HHS SPRING SPORTS AWARDS
By: Rudy Brandl
Hillsborough High’s spring athletic season certainly kept these sports pages flowing with great stories. Every week, there was a team winning something major. There were county and conference champions on both the team and individual level plus the school’s first-ever team state champ in the spring season.
It wasn’t always easy to keep track of everything, especially on the day after Memorial Day when three different Raider teams were competing in sectional semifinal events. If only I could be in several places at once, I wouldn’t have missed anything!
This was probably the most prolific overall athletic campaign in school history. Nine HHS teams combined to win five Somerset County titles and four Skyland Conference crowns. While many of these were track and field titles, the baseball, softball and girls’ lacrosse teams won county crowns in the usual single-elimination tournament way.
The baseball team added a pair of impressive, historic achievements by winning the Central Jersey Group 4 and State Group 4 championships. Then there were many individual athletes who earned accolades at the county, conference and state level.
Seven of the nine Raider varsity teams posted winning records, including three 20-game winners and two undefeated squads. Only the boys’ lacrosse team and boys’ volleyball team didn’t finish over the .500 mark, but they had their fair share of highlights. The laxmen won a game in the county tourney and in the state playoffs, while the volleyballers competed as a varsity team as a first-year program.
Although the baseball team dominates the major awards below, the spring season wasn’t that one-sided in the world of HHS sports. In many cases, honorable mentions will be noted because there were so many outstanding achievements on the Raider playing fields in the past few months.
Here are my Hillsborough High Spring Sports Awards:
Best Team Baseball. This ball club peaked at the perfect time, winning its last 10 games in dominant fashion. The Raiders (21-5) weren’t satisfied with capturing the elusive county title over rival Immaculata in late May. They went on a surge through the state playoffs, winning the Central Jersey Group 4 and State Group 4 titles with satisfying victories over Steinert and Watchung Hills, respectively. HHS outscored its five state foes by a combined 46-11 margin, never trailing in any of those games.
Honorable mention goes to the softball and girls’ lacrosse teams, the other two HHS spring teams with at least 20 victories who each won county tournaments in dramatic fashion. The softball team also captured its first Delaware East Division crown in a 23-5 campaign, while the lacrosse ladies won a remarkable 20 consecutive games during a 20-2 year that included the school’s first county lacrosse champ.
Best Coach Norm Hewitt, baseball. The veteran skipper has been around for 33 years, but he called this year’s baseball team his greatest. He also earns this award because of his ability to recapture his team’s early confidence and form after a brutal loss at Immaculata. Hewitt apologized to his players for making a strategic mistake in that loss and they responded by never losing another game.
Honorable mention goes to Cheryl Iaione (softball) and Beth Murrin (girls’ lacrosse). Iaione had her club prepared to face one of the toughest schedules in the state and many people complimented the Raiders on their outstanding defensive execution. Murrin did a great job keeping her girls focused on avenging prior defeats to perennial titans like Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge, two schools the Raiders had to beat to reach their lofty goals.
Best Athlete Drew Campbell, baseball. The burly senior right-hander dominated some of the best lineups in the area and enjoyed particular ownership of Watchung Hills. Campbell (10-2) was the winning pitcher in the Somerset County, Central Jersey Group 4 and State Group 4 final games. He shut out Watchung for 20 straight innings, 17 of which came in the county semifinal and state championship contests. A dazzling array of changeups and curves mixed in with a sneaky fastball made Campbell very difficult to hit.
Several athletes are worthy of honorable mention here. That list includes standout lacrosse players Ali DeLuca and Krystina DeLuca, softball ace Chrissy Yard, first singles tennis player Thomas Kinrade and baseball slugger Tim Fedroff. The DeLucas formed one of the state’s best 1-2 punches, Yard won 23 games in a dominant pitching season, Kinrade became the school’s first male county first singles champion since 1991 and Fedroff led the powerful and balanced baseball attack.
Most Improved Athletes Joey Zeiss (baseball) and Yeneisha Warrick (track and field).
Zeiss wasn’t a soft-hitting middle infielder simply in the lineup because of his steady glove. While he made the plays at second base, Zeiss also contributed at the plate with 24 runs, 30 hits, five doubles and a .370 average. He spent most of the season batting second for the Raiders.
Warrick gave the HHS girls a reliable sprinter on the track this spring. She cut her 400-meter time all the way down to 57.4, the split she ran to anchor the 4×400 relay team to a 3:59 at the Central Jersey Group 4 Championships. Warrick was a factor in the 100, 200, 400 and relays for the Raiders.
Most Exciting Moments The baseball team’s 5-0 victory over Watchung Hills in the State Group 4 final capped a marvelous season for the ball club and the school; that victory came on the heels of two other exciting championship wins, a breakthrough 5-1 triumph over Immaculata in the county final and 14-7 rout at Steinert in the sectional final; the softball team rallied from the dead, scoring three runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Montgomery and complete a three-peat in county tournament action; the girls’ lacrosse team avenged its only loss of the year at the time and knocked off rival Bridgewater-Raritan by an 11-9 score in the county championship game; the golf team finished second in the sectional match to earn the school’s first trip to the state championships; the boys’ track and field team nipped powerhouse rival Phillipsburg in the opening dual meet and surprised the conference favorites again later in the week at the Skyland Relays; the boys’ lacrosse team rallied from an early deficit and posted a 6-4 victory over Toms River East in the first round of the state playoffs; and Thomas Kinrade enjoyed his sweetest victory in the county final when he topped Bridgewater-Raritan rival Billy Jiang in a hotly-contested match.
