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BEARS SPORTS NEW SUNDAY EDITION 02/02/2025

HIGHLIGHTS

UPDATED FOR AN HOF INDUCTION AND FINALS REPORTS FOR SWIMMING AND WRESTLING

Inside the White Rocks

  • Hockey beats GP and Gonzaga

  • Basketball upsets Bullis but loses to 2 other IAC powerhouses

    • Senior commits to the Commonwealth Community College at Cambridge where a Bear great excelled.

  • Swim and Dive detailed report from WMPSSDL

  • Wrestling at IACs FINAL REPORT

Bear Trax

  • 1 Bear Alum was inducted into the HS Strength Coaches HoF.

  • 9 Bear Alums involved in Pro (leads team in a number of stats) and College Basketball (a team leader of many #s (MAJOR PROPS about his career), another leads team in mpg/played and a sophomore who has improved all his stats as he has earned starting role, PLUS news about a SENIOR’S FUTURE JOB AND a little history on CWEBB)

  • 13 Bear Alums in hockey – Pro, College (Div. I & III) and club—one leads his team in points as a 1st year player

  • 2 Bear Alums on Swim and Dive teams

  • 2 Bear alums running for their colleges- no reports from meets

  • 2 Bear Alums on wrestling squads; one out for surgery

  • Early Lacrosse results 6 players at games, 2 started, 5 played, 1 Goalie with saves in win, 3 players with goals- all wins and all freshmen. BEAR LAX TRAX FAX needs an editor- INTERESTED???

INSIDE THE WHITE ROCKS

  • BASKETBALL – Coach Chris Bohlen earned a signature win over Bullis sandwiched with tough losses to GP and SSSA.

BIG KUDOS to FRANKIE MANNINO on his commitment to Harvard. He follows another Bear hoopster, CHRISTIAN WEBSTER, see below under college basketball for more of CWeb’s stellar career.

It has been a challenging season for the Bears. The rest of the league has improved, and we faced a tough setback before the season even began, losing three senior leaders to injuries. Yet, this team earned its title through resilience and determination. With seven of our 14 starters being underclassmen, we battled injuries and illness throughout the season, rarely fielding a full lineup. Despite these obstacles, we remained undefeated in dual meets, securing at least a share of the championship. The IAC tournament was an emotional roller coaster. We had to adjust our lineup, bumping wrestlers up in weight to cover gaps. Early losses tested our resolve, but we rebounded to place 10 wrestlers in the finals. In the medal round, it took Prep and Bullis to take us out.  While we had the most finalists, Prep had strong wrestlers in the lightweights and Bullis in the heavyweights.  In the end, we only had three champions. Bullis edged us out by 14.5 points in the tournament standings, but we held on to beat Prep by 8.5 points for second place.

106 Freshman Elijah Adams  CHAMPION— ALL-IAC

113 Freshman Teddy Abramson placed 2nd

120 Sophomore Dennis Leary wrestled up a weight to help the team, but did not place

126 Sophomore Judah Brown wrestled up a weight to help the team, but did not place

132 Captain Senior Theo Shockey CHAMPION— ALL-IAC

138 Junior Joe Papalia placed 2nd

144 Junior Makana Neverosky placed 2nd

150 Sophomore Max Murray placed 2nd

157 Senior Connor Koegel placed 2nd

165 Junior Louis McNamara wrestled up a weight and place 4th

175 Freshman Mack Dockx placed 4th

190 Junior Nick Davidoff placed 2nd

215 Captain Senior Tiller Smith CHAMPION— ALL-IAC

285 Freshman Jason Hinton placed 2nd

CONGRATULATIONS to all involved in one of Landon’s premier sports

  • SWIMMING AND DIVING – Coach Ros reports on the first day at WMPSSDL:

The day kicked off with the 200 Medley Relay, and we had two teams in this event. First up was Jacob Fayed (back), Matthew Guo (breast), Noah Aronoff (fly), and Brian Shao (free). All four boys put in very solid swims – 27.88, 30.43, 25.25, and 24.28 respectively, ultimately dropping 4 seconds off their entry time. Next up was Zach Fayed (back), Gage Bolten (breast), Nicholas Roscetti (fly), and Matthew Sonne (free). Their efforts earned them 7th seed and a spot in the championship final later tonight. They were also able to drop time to the tune of 3 seconds finishing with a 1:40.63.

