George Stevens AcademyEAGLES

Spring Post-season Scrapbook

Special Pull-out Section to

The Weekly PacketJune 26, 2014

Inside:Girls tennis

2

Softball3

Track3

Baseball4

Senior Edward Lameyer plays first doubles in the semifinals against Fort Kent.

The team brings home the Class C Eastern title. Front, from left: Tate Yoder, Coach Larry Gray, Alex Heilner, Edward Lameyer, Nate Boechat, Tim Dentino, Rowan Levangie-Thomas, Lucas Theoharidis, and Beowulf Urban. Photo courtesy of Michelle Yoder

Penobscot Bay PressCommunity Information Services

Eagles boys tennis team crowned Eastern Maine Class C championsWin fourth in a row, 10th title in 13 years

By ANNE BERLEANTBLUE HILL—It was business as usual

for the boys tennis team. They played for, and won, the Class C regional champion-ships, shutting out Madawaska in a severe fashion.

“Our best play of the tournament was the Eastern Maine final, where we won 5-0 over Madawaska,” said Coach Larry Gray. “The whole team played to their potential in that match.”

Senior and first singles player Alex Heilner refused his opponent even one game, posting a 6-0, 6-0 straight sets win, while senior Ed Lameyer and sophomore Lucas Theoharidis continued their domi-

nance in first doubles, rolling over their op-ponents 6-2, 6-3.

In all, the Eagles didn’t drop a set in the finals. In fact, the team dropped only one match on the road to the regional fi-nals—a tough first singles loss against Fort Kent in the semis—after rolling over Deer Isle-Stonington 5-0. They fell to four-peat champions Waynflete in the state finals. The Eagles have faced Waynflete nine times at the states since 2002; they won against the South Portland team in 2004.

“I thought we competed hard and played decent tennis, but [Waynflete] is probably one of the top three teams in the state, irre-gardless of class,” Gray said.

The 2014 tournament wins capped a sea-son that ended with a #2 ranking and a 10-2 regular season record. Their only losses came against Class B teams Ellsworth and Mount Desert Island.

“The season overall was a very success-ful and enjoyable one,” said Gray. “I car-ried 17 boys on the varsity team, five of them being seniors.”

In addition to Heilner and Lameyer, se-nior squad members were Tianjian (Leo) Yuan, Jinran (Terry) Tian and Xingjian (Jack) Gong.

“Both Alex [Heilner] and Ed [Lameyer]will be missed. They were both excellent players and leaders while in our program,” Gray said. “Alex has been a singles player for us for all of his four years at GSA.”

Looking ahead to next year, Gray sees Tate Yoder and Nate Boechat continuing in singles, “and we have a number of candi-dates for any open positions. We have plen-ty of depth in the program to be competitive for the foreseeable future.”

Senior Alex Heilner returned in the top singles spot this year; above, he returns against Fort Kent in the semifinals. Photos by Franklin Brown

2 Spring Post-season Sports, June 26, 2014 The Weekly Packet

Top-ranked Eagles girls make run for Class C regional titleTeam falls to Van Buren in close matches

By ANNE BERLEANTBLUE HILL—The Eagles girls tennis

team rolled through post-season tourna-ment play, swinging to 5-0 wins over Mat-tanawcook in the quarterfinals and Sumner in the semifinals, before pushing against second-ranked Van Buren at the Class C re-gional championships.

This year, it was “game here or there” in

close matches that cost the Eagles the re-gional crown, Coach Tim Farrar said. They lost 1-4, with third singles player Sophia Chen the sole match win, after a close first doubles match that saw the Eagles up 5-2 in the second set, down one set, before losing 6-7 in a close tiebreaker.

The Eagles are “one-and-one in finals” against Van Buren, Farrar said.

With a 10-2 season record, the Eagles went into the post-season ranked first, with Van Buren a close second. That top ranking, Farrar said, is “interesting, because it’s how

well we play but also how well our oppo-nents play.” The girls have held the same 10-2 record in recent years, yet their rank-ing has been anywhere from first to fifth place.

In tournament play leading up to the re-gional championship, “they played well” against #9 Mattanawcook in the quarters and fifth-ranked Sumner in the semis, Far-rar said.

