Girls basketball
Warriors win 5th straight game
CANTON, Feb. 2 – The Warriors (12-2, 7-2 NCCC) extended their winning streak to five straight games with a pair of victories over Windsor Locks and Granby last week.
Against Granby, the Warriors had to rally from behind before earning a 39-38 victory over the upset-minded Bears (2-12) in Canton. Megan Roux and Sarah Benedetti each ahd 11 points to lead the Warriors.
Earlier in the week, Megan Roux had 10 points and Sarah Getz added eight as Canton rode an outstanding first half effort in a 37-26 win over Windsor Locks. Canton led 27-12 at halftime.
Indoor track
League meet is Wednesday
CANTON, Feb. 2 – Over 50 athletes will compete Wednesday for Canton at the NCCC championship meet at Hillhouse High in New Haven. “This is it for the league,” Canton coach Tim O’Donnell said. “In basketball, you have 20 games. We have one meet. It’s the one sport where all of your eggs are in one basket.”
The meet was snowed out last week and will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Tolland, Suffield and Ellington are the three traditional track powers in the league but the Warriors hope to turn in a respectable showing for such a young team.
On Jan. 22, four more athletes qualified for the Class S championship during a developmental meet in Glastonbury. Colin Glasson qualified in the shot with a throw of 41 feet and nine inches, Ryan Gallagher qualified with a time of 7.0 seconds in the 55 meters and Brian Magna qualified in the 300 meters with a time of 41 seconds.
Rachel Schwartzmann qualified for the shot put in Class S by snapping her own school record for the second time this season with a throw of 28 feet, 4 inches. She threw 27 feet, 7.75 feet at the Haddam Killingworth Invitational earlier this month.
Canton has 12 girls and 15 boys who have earned qualifying times for the Class S meet and O’Donnell hopes a few more can qualify at the NCCC meet.
Wrestling
Canton wrestles well, takes 5th
VERNON, Jan. 31 – In a challenging tournament, the Warriors (15-9, 4-1 NCCC) wrestled well and finished fifth at the John Williams Duals in Rockville.
Canton came close to beating Rockville but fell, 42-37. Plainville dominated the Warriors in a 55-21 defeat before Canton rallied to beat undermanned Morgan-Clinton, 62-18. In the fifth place bout, Canton beat Windham High for the first time ever with a 43-42 decision on criteria. The two teams actually tied at 42-42 but Canton earned the tiebreaker point and the victory for having more near fall points.
On Thursday, Canton snapped a five-match losing streak against Granby with a 48-33 victory. It was the first win over the Bears since 2002.
White takes 3rd at Eagle Classic
By GERRY deSIMAS, JR.
Collinsville Press
MANCHESTER, Jan. 24 – Matt White went 3-1 to finish third at 103 pounds and highlight Canton’s top 10 finish at the 15th annual Eagle Classic tournament at East Catholic. White beat Berlin’s Don Cirullo twice in the tournament, earning a 13-4 decision in the quarterfinals and a 8-3 decision in the consolation final.
White lost to eventual champion Tyler Keane of Glastonbury in the semifinals, 12-0. White also beat South Windsor’s Hunter Rich by tech fall.
Canton's Nate Getler (135) dropped his first match of the year in a 6-5 semifinal loss to Berlin’s Roger Moss, who caught Getler in a cradle and took a 5-0 lead in the first period. In the second period, Getler had a pair of takedowns and an escape to cut the lead to 6-5. But Moss was able to ride out Getler in the third period.
Getler pinned East Windsor’s Mike Musanti in 1:09 and beat Newington’s Kyle Nunez, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
Brandon Leach (140) won a pair of matches including one by pin in 14 seconds before dropping a 14-5 semifinal decision to eventual champion Justin Roncioli of Berlin. No other Canton wrestler won more than one match. Steven Carpenter (119) missed the tournament after getting hurt during gym class earlier in the week.
Canton finished 10th in the tournament – its best finish since taking fifth in 2002.
(Jan. 26-30)