The 200 Freestyle was the next event, and we had two swimmers representing Landon – Albert Payson, and William Rook.Albert was on deck first, and while he had an impressive swim for having been sick all week, he fell a little short of repeating his previous personal best time. Will had a strong consistent swim holding high 28 seconds for most of his 50s and finished 18th overall and earning a spot in the C-final for tonight.

Luc Marchand, Jacob Fayed, and Noah Aronoff were the Bears on the Blocks for Landon in the 200 IM. Jacob finished with a time of 2:15.59, Luc with a time of 2:14.60, and Noah finished with a time of 2:07.62 which earned him both a personal best time as well as 16th place overall and spot in tonight’s Consolation Final!

Next up was the 50 Freestyle for which there were 28 heats. This sounds like a lot, and it is, but the 50 is fast and if you blink too much, you can miss the event. Luis Hanika Gil was first on the starting block for Landon and he swam a 31.01. Brody Reisfield was next, and he dropped .4 seconds for a time of 28.91. Nathan Cantor swam his 50 in 31.04 seconds, and Finn Hagen swam his in 27.96 getting his personal best time dropping .46 seconds. Arthur Deng just missed repeating his personal best time and swam a 27.99. Rocco Penna despite a minor collision with the wall, was able to pull out his personal best time with a 26.87, dropping .43 seconds. Imagine what his time could have been if he nailed his flip-turn 😉. Patrick Robinson looked strong in his 50 and swam a 25.71 earning his personal best time with a drop of .36 second. Everett Mascott was another one of our swimmers still recovering from illness, but he was able to turn out a 26.92 for his 50 free. Gian LaPlaca also recovering, added a little time, but still swam a respectable 25.79. Leo Iacovelli has been looking for a drop in time since his first meet of the year, and it finally came yesterday with a drop of .19 seconds for a new personal best of 25.19 seconds. Brian Shao swam a 24.71, Jett Pedersen swam a 24.45, and Matthew Guo swam a 24.27. Gage Bolten threw his personal best time up on the big screen dropping .1 of a second for a new PB of 23.86, only .07 seconds off the Metro Cut. Nicholas Roscetti swam an impressive 22.43 earning him 10th place overall and a spot in this evening’s Consolation Final, and Matthew Sonne swam an equally impressive 22.23 earning him 7th overall and a place in tonight’s Championship Final!

The 100 Butterfly was the next event. Luc Marchand, Noah Aronoff, and Nicholas Roscetti were all back at it for Landon. Luc, coming off a week of illness, swam a 1:00.61, which was a little off his game. Noah dropped .41 seconds for his personal best and a shot to improve even more at tonight’s C-Final having earned 18th place with a time of 56.27. And Nicholas Roscetti will be coming back tonight as well after swimming his time of 53.03 and earning 10th place and a spot in the Consolation Final.

Landon put forward a number of swimmers in the 100 Freestyle. Leading off for the Bears was Nathan Cantor. He swam a 1:12.09, which was just shy of his personal best. Arthur Deng was also close to his personal best with his time yesterday of 1:06.94. Albert Payson dropped nearly a second off his previous time for a new personal best time breaking a minute with a 59.66! Leonardo Iacovelli clearly was feeling the good vibes in the building as he also swam his personal best time of 56.88 dropping 1.52 seconds! Everett Mascott swam a 1:00.40 and Jett Pedersen swam a 57.36. Gordon Beares exactly matched his personal best time fo 52.84, and our final swimmer in this event, Zach Fayed swam a 50.24, earning him 16th overall and a spot in tonight’s Consolation Final!

