During Friday’s assembly in the Phillips Stevens Chapel, Williston Athletic Director Mark Conroy took to the dais for a recap of the winter sports season, which wrapped up after students went home for March break.
Mr. Conroy took time to go through the season of each individual team at Williston—including the sub-varsity teams—and recognized the individual award-winners for each program. In addition, the NEPSAC-winning captains from the Boys Swimming & Diving and Girls Hockey teams presented Head of School Robert Hill with the championship trophies from their campaigns.
Below are the full remarks from the assembly.
Hello Williston!!!! I hope everyone’s third trimester and spring season is off to a great start!
Before we get too far from winter, I want to take this opportunity to reflect back on our winter athletic season to celebrate the many team and individual successes that we enjoyed this winter. It certainly was another terrific winter season for Wildcat Athletics!!! Here are a few highlights of each program and all the individual award winners….
Ski Teams
Under the leadership of co-head coaches Chris Tanguay and Sarah Kneip, our ski teams enjoyed successful seasons competing in the Mountain Institute League up at Berkshire East. The JV boys placed third in the league led by Devin Berry Brown, who placed sixth overall, while the varsity boys finished in fifth, led by captain Ben Carlan.
The varsity season culminated for both the boys and girls teams at the NEPSAC Class B championships held at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire. There were 60 boys representing 14 schools competing in the slalom and giant slalom races. Top individual finishers for Williston were senior Ben Carlan, sophomores Quin James and Dan McBride and freshman Emmet Gould. Ben was our top finisher in the slalom race at 29th while Emmet Gould was our top finisher in the Giant Slalom finishing in 23rd. The team finished in 11th out of the 14 team competing.
The top finisher for our girls team in both slalom and giant slalom races was seventh grader Elise Edmunds.
I would like recognize the individual award winners in the ski programs. Please stand and remain standing when I call your name:
Varsity Boys
Most Valuable Skier Award – Emmett Gould ‘26
Most Improved Skier Award – Devin Berry Brown ’26, Quin James ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Ben Carlan ’23
Captains for next year will be Emmett Gould ’26, Quin James ‘25
Varsity Girls
Most Valuable Skier Award – Sophie Edmunds ’23
Most Improved Skier Award – Elise Edmunds ’28
Sportsmanship Award – Sierra Grandonico ’26
Captains for next year- Sierra Grandonico ’26, Ava Medaugh ’25
Girls Squash
The varsity girls squash team was led this winter by Josh Schmidt. The team played competitive, spirited squash throughout their season highlighted by an exciting 4-3 win over a good KO team on Senior Day. The girls competed well at the NEPSAC championships held at Pomfret School late in the season. Olivia Zaiken and Zoe Zhang both finished in third place in their bracket while senior captain Louisa Coughlin took second. In terms of individual postseason recognition, eighth grader Olivia Zaiken earned All-NEPSAC honorable mention honors.
I would like to recognize the individual award winners in the girls squash program—please stand and remain standing—we will applaud you as a group at the end:
Varsity
Most Valuable Player – Louisa Coughlin ’23
Most Improved Player – Coraly Siegel ‘23
Sportsmanship Award – Mia Grady ‘23
Next year’s captain will be Betsy Gaudreau ‘24
Boys Squash
Coach Kokoszka’s thirds team demonstrated notable improvement throughout their season highlighted by two terrific matches with Bement. Coach Jesus Lopez-Diez’s JV team enjoyed a competitive season highlighted by convincing wins over Albany and Avon, and a season sweep of rival Suffield!
The varsity boys squash team was led this winter by both Josh Rilla and Jonny Bianchi. The team benefitted from strong leadership from captain Luke Ballard who did a stellar job leading and inspiring his teammates throughout the season. Highlights of their season included competitive wins over Canterbury and Trinity Pawling, a 7-0 shutout over Salisbury and avenging an early season lost to Suffield by defeating them in our next two contests. In terms of postseason recognition, Luke Ballard earned All-NEPSAC honorable mention honors.
I would like to ask the individual award winners to stand and remain standing. We will applaud them as a group at the end:
Thirds
Most Valuable Player Award – Adrian Paez ’27
Most Improved Player Award – Max Elkin ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Durgin Shields ‘24
JV
Most Valuable Player Award – Liam Barry
Most Improved Player Award – Noah Comrie ’27
Sportsmanship Award – Connor Graff ‘26
Varsity
Most Valuable Player Award – Luke Ballard ‘23
Most Improved Player Award – Gunnar Tebo ‘23
Sportsmanship Award – Orion Minton ’23 (second year in a row!)
