This is the beginning of a four-part series, highlighting the year 2016 in sports, locally. Look for Part 2 on Friday.
St. Mary ski coach Andy Lussier (left) and Saints’ state 2016 Giant Slalom champion Matt Masciadrelli
WESTFIELD – The Year 2016 began with the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism and the Massachusetts Sports Marketing Office declaring that the World Series of Babe Ruth Baseball 14-Year-Olds would go down as one of the state’s top sporting events of the year – and it was going to take place right in the heart of the Whip City!
As plans for the World Series were formulated behind the scenes, the 2015-16 high school winter sports season raced toward an exciting conclusion.
Westfield senior Morgan Sanders clears the hurdle in a 100-meter hurdle run. (Photo by Marc St. Onge)
Westfield High School female skiers Rebecca Stephens and Grace O’Connor dominated Western Massachusetts all season long, propelling the Bombers to an unbeaten regular season and extending their success into the postseason. St. Mary boys’ skier Matt Masciadrelli, who helped his team win a share of the South Division regular season championship, claimed a Giant Slalom title at the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference and state championships. It was a clean sweep for Masciadrelli, who finished no worse than first in the event the entire season.
Westfield Technical High School’s Alex Stepanchuk (25) dribble-drives past a Franklin Tech defender in a 2015-16 boys’ basketball tournament game at the Eagles’ home gymnasium. (Photo by Chris Putz)
The Westfield High School girls’ indoor track team posted its highest finish in school history with a 10th place finish in the state championship at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Bombers senior Morgan Sanders wrapped up a sensational high school career by setting a new school record (8.42) in the 55 meter hurdles, en route to posting a sixth place finish at the New England Track and Field championship to earn a trip to the New Balance Indoor National Championship in New York.
The Westfield Technical Academy boys’ basketball team, which had suffered a nightmarish 100-point loss to St. Joe’s four years earlier, created feel-good memories by qualifying for its first tournament berth in recent memory.
Westfield upended Longmeadow on the ice in double overtime of a west sectional Division 3 boys’ ice hockey semifinal at the Olympia in West Springfield to earn a trip to the finals. (Photo by Bill Deren)
The Westfield High School boys’ ice hockey team, no stranger to the postseason, won its umpteenth Western Massachusetts championship with a win over Minnechaug after being swept by the Falcons in the regular season. It almost never happened as the Bombers, who entered the tournament at 9-10-1 and needed to win a tiebreaker, rallied from a 2-0 deficit over top-seeded Longmeadow to win in double overtime of the semifinals.
For the second straight postseason game, Liam Whitman scored the hockey team’s game-winner. Whitman’s championship shot heard round the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield came from about 15 feet away with 5:49 remaining in overtime.
The good feelings reverberated all the way to the National Women’s Hockey League where local hockey product Kacey Bellamy, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, helped the Boston Pride capture the Isobel Cup in the first-ever NWHL Finals at the Prudential Center’s Hockey House in Newark, N.J.
The Westfield Bombers pile up at center ice after capturing the 2015-16 Division 3 West Sectional boys’ ice hockey championship at the Olympia in West Springfield. (Photo by Bill Deren)
