West Hartford High School Sports Round-Up

Scores from Conard and Hall high school varsity competition, Sept. 14 – Sept. 21, 2015.

Hall senior captain AJ Speranza battles for control of the ball during a game against Northwest Catholic on Sept. 16. Photo courtesy of David B. Newman, photobynewman.com

By Ronni Newton

It’s been more than a week since official fall sports competitions began, and every team now has faced at least some competition.

After a decisive win in the first week of football season (49-21 over Hartford Public), Conard popped into the Hartford Courant’s area rankings tied for 10th place with Avon. Unfortunately, although the Chieftains never gave up, they sustained a heartbreaking loss to a strong Glastonbury team in a hard-fought game on Sept. 19.

Conard was losing 44-27 early in the fourth quarter, and then scored three touchdowns in a row to pull ahead 49-44. A personal foul called on Conard with no time left on the clock gave Glastonbury one more chance, which they turned into a 7-yard run for a touchdown. Click here for complete coverage of the game from gametimect.com.

Hall, which faced and lost to Glastonbury in its season opener, came back in week two with a decisive 34-8 win over the Bulkeley/HMTCA/Weaver co-op team.

Thank you to Hall boys cross country head coach Jeff Billing for submitting an extremely thorough report on the team’s performance at Saturday’s Stratton Brook Invitational.

Each cross country course is completely different, and although the mileage is the same, times can vary quite widely depending on the terrain. Billing said that times at Stratton Brook (which is located in Simsbury) tend to be on average 40-45 seconds slower than at Windham.

Here’s what Billing said about his varsity athletes:

“The team placed fifth out of 14. As a team our top five gained over a minute on both Glastonbury and Simsbury. It’ll be fun to see how close we can get to those teams by the end of the year. Sophomores Jake Rocheleau (18:27) and Miles Aronow (18:36) had the best races of their careers. Jake ran just 8 seconds slower than at Windham, while Miles was 20 seconds slower. Keeping in mind that the course is usually 40-45 seconds slower, these were huge improvements as these guys get used to running in varsity races. An interesting stat for Jake and Miles to notice … three years ago Ari Klau and Grant O’Connor ran at Stratton Brook as sophomores. Their times … Ari (18:16) and Grant (18:20). Those two went on to form the best 1-2 punch in Hall XC history, and Jake and Miles are just 10-15 seconds behind where they were at this point in their careers. Also, Senior Captain Jacob Scott made his season debut, and first Varsity appearance, with a 35 second 5k PR in 18:48 as the team’s 5th man. Great work Scotty!”

The Conard girls cross country team also had some great performances at Stratton Brook, with junior Lindsey Chen placing fourth (20:04) and junior Gwen Geisler in ninth place (20:56). The team finished in fourth place overall.

The Conard boys cross country team finished in seventh place at Stratton Brook and the Hall girls were 13th.

Please note that is impossible to be at every game or meet, or even to find out the results online for every event. We love to get input from parents, other students, random fans and welcome whatever information you provide. Please send details and/or photos from future contests to Ronni Newton at [email protected].

Thank you to photographer David Newman of David B. Newman Photography (www.photobynewman.com) for allowing us to use his images of the Hall vs. Northwest Catholic boys soccer game! Check his website for more photos from that game and from other high school sports contests.

Hall’s Max Drazen fights for control of the ball in a game vs. Northwest Catholic on Sept. 16. Photo courtesy of David B. Newman, photobynewman.com

Scores for other sports are listed below and have been compiled from the CIAC website.

Conard field hockey:

Sept. 15 vs. East Catholic, won 9-1

Sept. 21 vs. Farmington, won 4-0

Hall field hockey:

Sept. 18 vs. Windsor, lost 1-2

Sept. 21 vs. Newington, won 3-1

Conard boys soccer:

Sept. 16 vs. Windsor, won 2-0

Sept. 18 vs. Southington, lost 0-2

Sept. 21 vs. Bristol Central, won 3-2

Hall boys soccer:

Sept. 16 vs. Northwest Catholic, won 5-0

Sept. 18 vs. Glastonbury, lost 1-2

Sept. 21 vs. Simsbury, won 3-1

Conard girls soccer:

Sept. 16 vs. Windsor, won 8-0

Sept. 18 vs. Southington, tied 0-0 (OT)

Sept. 21 vs. East Hartford, won 10-3

Hall girls soccer:

Sept. 16 vs. Northwest Catholic, lost 0-1

Sept. 18 vs. Glastonbury, lost 1-5

Sept. 21 vs. Simsbury, tied 0-0 (OT)

Conard girls swimming and diving:

Sept. 16 vs. Glastonbury, lost 98-86

Hall girls swimming and diving:

Sept. 16 vs. South Windsor, lost 80-92

Sept. 21 vs. Maloney/Platt, won 93-79

Conard girls volleyball:

Sept. 16 vs. Avon, lost 0-3

Sept. 17 vs. Glastonbury, lost 0-3

Sept. 21 vs. Wethersfield, lost 1-3

Hall girls volleyball:

Sept. 17 vs. Farmington, lost 0-3

Sept. 18 vs. Newington, won 3-2

Sept. 21 vs. Simsbury, lost 0-3

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