Captain for next year – Eddie Howell ‘24
Girls Basketball
For the first time in 11 years, girls basketball fielded three teams this winter. The thirds team demonstrated great improvement under the leadership of Eva Camacho-Sanchez and Jonny Bianchi. The JV squad enjoyed wonderful team camaraderie under the enthusiastic leadership of coaches Taylor and Rohan. The team finished with a winning record highlighted by victories over Choate, Cushing, Taft and Suffield.
Varsity Girls Basketball, under the leadership of coaches Liam McMahon and Amber Davey, had a young team this winter with only one senior Kristen Trembley. The team demonstrated significant improvement playing their best basketball in the final month of the season. There were several highlights during this stretch including decisive wins over Pomfret and Westminster, defeating rival Deerfield at home 53-45 and a great road win at Cheshire. Arguably the most exciting win of the year was an overtime thriller at Miss Porters. Skyler Walker’s last second shot forced overtime and the girls went on to win 54-49. With so much experience returning next year, the future is bright for girls basketball!
For her excellent play during the season, freshman Skyler Walker competed for the west team in the Class B All-Star Game held at Loomis. To top this off, Skyler also earned All-NEPSAC honorable mention honors.
I would like to recognize the award winners in the girls basketball program. Please remain standing when I call your names:
Thirds
Most Valuable Player Award – Haruka Okuno ’26, Charlotte Raffetto ‘28
Most Improved Player Award – Maddy McCarthy ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Elise Ollmann-Kahle ‘25
JV
Most Valuable Player Award – Lauren Counter ‘26, Zoe Melia ‘27
Most Improved Player Award – Ashley Zhang ’26
Sportsmanship Award – Maya Mallett ‘26
Varsity
Most Valuable Player Award – Skyler Walker ‘26
Most Improved Player Award – Stella Michalski ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Kristen Trembley ‘23
Boys Hockey
The JV Boys Hockey team, led by Coaches Mike Fay and Bryce Shattie, played competitive hockey all winter. The highlight of their season was a season ending 5-2 win over a very good Berkshire team. As a sign of their improvement, this was the very same Berkshire team that the boys lost to 7-1 in December!
Under coaches Cunha and Hanford, the Varsity Boys Hockey team fought hard all winter taking on its usual very challenging schedule. The team played it’s best hockey in the second half of the season going 10-3 from mid-January onward. There were several highlights during this stretch including sweeping both WMA and Canterbury, a terrific 3-2 win over rival Millbrook and a decisive 7-2 win at home over a tournament bound Loomis team. Undoubtedly the two biggest wins of the season were a thrilling 6-5 overtime win at home over Deerfield on a Friday night in February and a final weekend game at Winchendon when the boys came back from a 3-1 deficit to force overtime winning it with the goalie pulled and four seconds on the clock on a goal scored by Felix-Antoine Bouchard. By defeating NMH and Deerfield, the boys once again clinched the Pioneer Valley Cup, our annual competition for Western Massachusetts boys hockey superiority.
In terms of individual recognition, seniors Felix-Antoine Bouchard and Jayson Alegria were both named All-NEPSAC honorable mention.
I would like to recognize the award winners in the boys hockey program. Please stand and remain standing:
JV
Most Valuable Player Award –Michael Saliba ‘25
Most Improved Player Award – Shane Bussard ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Chase Livingston ‘24
Varsity
Daniel D. Carpenter Most Valuable Player Award–Felix Antoine Bouchard ‘23
Most Improved Player Award – Olivier Lapointe ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Jake Smith ‘25
Boys Basketball
It was another banner winter season for Williston boys’ basketball! On the lower levels, Coach Malinowski’s Mighty Fourths team finished their season with a winning record at 5-2 with the highlight of their season a season ending win over an Eaglebrook team that beat them in December!
The robust Thirds team had 28 team members this winter so once again divided itself into two groups—aptly named the Blue and Green teams of course! The teams made tremendous progress all winter finishing with a combined record of 10-7! Without question, the biggest highlight was coming back from a 19-0 first-half deficit (yes, you heard that right!) to defeat Eagle Hill, 24-23! Coach Vachet and Ketcham’s JV team enjoyed its finest season in 18 years finishing with a tremendous record of 14-1! I think it is a fair statement to say that this was definitely one of the finest JV boys basketball seasons in our school’s proud history!