The regional finals were the first time all season the Eagles played Van Buren, but whether that hurt the team or not, Farrar wasn’t sure. “It’s hard to say over the long course. They were very strong,” replacing

only their #7 player this year. At the same time, the hours-long drive between the two schools is reason not to meet during the reg-ular season.

Looking ahead to next year, the top two singles spots are open. Chen, a junior play-ing third singles, lost only one match all season, Farrar said. “You would think she’d step up” to first singles next year.

First doubles players Adrian Van der Eb and Maddie Politte are definite contenders to fill the second and third singles, but Far-rar isn’t making any decisions yet.

“It’s pretty wide open. Just because you played varsity [this year] doesn’t mean you step up.”

What makes the Eagles tennis teams, both girls and boys, strong teams, Farrar said, is practicing outside of the spring

Seniors, from left, Charlotte Reiter and Maggie Keating will leave the number one and two single spots open. Photos by Franklin Brown

Second doubles team player Clare Yue plays hard for the semifinal win against Sumner.

Third singles player Sophia Chen swings in her semifinal match against Sumner.

Maddie Politte, first doubles player, returns against Sumner in the semifinals.

sports season. “I think a lot of our success...is won and lost in the off season. The teams are very consistent over the years—we try and stay competitive.”

“I think a lot of our success...is won and lost in the off season. The teams are very consistent

over the years—we try and stay competitive.”—Eagles girls tennis coach Tim Farrar.

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The Weekly Packet Spring Post-season Sports, June 26, 2014 3

GSA track team strides toward successSenior leadership and underclassmen performances make for solid season

By TEVLIN SCHUETZBLUE HILL—The Eagles track team

set a strong pace during the season and followed through with solid finishes at the Penobscot Valley Conference and state championships.

GSA came in first place for both boys and girls teams at the Hancock County Small School Meet last month and then captured third and ninth places at the PVCs for boys and girls, respectively.

“We had [an] engaged team of 70 ath-letes [and] really strong senior leadership that helped the year go well,” Coach Erich Reed said.

One factor to this season’s success and a great outlook for the future is freshmen involvement. “We had a surprising amount

of freshman talent,” Reed said. “Half of our entries in the state meet were freshmen.”

Erik Taylor-Lash’s first place finish in the 1600-meter race walk was a highlight at the PVCs as were several second place finishes for the boys team: Finn Davis-Batt in the 400-meter dash; John Hassett in the 1600-meter run; Devlin Valle in the 3200-meter run; and Alex Taylor-Lash in pole vault. For the girls, Alice Dillon placed second in the 800-meter run, and the relay team of Dillon, Bella Cimeno, Hanna Jordan and Madison Cole placed second in the 4x800 relay. Cimeno also took third in the 300-meter hurdles.

The Eagles went on to perform well on June 7 at the state finals in Dover-Foxcroft, with solid runs on the girls’ side including sixth place finishes in the hurdles by Bella Cimeno and in the 800-meter run by Alice Dillon.

On the boys team, Finn Davis-Batt placed fourth in the 400-meter dash, and John Hassett finished sixth in the 1600-me-ter run. Seniors were a strong presence as

Softball team edges into last slot in play-offsOusted in prelim game by last-ditch surge by Madawaska

By ANNE BERLEANTBLUE HILL—The Eagles girls softball

team finished the regular season at 6-10 and, just like in 2013, edged into the fi-nal play-off slot through a clutch 9-8 win against Deer Isle-Stonington and losses by teams ranked above them in the last games of regular season play.

They ended the year ranked 10th and faced seventh-ranked Madawaska in the preliminary play-off game without home field advantage.

The girls rallied to a 9-4 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, final inning with Madawaska at bat, powered by three singles and four RBIs by Kassandra Rouff. Olivia Stevenson singled three times, with Katrina Limeburner and Lily Cox singling twice. But, in an edge-of-your-seat finish, Madawaska scored five runs in that final inning, edging out the Eagles for the quar-terfinal berth.

