Career will no doubt match him against Benson, which will be a fierce game within a game.
THE ROLLING WAVE & ROCKVILLE-MANCHESTER DISAPPOINTMENT
The Windsor-Avon-East Granby team has reached the semifinals of the Division III hockey playoffs.
The Wave advanced with a 3-1 victory over Newtown Thursday. Adam Lebowitz scored two goals and Jeffrey Demers scored another, scooping up a rebound after Nicolas Berns stole the puck in the Newtown end.
The Wave (17-4) had solid goaltending in Ed Burke, especially early. Burke stopped a wrist shot from the right side just three minutes in and managed to recover for the rebound to preserve a scoreless game.
The Wave will play Staples-Weston-Shelton at Yale University on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
The line between success and disappointment is thin in the state playoffs. Those looking for evidence need only examine the Rockville-Manchester-Staffordhockey team, which lost 6-5 in overtime to Northwest Catholic-West Hartford in the first round of the Division III playoffs. Northwest Catholic, meanwhile, has made it to the semifinals leaving Rockville-Manchester-Stafford fans to wonder what might have been.
SWIMMING PRELIMS
The E.O. Smith/Tolland co-op team will compete in the Class L meet on Tuesday at Wesleyan. Junior Alex Tomanelli is the top seeded swimmer for the team. He swam the ninth best qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke.
East Catholic senior Jonathan Burr swam the fastest qualifying time in the 200-yard freestyle at the Class S boys swimming preliminary meet Saturday in Plainville. The championship meet is Wednesday at Wesleyan University.
Burr finished in 1 minute, 46.67 seconds. Suffield sophomore Kyle Eheander was third in 1:47.66 and Burr’s teammate, junior Tim Dion, was fifth in the event in 1:49.44. Burr also finished fourth in qualifying in the 100 butterfly.
East Catholic had several high qualifiers. The team of Burr, Dion, Joe O’Neill and Dylan Demers will be seeded third in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.
Suffield’s Eheander had the second best qualifying time in the 500 freestyle (4:59.04) and will be joined in the race by teammate Nick Gervais, who is seeded fifth (5:07.27).
Manchester will compete in the Class LL meet, also on Wednesday. Sean Murphy is the Indians top qualifier. He is in the 200 and 500 freestyle
