Sports Roundup: Girls & Boys Swim Beat Nauset, Boys Hockey Loses At Home
David Creed •
This Whaler sports roundup includes updates on the girls & boys swim teams following wins on the road against Nauset, the boys hockey team following a home loss to Monomoy, the boys basketball team following a road loss to Barnstable, and the indoor track team.
Girls & Boys Swim Kick Season Off With Road Victory
The girls & boys swim teams earned victories on the road against the Nauset Warriors Thursday evening in their first meets of the winter season. The girls won 96-58 while the boys won 86-60.
There were several notable times achieved on Thursday, with some swimmers already approaching midseason form.
A sectional time of 2:05.15 was earned in the girls 200-yard medley relay featuring junior Sara Dussault, sophomore Evie Phelps, senior Martina Savova, and junior Myah Johnson.
Johnson also earned a state qualifying time in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 26.53. She earned a sectional time in the 100-yard freestyle as well (59.33).
Senior Jake Johnson also earned a state qualifying time in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 23.47
Dussault swam well in the 100-yard breaststroke and earned a sectional time of 1:17.07.
The girls team has never had many issues, if any, with depth. It helped them win the Cape & Island's League Championship last winter. The boys struggled with depth last year however, and had to make things work with just five swimmers.
This year, the Whalers have nine male swimmers. It had head coach Dylan Jones saying ahead of the season he is very excited to see how the depth of the boys this year could help them win more meets, potentially win the league title back, and earn some new sectional and state times. If Thursday’s meet is any indicator, it could make a big difference.
Aside from the Whaler’s top two male swimmers (Jake Johnson and sophomore Eli MacIver) who found themselves earning state and sectional times last winter, other swimmers stepped up Thursday night to win Nantucket some events and clinch some valuable second place finishes.
Freshmen Pavlin Aleksiev and Markus Vitanov paired up with Johnson and MacIver to place first in the 200-yard medley relay (1:55.49). Aleksiev also had a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle behind Johnson while freshman Robert Graves picked up some valuable points in the 200-yard freestyle with a second-place finish (2:12.75), which was just .12 behind Nauset swimmer Loring R. Eldred for first place. Sophomore Andrick Mooney also earned a second-place finish behind Johnson in the 50 free (26.51).
Graves placed first in the 500-yard freestyle (6:23.44) and both Vitanov and Mooney placed first and second respectively in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:16.21 and 1:22.84) to win their team 10 big points. Hayden Roberts and Trevor Malloy also paired up with Graves and Mooney in the 400-yard freestyle relay to earn four valuable second place points.
With both teams 1-0, they set their sights on Saturday, December 21st for a morning meet against Martha’s Vineyard on Nantucket at 11 a.m.
Boys Hockey Drops To 0-2 Following Loss To Monomoy
The Nantucket boys hockey team hosted the Monomoy Sharks Wednesday evening and lost 9-3 despite the Whalers outshooting the Sharks 28-20.
"It was a win,” Whaler head coach Jack Moran said after the game. “I told the guys to not even look at the scoreboard. You guys played so well today. Such a difference from our Vineyard game. Everybody clicked today. It's a good start. Little successes are victories for us, and I'll tell you, there were a lot of them today.”
Junior forward and captain Jeremy Jenkinson and junior forward and assistant captain Canton Jenkinson scored for the Whalers. Sophomore forward Tommy Schroeder scored his first career varsity goal as well.
Nantucket outshot Monomoy 7-6 in the first period but trailed 1-0 after the first 15 minutes. The Whalers had a strong first 10 minutes of the second period before the Sharks eventually scored on a power play with 2:04 left in the stanza. Nantucket earned their first power play of the game with 41 seconds left, but it went south quickly as the Sharks scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway with one second left in the period to make it 3-0 Monomoy after two periods.
"Positionally, everybody played well," Moran said. "We played the body well. We possessed the puck so much better in our possession time. Everything worked really well. We made a couple of errors and those cost us, but right now those are the things we're learning from. They're not the biggest thing in the world and easily corrected. It's just probably, again, a little bit of nerves got in there, a little panic but overall, what a great game. Very happy with the way they played.”
Jeremy Jenkinson got Nantucket on the board less than three minutes into the third to make it 3-1, but Monomoy answered with two quick goals to make it 5-1 with 8:47 to go in the game.
Schroeder scored his goal with 7:39 to go to make it 5-2, but Monomoy answered fast once again to make it 6-2 less than two minutes later.
"Thomas got his first goal ever and that was nice. That was exciting to watch," Moran said. "But he was right where he was supposed to be. We had so many opportunities in the front. Bounces were kind of off a little bit. A couple of shots we took missed the net and they were steamers too. It's too bad they didn't have them on net. But the guys positionally were fantastic. So much better. I can't say enough good things about them.”
Canton Jenkinson made it 6-3 just 28 seconds after Monomoy’s sixth goal, but Nantucket ran out of time to claw back into the game as the Sharks scored three more times to distance themselves towards the end.
The Whalers will now have the next week off before traveling to North Quincy for game one of a Christmas tournament. That game is scheduled for Thursday, December 26th at 2 p.m.
You can view more photos from the game taken by Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran by clicking here.
Boys Hoops Lose Season Opener To Barnstable
The boys basketball team traveled to Barnstable to begin their season with a Thursday afternoon matchup against the 1-1 Red Hawks, but were unable to sail home with a victory after Barnstable was able to take care of business on their home court and beat the Whalers 63-41.
Nantucket was led in the scoring department by juniors Vallon Jeanty (17 points) and Ethan Jarrett (14 points).
The Whalers will try to earn their first win of the season on Saturday, December 21st when they host Martha’s Vineyard at 12:30 p.m.
Boys & Girls Indoor Track Lose To Dennis-Yarmouth
The indoor track team traveled to Wheaton College again for a meet against the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins Tuesday evening, and head coach Chris Miemiec shared the following results with the Current that he said were noteworthy performances despite both teams losing their meets.
Jaiden McInnis secured a 6.80 time in the 55m, which was good enough for a Divisional Auto Qualifying Time.
David Guillén Taveras secured a time of 7:52 in the 55m and a 43.83 in the 300m, both of which were personal records.
Alex Horton scored a time of 42.56 in the 300m, a personal record.
Boris Boychev ran a 6:31 mile, which was a personal record.
Grace Hanlon earned a time of 3:22 in the 1000m, which was a personal record and a Divisional Auto Qualifying Time.
Keegan Farrell earned a time of 53.22 in the 300m, a personal record.
Anna Cronin ran a 6:40 mile, a personal record, and secured a time of 2:02 in the 600m – also a personal record.
Nantucket’s next meet is scheduled for Friday, January 3rd against Falmouth High School at 3 p.m.
SCHEDULE AHEAD:
Friday, December 20th:
There are no games scheduled for this date.
Saturday, December 21st:
The varsity boys & girls swim teams will host Martha's Vineyard for a meet at 11 a.m.
The boys basketball team will host Martha's Vineyard at 12:30 p.m.
The girls basketball team will travel to face the Vineyard at 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 22nd:
There are no games scheduled for this date.
For more coverage of all the Nantucket High School winter sports teams, follow our sports Instagram page here.
For more photos taken by Chris Tran, follow his Instagram page here.