A Tough Loss for Blue Wave Hockey

-By: Jorden Cappiello-

This past Saturday Darien and New Canaan fans loaded the stands at the Darien Ice Rink to watch these rival teams with excitement. After the events that took place at last year’s game, police officers and DHS Narcs were on the lookout for rowdy fans and inappropriate chants. Although both schools continually cheered on their team and booed their rival, nothing got out of hand.

After a rough start, Darien entered the last period losing 3-0. With close to 11 minutes left, Darien scored one goal. Soon after, Darien scored again bringing them only one point from tying New Canaan. Darien fans prayed their team could score one more in the end of the period and head into overtime. With under a minute left to the game, Blue Wave players were within feet of the New Canaan goal and unfortunately could not get a shot in. The game ended in an upsetting 3-2 victory for New Canaan.

Blue Wave Loses Yet Another Game

-By: Jake McCauley-

The Darien Boys Basketball team lost to Staples High School last night. Throwing in major points for the Blue Wave were Junior Philip Stueber, with 21 points, and Senior and Captain Brian Kosnik contributing a solid 20 points. The team played strong defense against Staples, but could not hold up on the boards. “We got beat on the boards, so we lost,” junior Grant Scott said. The team falls to a lousy record of 1-9.

Darien will play its next game against Ridgefield at DHS at 7pm on Friday, February 23. Ridgefield is a strong team coming off a dominant win against New Canaan 68-46 and it will be a challenging game for the Blue Wave to win. Darien is second to last in the FCIAC standings; only better then the winless Fairfield Warde team. If Darien is going to go to the state tournament, they are going to need to string a ton of wins together and fast.

Girl's Gymnastics Takes a Tumble

-By: Jorden Cappiello-

This past Saturday, the 17th was the gymnastics team’s first home meet at the gym in Goodwives shopping center. The 11 Blue Wave gymnasts competed against Hand, a team of about 20. During leap series warm-ups, captain, Kaylyn Van Sciver, fell on her ankle and sprained it. Being the all around highest scorer for Darien, the team was upset to lose her. However, the gymnasts had faith in themselves and were able to pull together. In the end, the team lost by only one point.

“Since I just joined the team this year, I was really stressed to compete on the beam last Saturday, but I gave it my all,” said senior, Gabi Barrowcliff. “My team is awesome and I love spending time in the gym with them!”

Leavin' It All On The Mat: Boys Wrestling

-By: Jack Bushell-

Blue Wave wrestling had a tough time hitting its stride this season. With only winning three matches, the team is ready to put on a good show at the bigger meets. Senior captains Tom Bassford, Matt Liguori and Junior captain Jon Lewis want to go after every team with the same intensity. Having just lost to New Canaan, the team wrestled well and beat Ellis Tech and Joel Barlow. Liguori came up big pinning two guys and two forfeits. “The freshmen need to step it up,” Liguori said, “The guys in the upper weights need to step it up as well.” With head coach Joseph Vano and assistant coach Aidan Gaffney, the team is optimistic about the final meets. When the season goes into the FCIAC and State level, it turns in to an individual competition. The team will look to put as many guys as they can into those meets to compete in their weight class. Watch the team wrestle against Staples High School in the next home meet on the 28th in the South Gym.

Melting the Ice: Girls Ice Hockey

-By Charlie Nicholls-

The girls’ hockey team is off to a fantastic start to the season. The captains of the team are Katharine Macomber, Madeline Coburn and Amee Rich. All of them are juniors, so the leadership will carry on to next season. The team is 5-1, with its only loss coming to rival New Canaan. In a couple of the team’s wins the games have been decided by 2 or more goals, their most decisive win came against Fairfield when they won 8-2. “We have a very young team and I think that we will go very far,” Captain Aimee Rich said. “With all of the young talent we can only progress over this season.” Rich certainly has every right to be enthusiastic after their team’s promising start. With all the young talent, the team should continue to get better and skate their way into the playoffs.

The Water gets Hotter

-By Reece Pelley-

With the boys swimming season off to a good start at 2-1 the team is poised to do well this year. With captains Sam Archibald, Phil Treesh and Robby Nevins leading the team they feel they can repeat last years success but with the lose of Phil Morhouse (diver) and Jame Kedding (swimmer) it will be a hard road ahead. But along with the senior leadership there are also multiple promising under classmen ready to help contribute towards the team’s success. Standout freshman Tyler Gould, Chris Jansen and sophomore Chris Weihs will contribute to the team in the 50 and 100 free as well as the 200 IM. The team this year also has a new twist with junior Colby Bilhart swimming for the boy’s team. Captain Sam Archibald recently said “having Colby on the team is a lot of fun, and it’s even better because most of the guys already know her.”

Sam commented about the team’s goals this year saying “our goal is to have a great showing at State trials, finals and opens.” The team is looking ahead to a great meet against New Canaan hoping to come out with a great result.

A Challenging Season: Boys Basketball Update

- By: Jake McCauley -

The Boys Varsity Team recently ended their six game losing streak by beating Wilton. However, on Tuesday night they lost to Greenwich High School in a blowout. The team struggled without their star shooter and captain Brian Curth. The team shot poorly from the field throughout the game. They only had one field goal for the entire first half. Yet, the team was good from the foul line, making the majority of their free throws. "We had a much better second half, than the first half," said Junior Grant Scott.

However, the Junior Varsity team is having a great season. They are on a three-game win streak with an overall record of 3-2. Their record breaks four straight seasons of the JV team having a horrendous record of 1-17, shattering the believed curse.

Both teams will play Trinity at Trinity High School, against NCAA Division I prospect Tevin Baskin. DHS will be extremely challenged in the game, but hopefully can pull it together for the win.

Ski Team Hits the Slopes

- By: Reece Pelley -

With this year's racing season starting this month, the ski team is preparing for another successful year. Last season the girls’ team finished second at States following a loss to Staples in Westport. But with strong junior leadership coming from this year’s captains Alex Bair and Lauren Duwan the team expects to post better results.

The team is also getting strong back up from sophomore talent Meg Del Col and Kyle McCoy who have racing experience and should help elevate the team’s competitiveness. Already one race into the season, the skiers have been successful. The boys' team beat Amity and Litchfield. The girls beat Amity.

Boys Track Runs Into The Post Season

- By: Jack Bushell -

The indoor track season is well underway and the boys track team will be entering the championship season on the 31st of January, with a chip on their shoulder. For a runner to qualify for the FCIAC or State meets, one must qualify by running, throwing or jumping a time faster, longer or higher than the qualifying time or distance for the event, only these runners get to participate in the meets. “We have to get a lot of guys to qualify” said Coach Tyson Kacz marek. The team this year can qualify a great deal of runners, and beat teams with their depth. The team has 17 people qualified for FCIAC and there will be 23 performances ranging from the 45meter dash to the 2 mile run. The track team has six people qualified for states with nine total performances. This is only half way through the season; the team must stay healthy and use their depth to win the championship meets. The next meet for the boy's team is Friday at Yale track and Saturday at Staples track.