CHERRY HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL ATHLETICS NEWSLETTER Winter Issue 2 - February 28, 2020

Carusi Middle School Wrestling

The Carusi Wrestling team finished the season undefeated (18-0) and captured the first league championship for the school since 2006. The final match was a nail-biting 42-41 decision over Williamstown. Coach Josh Hare was named league “Coach of the Year.” At the league tournament, the Mustangs had

four 2nd place finishers: Christian Rodi (80 lbs.), Christian Lenny (90 lbs.), JoNathan Valentin (174 lbs.) and Joe Altobelli (Hwt.). Girls Basketball The Carusi Girls Basketball “A” team went to the playoffs for the first time in school history and advanced to the title game before falling to Beck for the fourth time this season. The team posted a season record of 10 wins and 9 losses and was paced by high scorers Molly Bovell and Mia Gerace. The “B” team finished with a record of 10-3 with behind the high scoring of Caroline Solomons and Lily Legato . Boys Basketball

The Carusi Boys Basketball “A” team had a record of 8 wins and 9 losses this season and missed out on a playoff berth by tiebreaker. The team’s leading scorers were Jordan Ellerbee and Ben Manns. The “B” team fin-ished with a record of 7-6 and showed great improvement in winning six of their last eight games. Leading scorers for the “B”

team where Aiden Ryder and Jake James.

Carusi Character Athletes for Winter: Girls Basketball: Addison Petti & Olivia Versace

Boys Basketball: Ben Manns & Aiden Ryder Wrestling: Matthew Rutter, Alyssa Katz & Nour Raja

Bowling: Eugene Lugo & Helena Zintz Cheer/Dance: Mary Kemner & Melinie Kemner

Rosa Middle School Bowling It was a great year for the team at Rosa for bowling this year!! We saw much improvement in our 7th graders who are coming out for the 2nd year. We saw a lot of interest from our 6th graders as well as improvement as the year went along. Our 8th graders showed they are ready to continue pursuing bowling at the high schools next year. 8th grade standouts included Jozef Antoniak, Evan Boxley, Philip Liebman, and Ashley Me-ter. Ashley was able to accumulate over 4000 total pins this season...what an accomplishment. We look forward to every-one returning again next year!! B Team Basketball The season started off slow but by the last few games the team started to run on all eight cylinders. The most improved players were Connor borrelli and hunter Sobus. Girls Basketball The Rosa Girls “A” basketball team had a very successful season this year. Our season’s record did not have the win total we had hoped for but each team member demonstrated amazing im-provement with every game they played. They worked together in practice, gaining more confidence and honing their skills. The girls rallied in games when they were facing defeat to try to come back and score points. Overall, they all had a great season, and the girls can honestly say that they developed as players in so many ways! A big “Thank You” goes out to our energy cap-tain, Jenna McGovern and the other 8th grade leaders, Humna Hussain, Jiwoo Lee, Anita Suri, Bridget Burn-ham and Giuliana Puglisi as they move on to High School play next year.

Rosa Girls “B” basketball experienced a tale of 2 seasons. We struggled be-fore Winter Break and began playing significantly better the first full week back from break. We finished the season winning 3 out of our last 4 games. Of all the successes we experienced, on the court we got much better each game we played when we had a prac-tice prior to it. Off the court the girls showed amazing kindness when after our last practice the girls surprised Coach Golenda with 2 dozen roses and a $100 donation to cancer research in honor of his mother. Cheerleading "The 2019-2020 cheerleading season at Rosa was full of opti-mism, determination, dedication, and success. The team worked

hard at every practice to learn new moves, cheers, jumps, tum-bling, and dances. We were able to showcase our cheers at eve-ry home basketball game. Our girls were given limited space to practice each week, but they worked with what they had and overcame obstacles. The highlight of our season was placing 3rd at the annual Carusi competition. The girls had a great season and should be very proud of themselves!" Wrestling The Rosa Raptors Wrestling had one of their most successful seasons in a few years. Twenty-four wrestlers saw action along with four managers who volunteered their time this season. The wrestling raptors hosted the annual Cherry Hill Wrestling Tri-meet this year. Over 300 fans enjoyed the community gathering event for over four hours of wrestling between Beck, Carusi and Rosa. At the annual 22 School Varsity League Tournament, the Raptors entered with three wrestlers ranked in the top five. Jimmy Do won four matches on the day(13 total on the season) to earn a fifth place metal in the 22 school event. Along the way, Rosa also had seven other wrestlers win at least one match at the wrestling extravaganza. Elliot Sykes(11 wins), Joe Wayslow(8 wins), Jayson DeLatorre(7 pins), Matt Rentezelas, Joe Santiago, Otto Sanchez and Stan Belovol all won matches at the tournament. It was one of the best seasons we’ve had in years. The team was coached by Mr. E. Hernandez. For a peek at the 2020 action click here: https://youtu.be/sERimgauBWA

Beck Middle School

Cheerleading Beck cheer has had a great season cheering for our boys and girls A & B teams. We were so excited to cheer our girls A team to champion-ship victory! The highlight of the end of season was competing at the Carusi Middle School competition! Wrestling

The Wrestling Team finished 6-6 on the year and were in 5th place in the division. It was a great team with many young or first time wrestlers. Individual stand-outs included Ben Cohen, who placed 1st in the South Jersey Tournament and Brody Bogus placed 4th. The team finished strong with 30 wres-tlers on the team.

Girls Basketball The Beck Lady Bobcats A-Team had an unbelievable 2019 Sea-son, going 14-0 in what will now be known as the Perfect Sea-son. The Bobcats added two pieces of hardware to their trophy case, bringing home the South Jersey League Championship as well as the 43rd Annual Cherry Hill Invitational Girls Middle School Tournament Championship. With a dominant starting five, led by three year starting point guard Sienna Mount, the Bobcats demonstrated incredible te-nacity and grit in their 14 competitions. Three-year players, Lily Quintero and Yasmin Brown, dominated the boards and dis-played excellent leadership while return-ing players Danielle Leber and Darby Chhabria contributed on both the offen-sive and defensive ends, whenever neces-sary. All twelve of the girls on the roster con-tributed in a major way to this successful season and we couldn't be more proud of them! Congrats to Coach Digneo and the Lady Bobcats! Boys Basketball The Beck Boys A-Team were an exciting team to watch this sea-son. Their athleticism and shooting ability were a strength that helped them secure a playoff spot, but unfortunately they were eliminated in the first round. Individual highlights include Ste-phen Robinson, who led scorers this season with his aggressive presence near the basket and explosiveness at the rim. Eighth graders Sitafa Hall and Jacob Jones controlled the flow of each game with quick decision making and sharp shooting from the outside. Evan Fitzpatrick was this year's most improved player, displaying both athetism and hustle on both ends of the floor. Hayden Laufgraben and Brian Cotter both showed heart and enthusiasm and were defensive highlights throughout the sea-son. The Bobcats will graduate a strong 8th grade class, and will attempt to rebuild next year. Chris Delgado, Carter Gill and Sean Welde will be returning varsity players next season and hope to lead their team to a division championship. The Boys B Basketball team finished the season with a 7-5 rec-ord. Mr. Weinstein enjoyed coaching the team and saw both individual and team growth throughout the season.