SPRING RECAP

The acrobatics & tumbling team finished its first year of competition flying high, showing improvement as the season went on and the program found its footing. The season was highlighted by the first-ever home event on March 7 vs. Augustana (South Dakota). Some of the top performers were freshmen Jill Riggio, Kaytence Vining, Rosemary Casteneda, Chrissy Baptiste, Isabella Garcia and LaCaiya Hill-Dewitt, who excelled in six element, turning in their season-best performance in the final match of the year at Quinnipiac on April 14. Other standouts included freshman Mickennah Lanza and juniors Alyssa Gonzalez and Amanda Osmolowski. And the future is bright indeed with the naming of Amirah Boyd as the program’s head coach on May 28.

The baseball team finished fast, nearly rallying to a CACC tournament berth with a late-season flurry that saw Head Coach and Caldwell Athletics Hall of Famer Hasani Whitfield’s charges win five of their last six. Five Cougars were named to the league’s All-Academic squad (Michael Deusch, Ryan Opak, Zach Saunders, Brandon Scalisi and Connor Woods), and senior Kyle Richards capped his brilliant Caldwell career by signing a pro contract with the Sussex County Miners. Freshmen Christopher Bayo (.349) and Michael Cruz (.319) were the team’s leading hitters, and classmate John Rigas won five games as the top pitcher.

The women’s lacrosse team saw some of its most prolific all-time scorers in action. The trio of Madison Ellis, Emily Lasko and Kelsey Maxwell added to their goal totals, which rank fifth through seventh at Caldwell, respectively. Ellis’s 41 goals and 47 points led the way, while Lasko contributed 19 goals and a team-best 20 assists, and freshman Megan Molinelli showed flashes of a bright Cougar future with 14 goals and 14 assists to rank near the top newcomers in the CACC.

The men’s lacrosse team continued to make strides in the young program’s fourth year, graduating a group of seniors who were there from the start and pulling in talent from across the region as assistant coach Blase Mantineo takes over as head coach in 2023-24. Owen Healy and Jayden Paladino ranked among the CACC’s best scorers with 28 and 24 goals, respectively, while Jason Staudte had a team-best 21 assists. Senior Tim Livingston had his best year in net, twice earning CACC Goalkeeper of the Week and posting a GAA of under 14 per contest.

The women’s track and field team saved its best for last at the CACC championships, riding a pair of school-record performances from graduate Ana Gonzalez Martin in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and junior Alexis Byfield in the triple jump to a seventh-place standing overall. Gonzalez Martin, who also placed third in the 10,000-meter run, earned her second medal, passing two runners in the latter stages of the race to take silver. Byfield also scored in the long jump and high jump. Freshman sprinters Chennaya Tschopp and Isabella Pollock were among head coach Kyle Price’s top performers.

The men’s track and field team was at its best at the CACC championships, erasing four school records en route to a fifth-place finish. Freshman Geraldy Volcy, among the league’s top sprinters, shattered the 400-meter dash mark, joining Rayhan Issah (long jump), sophomore Ethan Edwards (100-meter hurdles) and freshman Andrew Scopel (javelin) in the new-record book. Volcy, Edwards and freshman Kevin Campen were double scorers as well, and junior thrower Kyle Kuren broke his own school records numerous times during the season. 🟥