St. Mary’s Wins CMSAA Championship

As ‘March Madness’ takes control of college ball, some of the younger local teams are wrapping up. Over the past several years the Saint Mary’s Elementary School seventh- eighth-grade boys’ basketball team has made great strides under the coaching guidance of Rich Cain and Jack Murphy. In the past the team has been strong, but plagued by injuries and fallen short of winning the Catholic Middle School Athletic Association (CMSAA) Championships. This season would definitely be a little different.

With just a handful of practices, the team took the court in early December in Seaford against the team that knocked them out of the tournament last year, St. William the Abbot. Getting off to a quick start the team never looked back, not only winning that game handily, but more throughout the season to end up with a 17-0 record. At playoffs, the league of 11 teams split into “A” and “B” divisions to promote equal play. St. Mary’s received the No. 1 seed in the “A” bracket. After receiving a bye in the first round and winning in the semi-final game on their home court by 25, the team headed across the Island to Rockville Centre to face the two-time champions, St. Agnes.

Manhasset’s Accomplished Dancers

Special event at Queens Theatre

Patricia Kenny Reilly and Heather Berest, both graduates of Manhasset High School and Shelter Rock Elementary School, began attending ballet classes at the Berest Dance Center when they were 10 years old.  

After completing their schooling in Manhasset, they went on to study dance in college, both receiving BFA degrees. For Patricia, it was a full talent scholarship to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and for Heather, an acceptance into the prestigious conservatory, North Carolina School of The Arts. Upon graduation, each went on to travel nationally and internationally with leading modern dance companies, enjoying success in the world of professional dance— not an easy task to accomplish.  

5K Rower’s Walk/Run

Manhasset’s High School Crew Team is hosting its first annual 5K Walk/Run on Sunday, April 7, rain or shine. All are welcome to participate, so why not start out this spring with some exercise and fresh air while you support Manhasset Rowers in raising funds. Proceeds will be used to purchase a boat for the growing team, with 10 percent of money raised donated toward the Manhasset UFSD 2013 Fields Initiative.

Register online at nycruns.com/mhscrew. The $35 entry fee includes a souvenir T-shirt, a race chip that will clock your results, and a post-race awards ceremony. Day-of-race registration fee is $40.

On The Bay: March 22, 2013

On a bitterly cold Sunday in late January, the Port Washington Yacht Club held its annual meeting, which included the installation of new officers. While this annual event at all yacht clubs is important for the future of each club, the one this past January at PWYC was significant. With a vote of total confidence, the members of the PWYC elected their first woman Commodore, Theresa Capoziello. She is the 50th Commodore of the club. The first Commodore was H.B. Rankin.

Track & Field Top Honors At State Championships

While athletes were greeted by dropping temperatures and a steady snowfall in Ithaca this past weekend, inside Barton Hall things were just beginning to heat up.  As has become tradition at Manhasset, the indoor season culminated at the New York State Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The Indians had four individual qualifiers this season, which is twice the number from the previous year. In a sport that has seen an explosion in both growth and depth of talent over the past several years, this alone is quite an achievement. However, the qualifiers sent to represent Manhasset were not satisfied with merely having been given the opportunity to compete - they each came with the goal of stepping up on the podium as an All-State selection.

Junior Tara Belinsky led the way, continuing her dominant season by throwing a career best of 42’10.5” in the shot put to finish as this year’s silver medalist. In fact, Tara reset her personal best three times throughout the competition, throwing her best series ever to earn All-State and All-Federation honors. Tara will look to continue her breakout season when she competes at the New Balance Indoor Nationals next weekend in New York City.

Swimmers Qualify For Regional Competition

Manhassett residents Giorgia Piantanida, Carlotta Piantanida, Zachary Leng, Jeffrey McNeary, Luca Sodi, Conor Beil, Nicholas Sodi, Michaela DePhillips, Claire McNeary, and Allegra Sodi have qualified to compete at the 2013 Metropolitan Swimming Junior Olympics.  These young swimmers will compete representing the nationally ranked host team, Long Island Aquatic Club (LIAC).  Each year LIAC sends a large squad to the Junior Olympics to compete for the titles as the best age group swimmers in the Metropolitan LSC.

The Junior Olympics are a culmination of months of hard work for swimmers all over the metropolitan region.   Thanks to their determination and dedication in practice these athletes will be very confident when they step up on the racing blocks to compete.  

Kwon’s Karate Promotes Munsey Park Students

Are Thomas Rowan, Noah Rubin and Donovan Barcelona budding young superheroes? Could be. By day, they’re students at Munsey Park Elementary. But at night, they don special outfits and sharpen the skills they need to battle the bad guys.
The youngsters don’t possess actual superpowers. But several times a week they do put on sparring gear and practice self defense techniques at Kwon’s Karate studio in Manhasset. Over the past five years they’ve steadily risen through successive skill levels and received belts of different colors. Finally, several months ago, the boys traveled to New Jersey, along with dozens of other practitioners from the region, to take a sweat-inducing, hours-long test for that martial arts milestone, the black belt. How did they fare? Superbly! All three passed the grueling exam, the Korean self defense system known as Soo Bahk Do, with flying colors. That’s quite an achievement for 10-year-olds with nightly homework and early bedtimes.

All Hail The Champs!

St. Mary’s wins St. Vincent de Paul tournament

St. Mary’s sixth-grade team 7 won the 40th Annual St. Vincent de Paul Basketball tournament with a 41 – 39 win over St. Rose of Lima White of Massapequa. St. Mary’s defeated St. Rose Red in round 1 and bested St. Rose White in overtime in the semi-final. This is the fourth time in four years that this team has won this tournament. The most telling statistic of the tournament was Joseph Mulholland taking six charges in the tournament, three in the final game. Congratulations to: Kelly Quinn, Charlie Young, Jackson Cherry, Alex Racanelli, Chris Glynn, Steven Vlahakis, Duncan Barcelona, Steven Salerno, Jack Hannan, Joseph Mulholland, Louis Perfetto, Timmy Kiggins and Patrick Weber.

Boys Wins CYO Title

St. Mary’s fifth-grade team faced tough opponents in the first round of the St. Raphael’s winter tournament.  St. Mary’s went 2-0 with wins against St. Brigid (30-15) and St. William (33-30) and entered the semi-finals as the 3 seed and won against St. Barnabas and that guaranteed the team a spot in the championship game vs. St. William.  

It was a nailbiter all the way until the last 20 seconds when St. Mary’s clinched the win and with it, the championship. It was the tough defense and clutch free-throws in the last seconds that sealed the victory for St. Mary’s.  The boys who played on the winning team were: Joseph Busch, Luke Bakshandeh, Liam Cash, John Crimmins, Jack Doherty, Cole Gaccione, Jimmy Kelly, Brendan Lane, Brian Mack, Nick Morton, Dylan Shelley, Cole Zaffiro and Tommy Zahn.

On The Bay: February 22, 2013

Back in 1938, a Mr. Otway Hebron Chalkley was on the cover of Time for its `July 4 edition (price: 15 cents). For many readers, that name has no meaning, but for skippers of the Manhasset Bay One Designs (MBOD), he is known as “Father of the Class.” He changed the name of this one design class from the Junior One Design to its present name and formed the MBO class at Manhasset Bay YC. Ever since then, the MBODs have been a vibrant and social fleet. Considering that these boats are wooden and take tons of upkeep, their long history is quite remarkable.

This past month, the group gathered at the home of Nancy and Lew Lane to celebrate the fun times and award annual trophies. But this being the MBODs, the best part of the evening, besides the tremendous food and libation, were the “ha ha” awarded at the end of the meeting.