The 500 Freestyle was next, and we only had one entry – Jackson Schwartz. Jackson made the mistake of letting me know that he swam this event in the past and was willing to try it again. Given that my other 500 Freestylers were in other events or didn’t make the cut time for this championship, I took him up on his offer. The last time Jackson swam this event was back in September of 2023, with a time of 6:04.88. Yesterday, Jackson put up the following number on the big screen – 5:24.21! In addition, he came in 24th earning him a spot in the C-Final. While the C-final won’t be swum again tonight, Jackson brings in some points for our team. Congratulations on a 40.59 second drop in your time.

Now it was time for some more relays – the 200 Freestyle Relay event. The first team up for Landon included Brian Shao, Gian LaPlaca, Luis Hanika Gil, and Brody Reisfield. All four swam well and were able to drop 2.46 seconds off their entry time. The second team, comprised of Matthew Guo, Jackson Schwartz, Leo Iacovelli, and Jett Pedersen swam a 1:37.25, coming in 14th overall and earning a spot in tonight’s Consolation Finals.

Rocco Penna was first up for Landon in the 100 Backstroke. Rocco had a very solid swim dropping 5.79 seconds earning his personal best time of 1:06.88. Gian LaPlaca followed this up with his own drop of 2.95 seconds swimming his personal best time of 1:04.63. Jackson Schwartz came in after swimming the previous two events and put up a 1:03.99, just a half second off his best time. Jacob Fayed continued the trend of dropping time and pulled out a 1:01.20 representing a .42 second drop of his previous best time. Will Rook, continuing the trend, dropped .17 seconds for a time of 59.28 and a spot in the C-Finals tonight earning 23rd place. Gordon Beares will be joining Will in the C-Final having earned 20th place with his time of 57.81. Zach Fayed and Matthew Sonne will be swimming together tonight in the Consolation Final having earned 12th and 11th places respectively with times of 55.15 and 54.66.

We were now on our final individual event of the morning, and Finn Hagen walked up to the blocks to swim the 100 Breaststroke. He looked determined, and he proved this by crushing his previous best time by 9.85 seconds swimming a 1:15.90! Patrick Robinson also swam his personal best time dropping 5.20 seconds for a new PB of 1:17.56. Matthew Guo also swam his personal best dropping .33 seconds for a time of 1:08.74, just missing the Metro cut. Our final swimmer for this event was Gage Bolten. He swam a 1:03.98, which earned him 19th place and a spot in tonight’s C-Finals.

The final event of the morning was the 400 Freestyle Relay. Our first relay included Jacob Fayed, Jackson Schwartz, Noah Aronoff, and Gordon Beares. After a long day, these boys put forth a solid effort with a time of 3:34.91 all swimming a 55 second 100 or faster. Our second team – Nicholas Roscetti, William Rook, Matthew Sonne, and Zach Fayed came in 4th overall! This will be an exciting final event tonight in the Championship Finals.

So, to recap, here are the swimmers who will be representing Landon at Finals tonight:

  • Medley Relay – Zach Fayed, Gage Bolten, Nicholas Roscetti, Matthew Sonne

  • 200 Freestyle – William Rook

  • 200 IM – Noah Aronoff

  • 50 Freestyle – Nicholas Roscetti and Matthew Sonne

  • 100 Fly – Nicholas Roscetti and Noah Aronoff

  • 100 Freestyle – Zach Fayed

  • 500 Freestyle – Jackson Schwartz (C-Finals don’t race tonight – their standing in prelims holds for finals)

  • 200 Free Relay – Matthew Guo, Jackson Schwartz, Leo Iacovelli, and Jett Pedersen

  • 100 Back – William Rook, Gordon Beares, Zach Fayed, and Matthew Sonne

  • 100 Breast – Gage Bolten

  • 400 Free Relay – Nicholas Roscetti, William Rook, Matthew Sonne, and Zach Fayed

Join me in congratulating all our swimmers as there were many personal best times earned and a rather nice showing for finals.