The team was hardworking, Coach Chris Niles said at the start of the season, but young, with no seniors on the roster. However, veteran juniors Rouff, Megan Nowland and Adreanna Simmons helped power the team and sophomores Cox, Ste-venson and Allyson Snow added their ex-

perience.The five freshmen on the roster this

year—catcher Morgan Dauk, Melanie Hipsky, Alissa Muise, Sarah Mullen and

Senior Philip Shaheen, left, passes the baton to freshman Careron Gordon in the 4x400 me-ter relay, placing third in that event at the Hancock County Small Meet at Bucksport. At the Penobscot Valley Conference, with senior Devon Oppedisano and junior Finn Davis-Batt on the team, they placed fourth and qualified for the state meet. Photo by Franklin Brown

Adreanna Simmons throws a pitch against Mount Desert Island, leading up to the post season tournament. Photo by Franklin Brown

Allyson Snow hands off to Megan Nowland against Bucksport.Photo by Franklin Brown

Bella Cimeno placed first in the 300-meter hur-dles at the Han-cock County Small School Meet at Bucksport on May 23, left. She fol-lowed this up with a third place finish in the same event at the Penobscot Valley Conference championships on June 2. Photo by Frank-lin Brown

well. Devon Oppedisano qualified for the 110-meter hurdles, and Philip Shaheen was a member of two qualifying relay teams. Fellow senior Stephen Krichels qualified as part of the 4x100 meter relay team and in the long jump. The boys team placed 15th out of 30 schools.

A high note of the season was the addi-tion of pole vault to the GSA program and the coaching assistance of parent-volunteer Mike Sealander. “This was the first time

in our program’s history that we had pole vault, so we had some pole vaulters who had some success,” Reed said.

And next season? “Kids are definitely looking forward to it,” Reed said. “We have some pretty focused and ambitious athletes, and we have a lot of kids on the team to im-prove their fitness and do something social. We do our best to support both the compet-itive athletes and the students who want to be introduced to a new sport and get fit.”

Emma Weed—had not played much going into the season, Niles said. So, looking for-ward to next year, a team could shape up with seniors and juniors on the field with

two or three years of team playing behind them, and sophomores who know what it takes to compete.

4 Spring Post-season Sports, June 26, 2014 The Weekly Packet

Eagles baseball powers into contention for the Class C regional titleFalls to Washington Academy in championship game

By ANNE BERLEANTBLUE HILL—With a 14-5

record and a deep play-off run behind them, the Eagles base-ball team finished above their season-end ranking of fourth.

In the play-off tournaments, the Eagles first faced fifth-ranked Mattanawcook in the quarterfinals. The game, tied at the end of the seventh, fin-ished with a 5-4 score in favor of GSA, after senior Anthony Bianco hit the game-win-ning RBI in the eighth. The victory set up a semifinal match-up against top-ranked Bucksport, who had posted a 6-2 win over the Eagles at the end of the regular season for a 2-0 record against GSA going into the play-offs.

In their play-off match up, the Eagles and Bucksport were tied 2-2 going into the seventh inning. GSA scored three runs only to see Bucksport match them in the bot-tom of the seventh. In the top of the eighth, the Eagles brought in two runs for the 7-5 upset over the #1 Golden Bucks, to set up an Eastern regional title game against sec-ond-ranked Washington Academy.

The team celebrates its quarterfinal win.

At left, senior Cooper Smallidge swings for a hit against Mattanaw-cook. At right, senior Anthony Bian-co throws out a pitch in the seventh inning against Mattanawcook. Photos by Franklin Brown

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But, the Eagles failed to score against Washington in their bid for the regional title, falling 0-3 to the team that would take the state title days later.

Coach Dan Kane, in his 26th season coaching at GSA, predicted a deep run in the playoffs at the season’s start, with a core of five seniors holding “important roles in

the line up” and “providing good leader-ship.”

Bianco led the team in pitching, with juniors Kelsey Allen and Will Ricker. The end of the season saw Bianco and fellow seniors Finn McMahon-Allwine, Cooper Smallidge, Tyler Webber and Justin Willis graduating from the team, but a solid core

of juniors and contributing underclassmen should re-turn next year.

The Eagles last won the Eastern Class C crown in 2009, and have captured three in the last 15 years along with the state title in 2003 and 2004.

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