Rockets Review: Boys Swimming Still Undefeated

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics

Boys Swimming & Diving

Head coach Adam Cole shared the following about the boys swimming and diving team’s performance last week:

This past week, the Needham High School boys swim team moved to 6-0 by defeating Xaverian on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 101-85, and Natick on Friday, Jan. 13, 115.5-69.5. On Friday, Needham won 11 of the 12 events, with the only loss being by .17 seconds in the 200 freestyle relay.  

Event winners included James Yi (200 freestyle), James Austin (200 individual medley), Alex Treil (50 freestyle), Jake Nathanson (diving and 100 backstroke), Ryan Schott (100 butterfly), Mike Eaton (100 freestyle), Nathan Lai (500 freestyle) and Jason Shiuan (100 breaststroke). Ryan Schott (100 fly) and Teddy Tsvadareides (100 free) both missed qualifying for the state meet by 1/100 of a second while Nathaniel Smith (100 breaststroke) missed qualifying by 5/100 of a second.

This week, the team faces Newton North at NN on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 4:00 p.m. and non-league Hopkinton on Friday, Jan. 20 at Babson College at 7:00 p.m.

Wrestling

The following write-up on the NHS wrestling team’s latest meet was provided by head coach Paul Ahern:

NHS wrestling competed in the eight-team Quabbin Midland Duals, at Quabbin Regional High School, this past Saturday, where the Rockets finished third. In Needham’s four-team bracket was 15th-ranked Dracut and returning Division 3 state finalists Holliston.

Needham opened with Dracut and nearly pulled off the upset, tying the Middies, 39-39. In the next match, Needham pulled off the win over Holliston, 36-30, and then finished strong against Franklin Tech, 61-15.

Using the cumulative point scoring, Dracut edged Needham to advance to the finals against the host team. Needham had to settle for the third place match, which they dominated, 57-12. Needham finished 3-0-1 on the day.

Going 4-0 for the Rockets were sophomore Zach Goldman (3 pins), junior Mark Carroll (3 pins) and senior Evan Michelson (3 pins), while junior John Cronin and senior Captain Cam Chisholm each had four pins.

Junior Mikhail Khibkin went 3-0, while senior captain Andrew Caylor went 3-1, dropping a close 4-2 match to a highly ranked Franklin Tech wrestler.

Senior captain Charlie Pryor, junior Islam Baiev, junior Tak Hirayama and senior Sam Feinberg each won two matches.

Freshmen Justin Jacobs, Dan Goldstein and Travis Szetela each won a match for the Rockets. Needing to bump up a weight class, junior Chris Ptak also performed well.

NHS wrestling now stands at 10-4-1 on the season.

The boys will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 18 as they host Norwood at 4:00 p.m. and then will travel to the Weymouth Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Basketball and Ice Hockey

On Tuesday, Jan. 10, the boys and girls basketball teams swept Framingham, with the boys winning easily on the road, while the girls fought off a late run by the Flyers to seal the close victory.  

On Wednesday night, Jan. 11, the boys ice hockey team welcomed in league and division rival Weymouth to Babson and shut down the Wildcats en-route to a big 7-1 win.  

On Friday, Jan. 13, boys basketball had their first Friday night home game, as 11th-ranked Weymouth came in to Needham High School. While the Rockets had a strong first half, they had trouble scoring in the second half and dropped the contest 61-50. The girls also saw an early lead dwindle and dropped their game at Weymouth.  

Boys basketball bounced back quick, traveling to East Lyme High School in Connecticut on Saturday, Jan. 14, where they erased a 13-point third-quarter deficit and ended up pulling out an exciting 2-point victory, 49-47. The team moves to 6-2 on the season with the win.  

Saturday night was not so kind to the hockey programs, as both teams lost their BSC Carey Division games against Braintree. Neither team had much time to think about the losses, as they were both back in action on Monday, Jan. 16. The boys welcomed Coyle Cassidy High School to the Daly Rink, where they got two goals in the final 5 minutes of play to earn a 3-1 win, while the girls traveled to a hot Dedham team, falling short in the non-league match.