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Wharton hockey back on top

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BY NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY nmurray@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2009

A strong senior class and an influx of young talent have lifted Wharton's hockey team back to the top in the Lightning Conference Central Division.

The Wildcats remained tied for the league lead with a 12-0 victory against Newsome White on Saturday, but it was their 3-2 win against defending league champions Newsome Blue the previous weekend that elevated Wharton back into contenders for the league title.

Coach Tom Leechin said the side reminds him of the squad he had when his current senior class were freshmen, which may currently stand as the best in the program's history.

"It kind of reminds me of one of our earlier teams where we had a great group of seniors and a group of incoming freshmen that picked up the lines," Leechin said. "We have three strong lines going forward, and two good on D now, so we're able to rotate people in and out. In the past year we were wearing guys out because they were on the ice too much."

The added depth the freshman class has brought has given seniors Matt Cazes and Jake Nager greater opportunity to succeed. Cazes has eight goals in the first six games, while Nager has added six. Cazes gives a lot of credit to his teammates for taking the pressure of him.

"My line's not always playing the top line where it was last year," Cazes said. "We have a freshman, Julian (Baron-Clark), who is playing really well, so there's just a lot more space."

Nager scored the opening goal against Newsome Blue, and then Cazes added a pair of goals before the Wildcats held off a rally by the Wolves.

"That just set the bar higher for us, to beat more teams so we can keep in first place," Nager said.

"I'm extremely proud of all the seniors," Leechin said. "I think we have six or seven freshmen or new people on the team, (the seniors) have taken them in as part of the team, part of the family and have just done a great job. The senior class, I just can't talk enough about with John Collins, Jake Nager, Matt Cazes, Connor Castro, J.P. D'Ambrosio in net, Alex Monti, probably one of our worst skaters, but he's a senior and he's out there giving it his all every time."

Panthers earn Head of the Hooch victory

Going into Saturday's Head of the Hooch regatta in Chattanooga, Tenn., Plant girls rowing coach Skye Elliott was expecting a good performance from his women's varsity 8, building on their victory at the Halloween Regatta.

What he wasn't expecting was that his crew would be the only one to break the 15-minute barrier and earn victory in the 46-boat field.

"I would say I'm surprised more than anything else," Elliott said. "We just trained hard to do well in the spring. I really didn't expect us to win the race in the way we did. I think the key to that race was the girls had a lot of heart."

The Panthers crew of Parker Hodges, Garrison Hodges, Elisabeth Murray, Raelyn Loiselle, Taylor Aiken, Christianne Biggane, Isabel Duvall, Sophie Seidenberg and coxswain Kristen Brownlee finished 10 seconds ahead of their nearest competition, the St. Andrew Rowing Club, in a time of 14 minutes, 51.2 seconds. Elliott said he challenged the crew before the race, and they responded.

"I said, 'your fitness is good enough to have a great race. You know how to row well, but you're really going to have a different level of mental toughness and heart.' I really think that was what made the difference."

The Panthers men's varsity 8 also had a groundbreaking showing, finishing fifth (14:03.5) for the best showing in men's team history. Coach Matt Abel was pleased the Panthers' crew of Ji Park, Matt Jensen, Conor Howlett, Andrew Jacobson, Tyler Blume, Tim Duff, Tanner Votaw, Marty McGowan and coxswain Paige Fernandez had been rewarded for their work over the summer.

"The cliche is probably success breeds success," Abel said.

"You have some wins, you have some medals on the national level, and it's great motivation for those fellas who were all coming back to say 'we've done this, we've put in this amount of work to being competitive on the national level, so if we do more of that, we can be very competitive at national regattas.' "

Nicholas Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243.

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