WHS girls celebrate Senior Night with win; ranked 27th in D-4
The Winthrop High girls basketball team celebrated Senior Night in appropriate fashion with a 58-22 triumph over Northeastern Conference North rival Salem last Tuesday night on the Chris Tsiotos Floor at the Winthrop High gym.
“Our three senior captains, Zoey Bogusz, Sophia Lindinger, and Lily Conway, have been members of the varsity program for four years. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching them for three years and it has been an absolute joy doing so,” said WHS head coach Anthony Hatzisavas. “It was nice to be able to get them the win on their Senior Night.”
The Lady Vikings, who now stand at 5-11 on the season, were ranked 27th in Division 4 in the MIAA’s power ratings as of this past Friday, which would guarantee them an automatic berth in the post-season state tourney. (Teams can qualify for the tourney via either a ranking in the top-32 or by attaining a record of .500 or better.)
With four games left in the regular season, the Lady Vikings will be looking to hold onto their 27th seeding in order to punch their ticket for a Journey to the Tourney. They were scheduled to travel to Beverly this past Tuesday night and to Cathedral (the #1 team in D-4) this evening (Thursday). They will host Manchester-Essex next Tuesday at 1:00 during the holiday week and will make the long trek to Gloucester in the season finale next Thursday in a contest that was postponed from this past Friday because of an illness among the Lady Fishermen.
Gymnasts compete vs. Marblehead, Gloucester
The Winthrop High gymnastics team recently competed in a tri-meet vs. teams from Marblehead/Swampscott and Gloucester/Ipswich.
The Vikings started off on uneven bars. First up was eighth-grader Gaby Ilie, who hit her routine and scored a season-high 8.1 . Sara Jurovich and Callie Anderson tied with scores of 7.7. Ninth-grader Macy Werstak stuck her dismount, earning an 8.0, her highest score of the season. Senior Isabella Rice had great form, taking second-place in the competition behind junior Zoe Rey, who has been the team’s most consistent bar worker all season long, scoring an 8.8.
“Our bar scores have been consistently going up all season,” noted WHS coach Peter Gobiel.
The next event for Winthrop was the balance beam. Ilie scored a 7.1. Although Rice and Anderson had falls, they scored a 7.5. Both Rey and Julia Hurley stayed on the beam, scoring 8.0 and 8.1 respectively. The star of the day for Winthrop was Werstak, who hit her routine for a score of 8.3, which was good for second place in the meet.
Next up for the Vikings was the vault. Hurley, competing for the first time in this event, scored an 8.0. Seniors Brooklyn Banfield and Jurovich stuck their handsprings, scoring an 8.4. All around Zoe Rey stuck her best vault of the season with a personal-best score of 8.55. Rice and Werstyak tied with both scoring a season-high of 9.0.
“That was the best vaulting we have done all season long,” said coach Christa Vaccaro.
The last event for the Vikings was the floor exercise. Banfield was up first, scoring a 7.3. She was followed by Jurovich, who displayed her new tumbling skills, scoring a 7.9. Anderson completed a layout full-twist going backwards for the first time this season, followed by a front layout full twist to a seat drop.
“It was very impressive tumbling by Callle,” noted Gobiel.
Seniors Hurley and Rice hit their routines, with both scoring an 8.6. Rey then hit her routine, taking first place in the meet with an 8.9.