Boys Basketball Bows Out in First Round; Wrestling, Track & Field

Boys Basketball — Class M State Playoffs:

The Bobcats (13-9) suffered a disappointing end to their season, losing in the first round of the state tournament 69-47 to Trinity Catholic (14-9) at home on Monday night. The loss followed a first round 60-56 defeat to Kolbe Cathedral (15-7) in the SWC Playoffs.

Brookfield entered the post-season riding a seven game winning streak and were considered one of the hottest and most dangerous teams in the playoffs. The tough four-point loss to Kolbe followed by an eight day layoff between games seemed to have taken them out of their rhythm.

The Crusaders broke the game open early, hitting four three-pointers in the second quarter to take a 34-16 lead. They would end up holding a 42-21 lead at halftime, allowing them to cruise to victory.

The matchup with Trinity Catholic was a difficult one. Catholic is a team accustomed to winning big in the post-season but suffered through a mediocre season. They have posted a 32-7 tournament record and won four state titles since 2000. Defensive lapses off-set their high-powered offense and led them to a No. 18 seed this year that forced them to play at No. 15 Brookfield.

Brookfield put together it's first winning season since 2004-05 and was making it's first appearance in States since 2007-08.

Senior captains Nick Paez and Austin Yusko finished their careers by scoring 10 and 12 points respectively.

TRINITY CATHOLIC 18 26 10 15—69

BROOKFIELD 10 11 13 13—47

TRINITY CATHOLIC: Jonathan Boykin 3 1-2 9; Kevin Lemeune 7 0-0 17; Brandon Wheeler 5 4-7 14; Schadrac Casimir 2 0-1 4; Tremaine Fraser 1 0-0 2; Tyler Waston 1 3-4 5; Aaron Spence 4 0-0 8; Pascal Chidiebere Chukwu 2 2-4 6. TOTALS: 25 10-18 69

BROOKFIELD: Nick Paez 3 2-2 10; Danny Burkhart 6 1-2 15; Austin Yusko 5 0-0 12; Ryan Korb 0 0-0 0; Ralph Schatz 2 4-8 8; Joey Acquanita 1 1-1 3; Boeing Brown 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 8-13 47

3-POINT GOALS: TC—Lemeune 3; Boykin 2; B—Paez 2, Burkhart 2, Yusko 2

Other SWC teams in action on Monday were Newtown, who lost 64-45 at Brien McMahon in Class LL, Bethel, who won a home game 64-58 over University in Class M, Notre Dame-Fairfield, who defeated Plainville 74-53 at home in Class M and Immaculate, who lost 62-47 at Watertown in Class M.

Wrestling — New England Championships:

Junior Jack McKeever's runner-up finish in the 140-pound weight class at the State Open held last weekend qualified him for the New England Championships held at the New Haven Athletic Center in Hillhouse High School on Friday and Saturday.

McKeever was able to win his first round matchup with Zach Bloom of Concord Carlisle, Mass. McKeever over-powered Bloom to earn a 6-0 decision. He was unable to advance any further in the championship bracket as he suffered a second round loss to David Owens of Pinkerton, N.H. Owens had a first round bye and then was able to just get by McKeever with a 6-4 decision.

McKeever was then able to win two more matches in the third place bracket. He defeated Eli Wolfgang of LaSalle, R.I., by the score of 4-0 and then defeated Matt Nicholson of Lisbon, Maine, in a tense 2-0 decision.

McKeever saw his run come to an end when he was defeated 6-2 by Mal Shea of Goffstown, N.H. Shea would go onto to lose to Owens, who would end up winning the third place trophy.

The big news from the event was Green Wave wrestler Conor Kirkegard becoming the first ever New England Champion for New Milford. Kirkegard went 46-0 and registered his 35th pin of the season in the 103-pound weight class to earn the trophy.

McKeever joined Bethel's Chris Valenti and five New Milford wrestlers as the only SWC representatives at the Championship. Class M Champion Valenti took fourth place in the 285-pound weight class.

Indoor Track & Field — New England Championship:

Senior captain Christopher Ackell competed at the 24th annual New England Championship held at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center in Boston on Friday. His fourth place finish at the State Open two weeks ago qualified him for the event.

Ackell threw a distance of 50-00.25, which was eighth best in the preliminary round, advancing him to the finals. He was unable to improve his distance, throwing for the same distance in the final, keeping him in eighth place. Ackell was one of only two male athletes from the SWC to compete in the field competition at the event.

Class LL and State Open champion John Wlasuk of Newtown added the New England Championship to his gold medal list with a throw of 58-03.75 in the shot put.

Jacob Feinstein of Newtown and Stephen Vento of Weston were the only two male athletes from the SWC to compete in track events. Both advanced to the finals in the 2-Mile Run with Vento placing seventh (9:34.64) and Feinstein placing eighth (9:35.50).

On the girls side, the Class S 4X800 Yard Relay Championship team of Alexandra Kaeslin, Jess Wojnicki, Alexa Sakorafas and Maggie Christie of Immaculate from the SWC took fourth place with a time of 9:27.92.

Christie also placed 11th in the 1-Mile Run with a time of 5:16.74.

Lauren Pettinelli of Newtown was the only other SWC competitor, racing in the 55 Meter Hurdles.

Danbury High School had two seniors take home gold medals.

Maya Walton placed first in the Long Jump (18-05.25) and also helped the Danbury 4x200 relay team to a third-place finish.

Alex Levine took the top spot in the 1,000 Meter Run with a time of 2:28.97 and contributed to the Hatters' fourth-place finish in the 4x200.

Nyoshee Lowry and Daryle Michael also competed for Danbury in the 55 Meter Hurdles and the 55 Meter Dash.