By JULIE B. MAGLIO
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High school sports opened this week and it’s certainly been a long time coming. There was plenty of excitement and relief for the student-athletes and coaches to finally get some game-time and get back to competing in the sports they love.
GOLF
In Boys Varsity Golf, the Hornets defeated Citrus 206-210. At the top of the ticket was Brandon Lambutis with a score of 46, then Nick Lucas who shot a 49 followed by Ethan Parrinello with 53 and James Bishop with 58. Their season continued on Wednesday against Springstead.
The NCT Boys Golf team also won their first match, defeating Central 197-242. Leading the way for the Sharks was Junior Mike Giardino who managed to impress with a score of 41. Sophomore, Adam Mause, and Junior, Connor Charboneau, weren’t far behind followed by Joe Goebel and Nick Danchise who also had strong showings.
In their win over Central (231-282), the NCT Lady Sharks Golf team was led by a talented youngster, Freshman Miranda Hernandez who shot 37.
This impressive score ties her for the second best score in school history and Hernandez will have plenty of time to break more records. Also of note are scores of 61 and 62 by Emma Dunsmore and Annabelle Bennett respectively.
VOLLEYBALL
While Springstead’s Lady Eagles suffered defeat on Friday night Sept. 18 against Citrus Inverness, they can take consolation in the attendance of a highly notable fan: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with his family. Superintendent John Stratton tweeted, “I appreciate @GovRonDeSantis & our First Family spending some of their Friday watching great volleyball and encouraging our student athletes. You are welcome back anytime!” The final score of the match was 3-1.
It seems like so long ago, but just last year, the NCT Lady Sharks made it all the way to the 4A Regional Volleyball Final, but were defeated by Academy of Holy Names. This year there are only 3 returning players, so they will likely go through some rebuilding. The young team came out strong though, defeating Hernando in 3 sets on Sept. 19. The team is led by Seniors Courtney Wenrich (OH) and Sabrina Sessa (Libero). NCT Athletics posted on their sports page, “The win last night was a total team effort with Wenrich, Sessa, and (Hannah) Valachovic leading the way for the young team.” Wenrich and Sessa were recognized for their contributions during Senior night on Sept. 22. In two games, Wenrich an outside hitter has accumulated 24 kills in 2 games, while Sessa the libero has also accumulated 24 digs. Both players have been with the team all four years of high school and have played with the varsity team for the past two seasons.
NCT went on to beat Central 3-0 as well on Sept. 21.
Weeki Wachee Hornets began their season with a 3-0 win against Central and on Monday night, they continued winning, beating Hernando with a score of 3-0 as well.
A big in-county rivalry game heated up the court on Tuesday night as Weeki Wachee faced NCT. Last year NCT defeated Weeki Wachee in the Regional quarter final tournament. The Hornets were certainly out for revenge and took full advantage of a young NCT team, defeating them 3-0.
SWIMMING
The first swim meet took place last Saturday evening at the YMCA in Spring Hill with big results from Weeki Wachee swimming against Hernando.
Weeki Wachee Principal Troy LaBarbara tweeted, “Swimming sweeps Hernando!! Congrats to @Coach_Jeffers20 on her first wins as our Swim coach. Boys team got their first win in 5 years! All around great night.” The following are the results of the meet:
Weeki vs Hernando
Weeki ladies 105
Hernando ladies 42
Weeki Guys 70
Hernando Guys 57
200 Free Relay
1st place ladies- Weeki- Lane, Jeffers, Greer & Elferdink
1st place guys- Weeki- Ross, Novas, DiNatale & Garza
200 Free-
1st ladies- Weeki- Resop
1st guys- Hernando- Watson
200IM-
1st ladies- Weeki- Elferdink School Record
1st guys- Hernando-Whitaker
50 Free-
1st ladies- Hernando- Tracy
1st guys- Hernando- Watson
100 Fly-
1st ladies- Weeki- Swarrow
1st guys- Hernando- Whitaker
100 Free-
1st ladies- Weeki- Lane
1st guys- Hernando- Sowder
500 Free-
1st ladies- Weeki- Jeffers
1st guys- Weeki- Exum
200 Free Relay-
1st ladies- Weeki- Jeffers, Lane, Lawson, Elferdink.
1st guys- Hernando- Whitaker, Sowder, Angel, Watson
100 Backstroke-
1st ladies- Weeki- Lane
1st guys- Hernando- Whitaker
100 Breaststroke-
1st ladies- Weeki- Elferdink School Record
1st guys- Hernando-Watson
400 Free Relay-
1st ladies- Weeki- Childers, Guerrera, Sarkes, Resop
1st guys- Weeki- Barry, Novas, Exum, Justiniano
On Saturday Sept. 26, Weeki Wachee will swim against the Sharks again. Jeffers says that should be a great meet as well.
CROSS COUNTRY
Over the summer, NCT welcomed a new boys and girls head cross country coach in Conner Schwefringhaus. The athletic department released the following information about their new coach. “Schwefringhaus, returned to his Alma Mater in 2019 to teach math and spent last year as a volunteer coach under his predecessor Eric Milholland. He graduated in 2019 from Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers with a B.A. in Secondary Mathematics Education.”
NCT Principal Toni-Ann Noyes remarked, “Having Conner return home as a Shark is an honor. His drive to be successful is evident inside and outside the classroom. He has already proven to be an integral part of Nature Coast and I know he will provide our student-athletes with the skills needed to be successful.”
And Coach Schwefringhaus has high expectations for his athletes, “We’ve got a great group of young, and experienced runners this year, and a surge of newcomers. This is a recipe to build a great program. We put our blood, sweat, and tears into this sport and I couldn’t be more proud of my athletes day in and day out. Our goal this year is to compete at the state level for both teams, and I’m more than confident we are going to accomplish that.”
On Sept. 19, the NCT boys and girls cross country team made their coach proud in the first meet of the season, facing Springstead. NCT runner Mia DeRonda finished first for the girls followed by the boys earning a team win. DeRonda ran the 5k race with a time of 21:48.66, followed by teammates Ashlynn Senter 23:40.08, Ashlyn Senzig 24:29.01 and Chloe Krug 26:16.58.
For Springstead Lady Eagles, Lily Schultze led her team with a time of 27:03.93, followed by teammates Amy Bahn 28:05.85, Maya Rhymer 29:17.74, Aailya Cameron 30:24.73 and Alexandra Calvert 37:14.81.
Springstead Eagle Rayaan Kader won the boy’s race overall with a time of 17:18.94 he was followed by NCT runners Kadin Rahman 18:11.93, Adam Rahman 18:32.84, Evan Kelczewski 18:40.42, Evan Faulkingham 18:47.93, Noah Fahey 18:50.53. There were a total of 23 boys competing.
On Sept. 19, the Weeki Wachee Cross Country team ran against Lecanto. Jaiden Raghunandan finished first overall for the boys and led his team to a win over Lecanto. Christian Castinado finished second, Jaden Tannenbaun 6th, Connor Sieni 7th, and Rafael Garcia 8th.
Lecanto defeated the Weeki Wachee girls team, but Hornet Eva Newhall had a strong showing as she finished second with a time of 25:24. Alexis Ledbetter finished 5th, Julieana Pendl 7th, Madison Attilli 11th, and Taylor Williams 12th.
Weeki Wachee Boys and Girls are to race Crystal River on Saturday Sept. 26.
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