Courtesy Tim Hurd
By Ellen Oliver
With the hockey and basketball teams advancing to the playoffs and wrestling, skiing and indoor track representing at States, the Chieftains are on the quest for more trophies and accolades.
Hockey – Boys
Three-seed Nashoba will host rival and “frenemy” #6 Lunenburg on March 3 in the first round of the playoffs. Nashoba has a 13-4-3 record while Lunenburg is 11-7-2. Lunenburg handed Nashoba its first loss of the season back on January 5, but the Chieftains defeated the Blue Knights in the next match up, blanking them 2-0 on January 21.
Hockey – Girls
The details for the girls’ ice hockey playoffs weren’t finalized at press time, but the Gardner/Leominster/Nashoba/St.
Eric Bachtell
Basketball – Girls
On Friday, March 1, number 2 seed Nashoba will face the winner of the Millbury/Narragansett game. As the #2 seed with an impressive 18-2 record, Nashoba earned a first round bye, jumping right into the quarterfinals. If successful on Friday, Nashoba will face the winner of the Auburn (#3)/Gardner (#6) game on March 4 at Clark University.
Basketball – Boys
Entering the playoffs as the #9 seed, the Nashoba boys’ squad (12-8) faced #8 Quabbin (13-8) Tuesday night in Quabbin. With a strong start, Nashoba led early, stretching the lead to 42-28 by the half. But Quabbin battled back and at the buzzer the final score was 76-68, sending Quabbin into the next round and ending Nashoba’s season at 12-9.
Alpine Skiing
Nashoba’s Jenna Peabody was the sole Chieftain representative at the State Alpine Tournament on February 26. Results were not available at press time.
Wrestling
Six Nashoba wrestlers competed in the All-State tournament on Friday and Saturday with two wrestlers reaching the quarterfinal rounds.
Jesse Batson had a great run in the 132 class, defeating Nick Duva of North Attleboro 8-5, then knocking off Winchester’s Quinn Gregory 8-3, before falling to Milton’s Jonathan Carrera 5-2 in the quarterfinals. David Goodsell also made a push into the brackets in the 138 class. He defeated Adam Morton of Reading with a pin, then battled with Garrett Ludwig of Winchester to a 10-4 victory, but Mikhail Khibkin of Needham finally stopped the run with a 14-7 win in the quarterfinals.
Joel Sharin advanced to the second round in the 120 weight class, defeating Salem’s Tahmid Raji 6-0, before falling to Arlington’s Mike Ellis 4-1. In the 145 class, Ronan Ball thumped Marshfield’s Jake Martin in a major decision 12-0, but then was pinned by Dracut’s Jim Ryan in the next round. Ryan went on to win the class. Mickey Padovano (160) was pinned by Arlington’s Nick Sullivan in the first round. Ed Quill (195) was on the wrong side of a pin by Mark Saulnier (Norwood) and Jake Kennedy (220) lost to Bevery’s Brian Perry 5-1.
Indoor Track
Indoor track athletes competed in the All-State Indoor Track Meet this weekend. Speedy Sarah Militano took 5th in the 55m dash (7.31), Forrest Hangen was 16th in the 1-mile run (4:33.94), while Kelsey Horowitz was 15th in the 2-mile run (11:41.50). The girls’ 4×200 m relay team took 12th in the state with a time of 1:49.31.
In the field events, Markesh Harmon was 6th in the boys’ long jump (21-00) and Kristina Maclure was 6th in the girls’ event (17-01.25).