FINALS REPORT

The men’s diving was completed the night before, and both Sam Bynum and Teddy Angelides took to the boards for Landon. Sam finished in 9th place overall. Last year at this event, Sam finished 12th. Teddy made his debut with Landon and finished in 13th place overall. Congrats to both divers for their success and bringing in a total of 34 points to the team’s score.

With the senior parade behind us, where we had a chance to recognize Zach Fayed, Matthew Sonne, William Rook, and Rayan Anvari, and the National Anthem played, it was time to get underway with the 200 Medley Relay. Behind the blocks for Landon were Zach Fayed (backstroke), Gage Bolten ( breaststroke), Nicholas Roscetti (fly), and Matthew Sonne (free). Every one of them swam a little faster than in prelims the day before and broke 1:40 with a time of 1:39.90, earning them a 7th place overall finish.

William Rook was the bear in the water for the 200 Freestyle. He swam his personal best time going a 1:52.06, representing nearly a 1 second drop from the previous day, and a 19th place overall finish.

With a few people from other teams scratching from various events, Luc Marchand moved up in the ranks and made the C-Finals cut in the 200 IM. The evening was good to him as he swam a 2:11.89, which was a 2.71 drop from prelims, and which gave him a 22nd place overall finish. Noah Aronoff, in the Consolation Final, swam a very similar time as he did in the prelims and secured the 16th place finish overall.

The ”blink-of-an-eye” event was next – the 50 Freestyle. Nicholas Roscetti was in lane 5 of the Consolation Final – the second fastest time in his heat. He swam his personal best for Landon going a 22.22 and dropping .21 seconds off his prelims time. Matthew Sonne, also in lane 5, but in the Championship Final, was trying to break 22 seconds. He swam a great race and finished with a time of 22.01, just barely missing his goal. But it was enough to come in 7th overall in what was a fast heat, where the winning time was a 20.42. I am confident that Matthew will reach his goal before the season is done.

The 100 Butterfly brought Noah Aronoff back up to lane 5. He took 4th in his heat and finished in 20th place overall with a time of 56.47. Nicholas Roscetti also returned to lane 5 in the Consolation Final and finished 5th in his heat with a time of 53.50 and an overall finish of 13th place.

Zach Fayed was Landon’s sole swimmer in the 100 Freestyle. He came in as the 16th seed and was able to secure that spot in the finals in a very fast heat where all 8 swimmers swam between a 48 and 51 seconds for the hundred.

The 500 Freestyle was next, but on the Consolation and Championship Finals are swum at finals. The C-finalists still score, but are not re-swum, so Jackson Schwartz kept his 24th place finish from the day before.

In the 200 Freestyle Relay, we had to make some changes due to some injuries and illnesses that cropped up between Friday and Saturday, so now Matthew Guo, Leo Iacovelli, Luc Marchand and Rayan Anvari were on deck to defend the 14th place finish from prelims. Collectively they swam .78 seconds faster than prelims with a finals time of 1:36.47 and held on to that 14th place finish.

We had four finalists in the 100 Backstroke. William Rook and Gordon Beares spun their wheels in the C-Final and both improved their times earning their personal bests with a time of 57.91 and a drop of 1.37 seconds for Will, and a 56.92 and a drop of .89 seconds for Gordon! This earned them the respectable final finishes of 21st and 19th places respectively. The Consolation Final brought Matthew Sonne into lane 5 and Zach Fayed into lane 3. And here again, both swimmers improved over their prelim times with Zach coming in at 54.56 for an overall finish of 10th place dropping .59 seconds, and Matthew touching the wall at 54.44 seconds, dropping .22 seconds, and finishing in 9th place overall. It was exciting to see Landon take 1st and 2nd in this heat!