Under the leadership of head coach Ben Farmer and assistant Jayson Leigh, the Varsity Boys Basketball team enjoyed a tremendous season finishing with a record of 18-6, including going 12-3 in highly competitive NEPSAC Class A! This also included a perfect 7-0 road record! There were several highlights during the season, including beating AA power WMA, defeating Class A rivals Berkshire and Salisbury, and a terrific win over defending champion Hotchkiss at home. With a postseason berth in question late in the season, the boys played their best basketball down the stretch and earned wins over Loomis, Andover and Choate. Additionally, the team managed to sweep rival Suffield for the fifth year in a row—that’s 10 straight wins over our friendly rival—not that anyone is counting!
From an individual standpoint, Grgur Brcic averaged a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while senior point guard Paul Ippolito led the team in scoring averaging 15 points per game.
In terms of individual recognition, Paul and Grugr both earned All-NEPSAC honors, while fellow seniors Beau O’Bierne and Connor Jenkins were both named honorable mentions.
I would like to recognize the award winners in the boys program:
4ths
Most Valuable Player Award – Reece Berrien ‘27
Most Improved Player Award – Henry Estes ’27, Izzy Smith ‘28
Sportsmanship Award – Sam Dietrich ’27
3rds
Most Valuable Player Award – Beckett Collins ‘25
Most Improved Player Award – Ken Machida ’25, Dean Ruksnaitis ‘26
Sportsmanship Award – Jack Berrien ’25, Edmon Tong ‘25
JV
Most Valuable Player Award – Will Vachet ‘25
Most Improved Player Award – Omar Santoyo ‘25
Sportsmanship Award – Connor Capshaw ‘23
Varsity
Most Valuable Player Award – Paul Ippolito ’23
Most Improved Player Award – Nadim Smaira ‘24
Sportsmanship Award – TJ Henaghen ‘23
Boys and Girls Swimming and Diving
The Girls Swimming and Diving team had another successful season! Amongst their many dual meet highlights were big wins over KO, WMA and Kent, and a first-place finish at the KO Invitational in December. At the season-ending NEPSAC championship meet held at WPI in Worcester, the girls finished their season on a high note with some outstanding performances leading them to a sixth-place finish. Coach K says that the true story of this meet for the girls was the consistently strong performances turned in across the board as every girl dropped significant time and swam great for their teammates. Lucy Hoyt, Gabi Bobiak, and Maisie Mattocks all posted best times in the 200 and 500 freestyles. Katya Krasnovskaya dropped 7 seconds in her 200 IM, while Mya Schattin scored huge points in the 50 and 100 freestyles, Kaitlyn Williams dropped over 2 seconds in her 100 freestyle and Abby Muscato posted huge drops in the fly and the breast strokes.
Two girls earned All-NEPSAC recognition for their outstanding swims. Junior Andie Kinstle finished third in the 100 breaststroke while, for the second year in a row, Campbell Collins earned All-NEPSAC recognition in both the 200 and 500 free with a second in the 500 free and a third in the 200 free.
I would like to recognize the award winners in the girls swimming and diving program. Please stand when I read your names:
Most Valuable Swimmer – Campbell Collins ’23
Most Improved Swimmer – Mya Schattin ‘25
Sportsmanship- Andie Kinstle ‘24
Next year’s captains – Hayden Hedstrom ’24, Andie Kinstle ’24, Abby Muscato ‘24
And now turning to our boys….
The boys swimming and diving team had another tremendous season!! Highlights of their dual meet season included big dual meet wins over WMA, Kingswood, and Kent. The boys also managed to win the KO Invitational in December.
At the NEPSAC championships held at WPI, the boys were underdogs going into the meet but a combination of good fortune and their best swimming of the winter propelled them to their third-straight NEPSAC Division 2 Championship in thrilling fashion!!! Incredibly, the boys beat out runner-up KO 371-363—an incredibly close finish between rival schools!! This was the 17th NEPSAC swimming championship in our school’s long and proud swimming history and our THIRD in a row!!!
Could I ask the team captains to come forward to make a presentation?
This championship was truly a team effort as several boys had their best performances of the winter scoring points for Williston including freshmen swimmers Will Lee and Teppei Morita, sophomore Kei Imai and senior Dyson Haaland. Divers Cole Cavanagh and Luke Grabowski also scored points.
In terms of individual honors….
Four boys earned All-NEPSAC individual honors for their top 3 finishes including:
- Senior Sam Fortier in two events with a third in both the 100 butterfly and the 50 free.
- Senior Jack Coscia in two events with a second in the 200 free and a third in the 500 free.
- Senior Getchell Gibbons with second-place finishes in both the 100 fly and the 100 backstroke.
- And finally, sophomore Herrick Stevenson with a second-place finish in the 500 free and first in the 50 free with a time of 21.79 (fourth fastest in school history!), he won our only individual NEPSAC championship! Congratulations Herrick!!!
