Rockets Review: Rugby Second at All States, Track Divisionals Recap and More

Rugby 2nd at States! 

On Saturday, in a rematch of last year's D1A title game, the top seeded and undefeated Rockets (5-0-1) took on 2nd seeded Scituate, a team they had beaten last week, in the Rugby State Championships at Fort Devens, MA.  Here is a write up from head coach, Diana Parkhurst about the game:

The Needham High School Boys Varsity Rugby Team suffered their first loss of the season in the Division 1A State Championship game on Saturday vs. Scituate High School. The game was a tight, back and forth match between two heavy hitting teams, and the final score at the end of 70 minutes of play was 14-10 in favor of Scituate. The first score of the game came with only 3 minutes left in the first half, when junior Evan Turner picked the ball off the back of a Needham scrum and touched it down in the try zone. The try was unconverted by junior flyhalf, Auggie Coll and the score was 5-0 Needham. Scituate pressured the Needham defense and quickly moved the ball down field. Needham's goal line defense was unstoppable and prevented Scituate from touching the ball down before the half. The score stood at the half, 5-0 to Needham.

The rain picked up at the start of the second half and the heavy hits continued for the first 10 minutes. Scituate finally managed to take advantage of a few Needham mistakes, touching the ball down under the posts 11 minutes into the second half. The score was converted making it 7-5 in favor of Scituate. Just 3 minutes later, Scituate scored on another break away and converted the kick making the score 14-5 with 20 minutes left in the half.

Play was highly contested for another 10 minutes and the rain contributed to a number of dropped balls and errors and neither team was able to put together continuous phases of play. Needham was finally able to break through the Scituate back line, moving the ball out wide to senior Rafael Ashworth who touched the ball down in the corner of the zone. The try was unconverted, leaving the score 14-10 in favor of Scituate. Despite a few last attempts, Needham was unable to punch in another try and the final score was 14-10.

Needham finished their first year as a varsity sport strong with a record of 5-0-1 and the #1 seed in league play. The team's hard work and dedication on and off the field contributed to their success and the future looks positive. Needham will be graduating the following 8 seniors: Jack Longley (Captain), John Cronin (Captain), Jim Gowetski (Captain), Brett Cohen, Mike Charters, Kevin Barros, Rafael Ashworth, and Noah Drake. Thanks to all of their hard work, dedication and leadership to the program. The team is young, with a lot of new and upcoming talent. Look for them to be at the top of the league again next year.

Boys & Girls Track Divisionals Recap! 

The Boys and Girls Track Teams had to wait two extra days to take part in the DII Championships at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, as the meet was postponed fromSaturday back to Monday due to weekend weather issues.  Below is the write-up of the event from Girls Head Coach, Chris Van Cott:

On Monday, May 27th the Needham Boys and Girls Track & Field teams traveled to Notre Dame Academy Hingham for the Division 2 Eastern Massachusetts Championships.  The boys finished 10th overall and were led by a 2nd place finish in the 100 meter dash by first year sprinter Hantzly Murat. The junior speedster ran 11.24 seconds to solidify a spot at this weekend's State Championships. 

Joining Murat this weekend will be junior distance stand-out Adrian Amaya, who finished 3rd in the 2 mile with a time of 9:46.73, as well as the 4x800 relay squad of senior Tyler Hagen, junior Daniel Alpert, sophomore Derek Howes and Amaya doubling back from his earlier event.  The quartet finished 4th to lock up the final automatic qualifying spot in 8:14.12. 

Other members of the boys squad to contribute in the team scoring were sophomore Daniel Xu (7th in the 110 meter hurdles), junior Harry Hall (7th in the 400 meter hurdles) and Alpert (8th in the 800).  Additionally, the 4 x 100 (Colin Riley, Xu, Jack Steverman, Murat) and 4 x 400 (Carlens Murat, Hall, Jack Strollo, Kevin Walsh) finished 6th and 8th respectively.

The lady Rockets finished 17th in team scoring and were led by senior Robin Kelly and freshman Margie Cullen both of whom finished second in their respective events and will compete at the upcoming State Meet. 

Kelly, a multi-event athlete for the Rockets, decided to focus her efforts on the hurdles for her penultimate meet of the season and raced to a personal best performance of 15.57 seconds.  Meanwhile, Cullen an accomplished distance runner, locked up her third trip to the state meet in as many seasons by running to a personal best time of 11:34.01. 

Other members of the team to finish in scoring position were freshman Sarah Armstrong (6th in the 1 mile) and freshman Julianna Donovan (7th in the 2 mile) as well as the 4 x 100 relay team of Blessing Ojini, Kelly, Haley Cole and Samantha Forman-Bruno who finished in 7th place.

On Saturday, June 1st, qualifying Needham athletes will travel to Westfield State University to compete in the MIAA All-State Championships.  The meet is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. 

Results for State meets can be found at: http://ma.milesplit.com/meets/142955/results/252355.

Softball & Baseball wrap up with Wins!

Although the spring seasons wrapped up on Thursday for Baseball and Softball, each team finished on a high note with wins on Senior Night.  Softball got a big 2-1 victory over non-league Medfield, a team they lost to earlier in the season, to cap a strong season at 8-12!  Baseball got some much needed offense on their Senior Night against Dedham, taking down the visitors 10-6!

Girls LAX finishes 18-2 with wins over top-10s! 

Girls Lacrosse finished off the regular season in style with wins over top-10 opponents #3 Westford and #7 Duxbury.

Westford entered Monday's game undefeated, but quickly saw that streak end, as the Rocket dominated in a 13-5 win. Next up on Wednesday, was Duxbury, who did not fare much better, falling 12-5 to the hosts.  

At 18-2, Needham earned the 3 seed behind Westwood and Notre Dame Academy (Hingham).

Boys Tennis rolls into Tourney after beating Newton North & Wellesley!

Boys Tennis has won 5 straight, including important wins over Newton North 3-2 (Monday) and 3-2 over Wellesley on Thursday.  The Wellesley match saw the Rockets jump to a 2-0 lead, before Senior Captain Ben Okonow dropped a hard fought 3rd set tiebreaker, bringing the match to 2-1.  

Also playing a 3rd set, was Senior Matt Bejian, who came back to take his match 7-5, earning Needham the team victory!  The Boys and Girls teams will find out their tournament seedings and schedules on Wednesday.

For Needham Athletics program updates and links, and to follow the NHS teams through the postseason, please visit http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/athletics and follow on Twitter:@NHSRockets. 

See also the NHS Boosters Athletic Events Photo Galleries atwww.davearnoldphotography.com for photos of Needham HS athletes and teams in action.

Athletic Events Schedule 5.28-6.1