100 Breaststroke was the final individual event and Gage Bolten returned to see if he could improve upon his time from prelims. He had a strong swim and was able to drop .38 seconds from Friday’s time for a 1:03.60, but his double butterfly kick on his third turn disqualified him from the event. This serves as a great learning opportunity that will help us prepare for Metros.

The final event of the night was the 400 Freestyle Relay. Nicholas Roscetti led off and finished with a lightning fast time of 48.53. Will Rook was next to dive in and he responded with his own brand of a lightning strike hitting the wall at 50.29 (his fastest relay time). Matthew Sonne channeled Zeus himself and hit the pad at 47.99. Zach brought it home with a 49.47 giving the bears an overall time of 3:16.28, dropping 3.56 from prelims and securing the 5th place finish overall in what was a VERY fast heat. While this wasn’t a Landon School record, it was incredibly close. The school record for this event, set in 2017, is 3:15.86. This year’s team is less than a half a second away from breaking this record, and we have two more big meets in which to do this, so stay tuned…

At the end of the night, Landon came in 6th overall, just behind Prep, but ahead of The Heights who beat us last year. We are holding strong in our finishes at this event, and we look forward to continued success in the events that remain this season.

I would like to congratulate all the swimmers on a great championship. Everyone swam very well showing a rather impressive improvement over even the IAC championship just the week before. I would also like to thank Jacob Fayed and Nathon Cantor who came out to support the team for finals even though they weren’t swimming. And finally, I would like to thank the parents for their help volunteering to help run the event. This was our last big team event for the season. As a full team, we now set our attention to Senior Night, which is on February 11th at Holton Arms. In addition, about half of the team will be representing Landon at both Metros next week and weekend and Easterns the week and weekend after that.

  • INDOOR TRACK—

BEAR TRAX

Marty Klingelhofer (affectionally know as Coach K) L77 received the highest honor of his profession by being inducted into the NHSSCA’ Hall of Fame. This honor shows how prescient his Bears are-THEY KNEW THAT HE WAS THE BEST FOR YEARS!!!


BASKETBALL 9

1 Pro; 1 Div. I coach; 7 college(3 Div. I);

PRO

  • Darion Atkins L11, SIGORTAM.NET ISTANBUL (16-6), #18, 22 gp, 29.6 min/game, 14.6 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.7 apg, 2.0 block/game, 0.8 steal/GAME [1ST IN REBOUNDS and MIN, 2nd IN PPG]

COLLEGE COACH

  • Christian Webster L09 VaTech Assistant Hokies (9-12)

CAREER (see Frankie Mannino above)- who was recognized by the university with Male Career Achievement Award. CWEB was winningest player in Harvard men’s basketball history, three Ivy League championships. After returning to Harvard to coach, he has been recognized by ESPN and NBA as one of the top young coaches.

COLLEGE

  • Canin Reynolds, L20, Amherst senior, #2, Mammoths  (10-9) 

Though not getting a lot of PT, Canin after graduation will be returning to Comcast/NBCUniversal as a member of the CORE rotational program

  • Roger Pyfrom, L20, Seton Hall junior, manager, Pirates (6-15)

  • Kino Lily, Jr. L21, Brown senior, #10, Bears  (10-8), PLAYED #10 played all games so far 18 GS, 35.9 min/g*, 18.2. ppg*, 2.0 reb, 4.4 apg*, .8 spg– * leads Brown

After win over Columbia, a lot of props

for Kino Lilly, Sr.

