BHS Sports Roundup: Monday, May 23

Boys track preview of Conferences and season wrapup:
Berlin hosted Fermi and Morgan and finally got a legitimate win against a full team. The Redcoats managed to beat Morgan, 88-61. 

Senior Jake Cyr had another great day winning the discus and setting a new personal best of 113 ft. - only 7 ft short of state qualifying.  Cyr has one more chance at the CCC South meet Tuesday to qualify. 

Sophomore Brendan McLarty ran another strong 800, setting his own personal record at 2:09.5. McLarty has only been beaten a couple times in the CCC South this year and should be considered a contender for all-conference honors. 

Junior Connor Hilbie continued his dominance of the distance events, winning both the 1,600 and 3,200. Hilbie had a slow start because of a chest cold at the beginning of the season, but has been displaying strong form lately and should be considered one of the top distance runners in the conference. 

Sophomore Nick Strain has shown steady improvement in the throws, throwing consistently in the javelin and discus. Strain is likely the number three discus thrower in the conference right now and could definitely be a contender at the conference meet with his best effprt. 

Shawn Sullivan has been in a bit of a jumping slump lately, but with a good effort, could land all-conference in any of the jumps.  Same for Jim Nolan, who has been chasing the pole vault school record all season. He currently shares the record at 12-0, but has been nursing injuries all season and hasn't really been able to let loose. He will have two more chances this year to break the record.

Berlin's meet with Fermi is always a fun affair and we had a couple of fun relays at the end of the meet. One of which was the race walk, which is always amusing to watch.

"While our 2-7-1 record doesn't show much success, the boys steadily improved this season and this shows promise for coming seasons." Berlin coach Rich Hanbury said. "Unfortunately, this season falls after two seasons where we had three losses combined, so by comparison it looks even worse."

Boys Tennis

Berlin 6, Middletown 1: The Berlin boys tennis team clinched a spot in the CIAC Class M state tournament (at Yale) with a decisive win over conference foe Middletown 6-1 on Senior Day. The Redcoats are now 7-5 with one last match versus Brookfield at home next Tuesday night.

Clinching the win for the Redcoats was senior Nick Gurrieri. He was down 7-3 and came back to send the match to a tiebreaker at 8-8 and won the breaker 7-3.

Sophomore Peter Hogan also overcame tough odds for a win. He was down 4-0 and 6-3 but rallied to win 8-6.

Led by senior captain Adam Salwocki and fellow seniors Mike Voepel, Dave Balfore, Kevin Stritch and Ethan Cope, Berlin swept the doubles.