LET S GO JETS!!! Hi Everybody! The winter athletic season is coming to a close for the East Meadow Jets. We have had some great successes on the court/mat/track/alley and we re not done yet. Several of our teams are still competing and looking for more. Here is an update: Last Wednesday East Meadow High School recognized six senior student/athletes on National Letter of Intent signing day. By signing each student has committed to a Division 1 or 2 school and will be participating in their athletic program next year. Family and friends joined us for an acknowledgement of this exciting moment. Signing last week were: Brandon Noblett Football Bucknell Jessica Widmann Women s Soccer Fordham Luisa Echeverry Women s Soccer Hofstra Gabriella Fuduli Women s Soccer Iona Jamie Laird Softball Dowling Samantha Miller Softball C.W. Post As a side note, the signing day led to some research on alumni and athletics. I am proud to say that we presently have over 65 former students competing in athletic programs at the collegiate level. Not too bad! The varsity girls basketball team is still hoping to earn a playoff spot. The ladies defeated Port Washington last Friday by a score of 39-25. Jen Gundrum kept the boards clean with 12 rebounds while Danielle Widmann led the team with 7 steals. Excellent foul shooting by Melissa Cohen helped seal the game in the final minutes. Yesterday the team lost to a tough Herricks squad 47-42. Melissa had 16 points and Meghan Cleary contributed 8 in the defeat.
The JV girls lost to Port 38-33 despite scoring from 7 different players. Unfortunately, we didn t score enough. Rebecca Alzfan had a team high 8 points with Marrol Cajoles, Amanda Franzese, and Brittany Piket adding 5 each. Against Herricks yesterday the team came out on the short end of a 48-32 score. Down only 5 heading into the 4 th quarter, injuries and fouls hurt the chances of a comeback. Rebecca had another big game with 16 points while Amanda scored 8 and was a force rebounding the ball. The boys track team was at St. Anthony s last Sunday competing in the conference championships. In a tightly contest meet the Jets fell just short and placed 2 nd as a team. Leading the way for the team were Conference Champions Chris Garzia (55 hurdles/triple jump), Tom Ford (long jump), and Tom Milian (pole vault). Scoring valuable points were All Conference athletes Sean Grady (1000 and 1600) And Brian Hui (600). The team is looking for a top 3 finish at the county championships tonight at St. Anthony s. Last Thursday the girls track team finished 2 nd to Mac Arthur at their conference championship. Champs included Rachel Levy (3000) and Amanda Ashe (1500). Solid performances by Nilam Patel (2 nd 3000), Karissa Stankes (3 rd 3000), Caitlin Langan (3 rd triple jump), Anna Cantar (2 nd long jump), Michelle Steinberg (2 nd pole vault), and Jennifer Flores (3 rd 55 hurdles) earned All Conference honors. The ladies will also be at the county championships tonight. The varsity boys basketball team had an exciting week. On Friday 1/28 the Jets traveled to Baldwin High School to take on the #3 ranked team on Long Island (#9 in the state). To add to the excitement, the game was taped and televised on Verizon FIOS (and will be replayed for the next few weeks, so Jet fans can continue to watch the game). After an even first half of play the Jets had a tough 3 rd quarter and fell behind by 16 entering the 4 th. A furious comeback by East Meadow cut the lead to six points with one minute to play, but the unfortunately the rally fell short and the Jets lost 62-55. The team looks forward to getting another shot at Baldwin come playoff time. The Jets were led by Rob Franzese s 17 points and 15 by Nick
Slevin. Strong efforts defensively by Kyle Berger, Chris Melnyczuk, and Rob Bocchetti shut down what many believe to be the strongest backcourt on Long Island. Last week the team traveled to Port Washington and defeated the Vikings 64-43, assuring themselves of a playoff berth. The Jets had four players in double figures, led by Nick Slevin (20), Jeff Angelino (15), sophomore Joe Campay (11), and Rob Franzese (10). Rob has scored in the double digits in every game this season. Kyle Berger again put in an outstanding defensive performance, holding one of the top guards in Nassau County to 2 second half points. With three games remaining in the regular season, the Jets look to secure one of the top 6 seeds in upcoming playoffs and a home opening round game on 2/18. Currently tied for second place in the conference with Mac Arthur, the teams will meet in the last game of the regular season on 2/14. The JV Jets continue to remain competitive in a strong conference. Darius Jenkins and Rich Renkl have been the leading scorers by averaging 10 and 12 points per game, respectively. The team has also had significant contributions from Chris Rosa, Will Spector, and Eddie Wilkowski. With 3 games remaining the boys look forward to a strong finish. On Saturday, the boys varsity bowling team took home 4 th place out of 16 at the Nassau County Championships. The Jets were lead by Andrew Gold with a 1320 total pin fall for 6 games (220 avg.), followed by Jeff Juarez with a 1282 (214). Vinny Napolitano contributed 1245 (208) and Matt Newman added a 1024 (205) for 5 games. Congratulations to Coach Ghirardi and the entire team for a strong season and conference championship. Finally, as I noted last week the wrestling team was on quite a roll in dual meet competition. The team won 10 of 11 dual meets and secured championships at two tournaments the Clarke duals and the East Meadow Jet duals. The only loss came to rival Massapequa, the recently crowned Nassau County Dual Meet champions, by a score of
42-30. That night East Meadow honored its nine graduating seniors and welcomed back close to 50 former grapplers for Alumni Night. Also during that span of matches senior Andrew Danziger, Nassau County s #1 ranked 215 lb. wrestler, earned his 100 th career victory. Andrew pinned his opponent from Bay Shore at the Clarke Duals to become only the 11 th Jets wrestler to reach the 100 win milestone. Andrew now has 109 victories and counting This weekend the Jets placed 2 nd as a team at the Nassau County Qualifying Tournament held at Long Beach. Twelve Jet wrestlers placed in the top four of their weight class to secure entrance to the Nassau County Championships which are to be held at Hofstra this weekend. Champions were Chris Dolan (130), Evan Pantofel (160), and Andrew Danziger (215). Sophomore Matt Power (119) had a strong showing with a second place finish. Third place finishes were earned by Brandon Cohen (96), Sal Vallone (103), Vinny Pannullo (112), Michael Tropiano (140), Nolan Travis (145), and Christian Parisi (189). Frank Clarke (103) and Phil Correale (135) qualified with their 4 th place finishes. There are a few contests left this season. Please join us to root on your East Meadow Jets. Think warm and sunny and..let S GO JETS!! HOME GAME SCHEDULE Wednesday 2/9 BJV BB vs. Herricks 5:00 BV BB vs. Herricks 7:00 Friday 2/11 BJV BB vs. Hicksville 4:30 BV BB vs. Hicksville 6:30 PACK THE HOUSE AND ALUMNI NIGHT
Monday 2/14 GJV BB vs. MacArthur 5:00 GV BB vs. MacArthur 7:00