Best Game Performances Drew Campbell blanked Watchung Hills for the maximum 10 innings in the SCT semifinals at Commerce Bank Park and then drove in the game’s only run with a walk-off double in the bottom of the 10th inning; Chrissy Yard fired a perfect game with 17 strikeouts in a 7-0 home victory over Delaware Valley in a game that was televised on a local cable station; Colleen Maloney hit two personal-best marks to win titles in the discus and javelin at the Skyland Conference Championships; Taryn O’Connor finally reached her coveted mark of 40 feet not once, but twice, and broke her own school record to finish in the state shot put while having a ball at the Meet of Champions; and Chris Berezansky set a school record in the shot put (56-0¾) at the Somerset County Relays.
Biggest Hits Vanessa Tumminia’s well-placed single to shallow left-center field scored the tying and winning runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to cap an amazing comeback for the softball team in the Somerset County championship game; and Drew Campbell’s RBI double down the right field line scored pinch runner Rudy Burshnic with the decisive run in the bottom of the 10th inning of the 1-0 county semifinal victory over Watchung Hills in a game that will go down as one of the greatest in tournament history.
So Close The tennis team leads this category with many near-misses in big spots this spring. HHS came within a game of advancing to the Central Jersey Group 4 final but suffered a tough 3-2 loss to West Winsdor Plainsboro South. They also had two chances to win the Somerset County team title but both doubles teams lost heart-breaking championship matches in the third set. The Raiders also just missed joining the school’s spring 20-win club, going 19-7. A late loss to Watchung Hills cost the netmen that distinction.
The softball team also had a great year but had to wonder what might have been after a 1-0 loss to eventual State Group 4 champ Rancocas Valley, which also ended the season ranked No. 1 in the state. The Raiders gave RV a real tussle for 11 innings before falling in the sectional semifinals. The saddest part for veteran head coach Cheryl Iaione was that the season and four-year careers of an outstanding group of seniors had just ended.
The boys’ lacrosse team lost a bunch of close ones and overtime games, but none was more grueling than the quadruple overtime loss at Watchung Hills in the county tournament.
Champions Review The track and field teams haven’t received much ink here so far, but they deserve plenty of recognition for winning titles again this spring. Both the HHS boys and girls went 6-0 in dual meets to win the division title. For the girls, that extended the regular season win streak to 57 straight meets. The boys also prevailed in the Skyland Conference Relays, Somerset County Relays and Somerset County Championships, while the girls swept Skyland Conference relay and individual meet titles.
Other team champs include softball (division, county), girls’ lacrosse (county) and baseball (county, sectional, state). Other individual champs include Thomas Kinrade (county tennis), Matt Bitten and Robin Friedman (sectional pole vault), Colleen Maloney (county and conference discus and javelin), Chris Berezansky (county and conference shot put), Taryn O’Connor (county and conference shot put), Allison Hydzik (county high jump) and Tyler Szwarc (county 400 hurdles).
Freshman Phenoms Sprinter Stephanie Ogrodnik; volleyball player Kyle Downey.
Sophomore Sensations Monster first baseman Corey Swickle; softball player Katie Yard; track and field athletes Taryn O’Connor, Ebony Jones, Allison Hydzik, Tyler Szwarc, Dave Eilbacher, Miles Petrock, Warner Jones and Brian Humphrey; lacrosse players Katie Marino, Nicole Smartt, Lauren Griggs, Gary Politi, Chris Livelli and Jake Wilk; golfers Craig Durrant and Nick Grappone; third singles player Chris Plaskon; and volleyball player Mike Argueta.
Junior Jewels Slugger Tim Fedroff and pitcher Rob Kumbatovic; softball players Marissa Conard, Kristen Derewecki and Vanessa Tumminia; track and field athletes Colleen Maloney, Robin Friedman, Ingrid Berrio, Melanie Gingras, Brian Dennis, Anthony Visicaro, Ryan Schofield, Steve Theroux, Mike Kelderman and Lem Brown; lacrosse players Ali DeLuca, Liz Tafaro, Chrissy DiClemente, Danielle Iwanechko, Brian Yepez and Brandon Wilk; golfers Steve Cannon, Andrew Borsuk, Logan Cecchine and Aaron Schiffman; volleyballer Joe Sheridan; and tennis players John Wu and Mark Apostolos.
Senior Stars Baseball players Drew Campbell, Tim Fedroff, Joey Zeiss, Joe Marangella, Adam Rothblatt, Brandon Shamy, Mark Demetriou, Matt Fischer, Joe Hansen and Rudy Burshnic; softballers Candy Palumbo, Christine Rash, Becky Sullivan and Chrissy Yard; tennis singles standout Thomas Kinrade and doubles players Will Daly, Piotr Mankowski and Adam Mamawala; track and field athletes Matt Bitten, Adam Mallet, Chris Berezansky, Charles Miller, Mo Lange, Yeneisha Warrick and Eileen Cafferty; golfer Matt Simonik; boys’ lacrosse players Eric Guevara, Jared Briggs, Ryan Fitzgerald, Mike Bakaletz, Dale Nunn and goalkeeper Alex Crow; volleyball players Matt Donahue, Chris Szczesniak, Chris Cichon, Mohan Zhang and Alex Watson; and Kristen Watts and girls’ lacrosse tri-captains and leaders Krystina DeLuca, Caitlyn Glowacki and Erin Poulter.