St. John's Prep Swimmers Chasing Sixth Straight State Title

After ruling the pool once again in last weekend's North Sectional Meet at MIT's Zesiger Fitness Center, the St. John's Prep swim team will look to extend its State Championship streak to six at tonight's All-State Competition at Harvard.

The Eagles captured the Sectional title with 268 points, outdistancing second-place Lincoln-Sudbury (198 points) by a comfortable margin. St. John's set the tone in the day's first event as the 200 medley relay team of Aaron Athanas, Ryan Fortin, John Bateman and Brendan Sweeney prevailed in a time of 1:36.82.

Robert Breen won both the 200 freestyle (1:44.23) and 500 freestyle (4:43.75); Fortin doubled in the 200 IM (1:55.09) and 100 breaststroke (58.12); and Athanas won the 100 freestyle (48.24) and finished second in the 100 backstroke (52.80).

The Eagles completed a relay sweep as Fortin, Bateman, Jennings Soccorso-McCoy and Breen claimed the 200 freestyle in 1:27.96; and the quartet of Breen, Athanas, Peter Fallon and Alex Swaim took the 400 freestyle in 3:13.49.

Bateman (third, 200 IM; fourth, 100 butterfly) and Swaim (sixth, 200 free; seventh, 100 butterfly) also swam well in individual events.

Crabtree captures Sectional wrestling title

Undefeated senior 140-pounder Todd Crabtree leads a group of six Eagles' qualifiers into this weekend's Division One State Individual competition tonight and tomorrow at Methuen High School.

Crabtree ran his personal record to 43-0 on the season, winning three matches and claiming the 140-pound North Sectional championship with a 17-5 decision of Lawrence High's Shaquille Fuentes last weekend. The Eagles finished sixth overall as a team with 142 points.

Five other Eagles also qualified with Top Four finishes at the Sectionals. Mike Mayo (130 pounds) and Alex Kwmuntis (135) placed second, Jamie Morey (160) and Doug Harding (145) were both third and Nick Drew (189) placed fourth

DJ Lemieux (fourth, 112), Samson Lam (fifth, 152) and Jared Costa (sixth, 125) wrestled well, but did not advance.

Hockey posts consecutive shutouts

The Eagles (11-5-1) regrouped quickly from last Saturday's frustrating 4-1 loss to Springfield Cathedral – in which St. John's outshot the hosts by a 37-16 margin – and enhanced their chances of securing a Division 1A Tournament berth by  shutting out Woburn on Monday, 6-0, and Arlington Catholic Thursday, 7-0.

Led by freshman standout Shane Eiserman (two goals, two assists), the Eagles' first line had a 10-point night against AC. Senior captain and team scoring leader Colin Blackwell and senior Jon Farrow both had a goal and two assists while David Letarte and Jared Hynes combined for the 12-save shutout.  Scott Derrickson, Devin Murray and Tyler Bird also scored.

Letarte registered 21 saves in Monday's win against Woburn. Farrow powered the attack with two goals while Blackwell had two goals and an assist and Eiserman, junior Sam Kurker and freshman Jack McCarthy had single goals.

Eiserman netted the lone goal in the loss to Cathedral. St. John's concludes the regular season with home games against Framingham tomorrow (Ristuccia, noon) and Wakefield (Wednesday, noon) and a visit to Catholic Memorial next Friday (3 p.m.).

Hoopsters roll to non-league wins

The top-ranked Eagles (16-1) toyed with a couple of non-league opponents, slamming Lynn Classical on Monday, 76-44, and routing Bishop Fenwick on Thursday, 94-38.

Steve Haladyna (17 points), Freddy Shove (16) and Pat Connaughton (14) paced a balanced attack against Fenwick, a game in which St. John's opened a 56-21 halftime lead. Mike Carbone added 10 points and 10 players scored at least four.

Haladyna poured in 26 points against Classical while Connaughton contributed a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Owen Marchetti contributed nine points off the bench as St. John's doubled up the Rams on the way to a 45-22 halftime lead. The Eagles also outlasted Catholic Memorial in their Catholic Conference finale on Sunday, 90-80, paced by Haladyna (28 points) and Connaughton (24 points, 12 rebounds).

St. John's competes in the Comcast Tournament at BC High this weekend, then concludes the regular season with the marquee match-up of the year on the North Shore against No. 2 Central Catholic (17-1) Wednesday night at home (7 p.m.).

Fencers claim title

Trailing Concord-Carlisle by two total wins (41-39), the Eagles won six of their nine matches against Concord-Carlisle to claim the state title by a single individual victory, 45-44. St. John's reached the title match by defeating commonwealth in the sixth round.

With one bout remaining and the championship hanging in the balance, Captain Peter Gohn scored a one-touch victory in overtime. Also winning in the final match were Phil Hubbell and Marco Egizi in sabre, Mark Chaoui and Dan Howlett in epee and Dan Burke in foil.

Upcoming ...

The undfeated ski team competes for the state title on Tuesday, March 1 at Berkshire East … Track is in action at tonight's Division One State Meet at Reggie Lewis.