RAIDER ROUNDUP
By: Rudy Brandl
Hillsborough High senior Nick Giacopelli expects to be a state place-winner this season. He certainly showed he’s capable of making some noise with a solid performance in the prestigious Pirate Invitational last Saturday at The Bubble in West Windsor.
Giacopelli, one of the area’s premier freestylers, finished second to St. Joe’s of Metuchen star Bobby Savulich in both the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle. Giacopelli held off a pair of Greenwich (Conn.) swimmers for second place in both races.
The margin of victory for Savulich was less than a second in the 100, where Giacopelli posed a time of 49.05 to beat Thomas Payton (49.24). In the 200, Giacopelli (1:46.19) finished three seconds behind a sizzling effort from Savulich but remained in front of Andrew Trepp (1:49.56).
Hillsborough, which finished sixth in the 12-team field with 81 points, had two more finishers in the top six. Mark Green placed sixth in the 100-yard backstroke (59.26) and the 400-yard free relay team finished fourth (3:28.14), defeating rival Bridgewater-Raritan by 19-hundredths of a second.
The Raider teams were scheduled to begin their January dual meets by hosting Ridge this past Tuesday. HHS will also host Montgomery this afternoon.
Track teams nearly
sweep PSAL meets
Hillsborough’s winter track teams came within a point of sweeping Saturday’s PSAL Invitational at The Armory in New York City.
School-record performances by Franklin Andreyko and Nick Confuorto and a victory by Hector Tirado propelled the HHS boys to the team title, while the Raider girls finished one point behind Paul Robeson and placed second in the team standings.
Andreyko, a junior who transferred from Manville, won a red-hot long jump competition with a leap of 22 feet, 7¾ inches. Four boys surpassed the 22-foot mark in the event.
Confuorto eclipsed his own school record in the pole vault by clearing 13 feet to finish second. Tirado didn’t match his school-record throw but won the shot put (48-6).
Other individual points came from Mike Barberio (4th, 8:14.) and Tony Flores (5th, 8.16) in the 55 hurdles, Joe Brennan in the 1,600 (2nd, 4:36.19), Nick Vaccaro (2nd, 9:44.25) and Mike Klueber (3rd, 9:48.92) in the 3,200, Bryan Fox (3rd, 6-0) and Jim Morley (5th, 6-0) in the high jump and Adam Mallet (5th, 11-0) and David Minetti (6th, 10-6) in the pole vault.
The HHS girls went 1-2 in the pole vault with Nicole Humphrey (9-0) and Eileen Cafferty (8-6). Ashley Uniszkiewicz also posted a second place in the 3,000 (10:41.0) and Jenizah Melendez finished second in the shot put (34-4½). Erin Crawford (4th, 1:37.80) and Lauren Kloss (5th, 1:39.59) scored in the 600.
Boys even record
with home victory
The HHS boys’ basketball team began 2003 with a 48-37 home triumph over Scotch Plains-Fanwood. Friday night’s game at Watchung Hills was rescheduled for 1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 8.
A smothering defense held Scotch Plains to 13 points in the first three quarters. The Raiders raced to a 23-9 lead at the half and held off a furious 24-point comeback bid in the final period.
HHS scoring leader Chris Haas paced the winning attack with 13 points and six rebounds. Haas connected on seven free throws and scored seven of his points in the first half.
Lamar Spencer had 10 points and four steals. Spencer, T.J. Sferra, Mike Malko and Jon Leonard each hit one 3-pointer in the victory.
The Raiders (2-2) were scheduled to host North Hunterdon Tuesday and play at Bridgewater-Raritan tonight.
Wrestlers drop tough
dual meet opener
Despite splitting the 14 bouts, the Raider wrestlers fell short on the scoreboard in Saturday night’s hotly-contested dual meet at Roselle Park.
Hillsborough received back-to-back pins from seniors Antonio D’Amelio (Hwt) and Andrew Gewain (103) to close to within 27-26, but Roselle Park won the next two bouts by decision to clinch the victory in a match that began at 130 pounds.
Other Raider victories included a technical fall by Mike Detsis (145) and decisions from Chris Damiano (135), Phil Lavoie (171), Mark Amerman (215) and Kevin Lynch (125).
HHS needed one more bout victory and there were several crucial swing matches. Senior 119-pounder Kevin Herlihy lost a 3-2 nail-biter to John Gura and 160-pounder John Newman dropped a 5-4 barnburner to Ben Binko. The Panthers also enjoyed a 4-2 edge in falls.
Hillsborough was set to begin a three-match homestand this week, hosting Pequannock last night, Voorhees tonight and Bridgewater-Raritan on Saturday afternoon.