  • Mike Gray L22, University of Lynchburg sophomore, #5, Hornets (10-9); PLAYED 18 GP 10 GS, 20.9 min/pg, 11.3 ppg, 2.3  rpg

  • Tyler Perkins L23, Villanova sophomore #4, Wildcats (12-10), #4 PLAYED 22 GP*, 3 GS, 24.5 mpg. 6.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.2 apg all stats are in the top 5 of Wildcat players

  • Ari Hobson L24, Washington & Lee freshman #13, Generals (6-12); #13, 7 GP, 26.0 min/g, 6 pts/g. 4 reb/g

HOCKEY 15

PRO

  • Sam Anas L’11 Minsk Dynamo31-20 ;#7; 46

 GP, 14.3 TOI/G, 10 G 19 A, 1 PPG, 1 OTG, 2 GWG-  

  • Patrick Giles, L*18 Charlotte Checkers ( 24-12-3-2), #36, 30 GP , 4 G,  2 A,

COLLEGE NCAA Div. I and III

  • Matthew Brille L*20; Brown sophomore #19: Bears (4-8-2) recovering from hand surgery

  • Oscar Smink, L21, Amherst College junior #6, Mammoths (7-7-1) 14 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 14 shots, 38/57 faceoffs

  • Kareem Alazem, L*21? Connecticut College junior #7, Camels (6-10-1): 12 GP, 2 shots,10 blk

  • Will Lawrence, L*21? Connecticut College freshman #88, Camels (6-10-1):17 GP, 5 G,6 A, 3PPG, 12 blk LEADS CAMELS IN POINTS

  • Ethan Goldman L22, Connecticut College sophomore #13, Camels (6-10-1): 1 GP

COLLEGE CLUB

  • TY MORTON, L19, Ohio (15-0-2-1) , G, 2-0, 0.00 ga

  • JH Lages L*21, VaTech

  • Riley Knebel L22 UVA  

  • Owen Calderone L 23, LSU

  • Zaakir Khan L23, GMU

  • Arthur Smink L23, BC

  • Graham Haberle, L24 UVA

  • Alex McMillan, L24 UVA

  • Quinn Farland, L24, Wake Forest

SOCCER-

  • Professional Soccer 1

  • Kristian Fletcher L’23: Nottingham Forest FC (7-4-1-1) #46, 4 GP. 99 MIN.

Swimming-2

  • Ethan Tun L21, Carleton Senior, at St. Olafs contributed a leg in a wining Men 400 Yard Medley Relay and then won the 200 yard Backstroke

  • Olaoluwedji Jones L24 American University freshman – SWAM in Men 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

Cross-Country/Indoor Track-2

Wrestling-3

  • David LaPrade, L23, Williams College (4-3), sophomore, 2-2  at 197#. Dave not mentioned.

  • James Hanley, L24, Roger Williams (10-3), freshman, injured now recovering from surgery,

  • Jonny Gherman, L19, 7th/8th grade wrestling coach St. Frances Academy, Roswell, GA

REGULAR SEASON LACROSSE

For many years, the task of following all the alums on BearLaxTrax was a labor of love of John Nichols. His increasing responsibilities of being a grandfather trumps this work. ANYONE INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING please, please email me sandy_murdock@yahoo.comm or call 202-262-1052

In order of their Landon Class:

  • JT THOMAS L20, USNA 27: #13, SSDM beat High Point 14-10

  • CULLEN BROWN, L22, OSU 26: D, STARTED 2 GBs in a BEAR v. BEAR loss against UTAH 19-13

  • PRESTON LUGAR L22, USNA 26: #16, SSDM beat High Point 14-10

  • HUNTER TAYLOR L22, Michigan 26: #51: G,STARTED 10 saves on 11 shots in a 14-1 win over Marquette

  • KEVIN MILLER L24, GEORGETOWN 28: #49,A.PLAYED  3G, 4 SHOTS in a 13-6 win over Loyola

  • ANTHONY PANETTI L24, BUCKNELL 28: #22 A PLAYED 2A 2S 1GB, 1CT in a 23-7 win over Merrimack.

  • CHASE ROBERTSON L24, UTAH 28: #11 M played in BEAR v. BEAR win over OSU 19-13 1G, 1A, 3 shots, 1 gb

PRE SEASON LACROSSE


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