Four boys comprising two relay teams came up HUGE at the championship meet helping to catapult the team to the title—the foursome of Jack Coscia, Herrick Stevenson, Sam Fortier and Getchell Gibbons won both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays to earn themselves All-NEPSAC honors!
Congratulations to these boys on a tremendous accomplishment! Could I ask these boys to stand?!
I would like to recognize the award winners in the boys program:
Most Valuable Swimmer – Getchell Gibbons ‘23
Most Improved Swimmer – Lateef Aiyeyemi ‘26
Sportsmanship – Jack Coscia ‘23
Captains for next year – Christopher Doubleday ’25, Herrick Stevenson ‘25
And FINALLY girls hockey….
Girls Hockey
The JV team, led by Coaches Jessica Tabb Wood and Hannah Gilman, enjoyed a competitive season with several highlights including season sweeps of rivals NMH and Cushing.
Under the leadership of Coaches Christa TalbotSyfu and Alex Tancrell-Fontaine, varsity girls hockey repeated history this winter—only better! After going 24-1 and winning our first ever NEPSAC championship a year ago, the girls had an almost impossible act to follow but incredibly they accomplished nearly the unthinkable! How about these stats for a dominant season—the team outscored their opponents 132-20 during the season. Yes, thanks to 12 shutouts, the team gave up ONLY 20 goals in 28 games—truly remarkable! Their record of 27-0-1 completed the first undefeated hockey season in our school history.
This undefeated season saw the team win games in every conceivable way—they won blowouts scoring over 6 goals in 10 different games, they won all the nail-biters on their schedule winning a remarkable 8 one goal including—including four games 2-1 and three games 1-0. These closely contested games always seemed to bring out the best in the girls as their grit and resolve was tested but time and time again they came out on top!
In terms of individual games here is a brief list of the highlights—a convincing season opening road win at St. Paul’s, winning both the Winchendon (for the sixth time) and the Harrington Tournaments, shutting out a strong Tabor team at home 2-0, a terrific 1-0 win at Dexter in January, defeating rival Kent on the road 5-1, a 2-1 overtime thriller over Choate coached by former Williston player Laura DiCarlo, a thrilling 1-0 road win at No. 2-ranked Andover late in the season. The team continued its wonderful tradition of raising money to support the fight against breast cancer when it raised over $5,000 during a decisive win over Hotchkiss at home.
The team’s tremendous regular season earned them the No. 1 seed in the NEPSAC Chuck Vernon Elite 8 Tournament and the opportunity to host quarterfinal and semifinal games at Lossone. In the quarterfinals, the girls defeated the one team that had tied them all winter, Loomis, 3-2 in a tremendous hockey game. In the semi-finals, rival Nobles came back to Lossone for what would promise to be another epic battle! After three periods of going toe-to-toe, the tie stood at 0-0 forcing an overtime period. Twenty seconds into overtime, Emily Crovo skated down the left side of the rink and went “top shelf,” sending the Wildcats back to the NEPSAC elite final for the second year in a row and a rematch with the No. 2-ranked team in NEPSAC, Andover, at Taft. In the championship game, the girls would not be denied as they defeated Andover 4-1 to capture their second straight title.
Could I ask the seniors to come forward to make this presentation?
In terms of individual recognition, five girls garnered post-season recognition. Earning a place on the prestigious All-NEPSAC team were three seniors—forwards Emily Crovo and Ava DeCoste and defensemen Miranda Calderone. Earning honorable mention status were senior Katherine Kang and junior Monique Lyons. It is worth mentioning that Monique scored more points this season than any Williston girl in the last 28 years, scoring her 50th point in the final vs Andover.
Senior captain Emily Crovo deserves recognition this morning for not one but two accomplishments this winter—the first was surpassing the career 100 point milestone, becoming only the seventh girl in Williston ice hockey history to do so. The second special recognition that Emily was awarded was the Mark Harrington Trophy given to the outstanding player in the NEPSAC Elite 8 tournament. Could I ask Emily to come forward so we can recognize BOTH of these great accomplishments!?
I would like to recognize the award winners on the JV girls hockey team. The varsity awards have not been announced yet.
JV
Most Valuable Player Award – Catherine Ballard ’25 (second year in a row!)
Most Improved Player Award – Scarlette Graybill ’26, Daniela Kraus ‘24
Sportsmanship Award – Maggie Fay ’25, Daniela Metta ‘24
In closing, I want to congratulate all the winter athletes on another wonderful season! While we take great pride in all this team and individual success, I continue to be most proud of the way our teams compete and represent Williston, always with class and great sportsmanship. Best wishes to everyone this spring!