It is once again that time of year: winter is melting into spring, and simultaneously, winter sport seasons have come to a close, leaving time for us to remark upon PDS’s resounding successes. 

Boys Basketball played a strong season with 14 wins and 10 losses. Junior Ethan Garita and senior Jaylin Champion Adams earned the Coaches Award, while senior Jomar Meekins earned the Varsity Award. “The Basketball team overall this year exceeded expectations,” explained Meekins. “The team this year worked tirelessly to make sure we were successful. The games we lost were all against good teams, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Next year, I have faith that the remaining guys won’t let that happen again.” The team came very close to victory in eight of their 10 losses. 

Boys Ice Hockey also played an impressive season with 7 wins, 11 losses and one tie. The Coaches Awards have been granted to seniors Stepan Gorelenkov and David Sherman, while senior Chris Cecila received the Varsity Award. Sherman described his experience, noting, “I think we had a great season given how young our team was. Beating Hun, Delbarton and Lawrenceville were definitely awesome highlights, but not making playoffs was disappointing.” Cecila also mentioned that “the PDS Boys’ Varsity Hockey Team’s season is poorly represented by this record, which was already pretty respectable given the fact that we added 11 new members to the varsity team to go with our 9 returners. 12 of our games were decided by one goal. Personally, it was a lot of fun to take on the leadership role as one of the three captains of the team. While I’m sad to leave the program as I go off to college, I’m excited for the bright future of the program.” 

Girls Ice Hockey also crushed it on the ice with 11 wins and 10 losses. The team was runner up in the Miran Division of the Women’s Ice Hockey League of the Mid-Atlantic. Seniors Ellie Schofield and Caroline Haggerty earned the Coaches Awards and junior Hailey Wexler was granted the Varsity Award. 

Girls Basketball was made up of strong individuals who won 3 games and lost 21. Seniors Maggie Amaral and Carly Kunkle received the coaches awards and the Varsity Award went to freshman Kirsten Ruf, demonstrating an incredible display of talent by Ruf in her first year in the Upper School.  

Girls Varsity Fencing also showed their strength with 3 wins and 6 losses. Freshman Leigh Hillmano earned the Coaches Award and senior Zoe Rivera earned the Varsity Award. “I’m so proud of how our fencing program performed this year, and we were so lucky to have such extraordinary captains to help guide us. I can hardly wait for our upcoming seasons!” said Hillmano, emphasizing her hope for the team’s future. 

 Boys Varsity Fencing played strong and hard with 4 wins and 6 losses, claiming the title as Epee Prep Champions. The Coach Award went to sophomore William Foster and the Varsity Award to senior Alex Frank. 

Finally, Squash ended with a solid season with 3 wins 9 losses and 1 tie. The team was also 2nd place in their division at the US Squash Nationals in CT. The coach awards went to junior Mark Santamaria and sophomore Albert Ming while the Varsity award went to senior Armaan Dugar. “We were seeded in the middle of 16 teams for our division in nationals and, in our successful run, beat the second seed to go to the final. Unfortunately, we couldn’t win the last match and placed second in the division,” said Santamaria about the team, “it was a story of underdogs and a moment of pride for everyone on the team. More importantly, however, we have been inspired to train hard in the off-season to come back and win next year.” 

 Congrats to all winter athletes and let’s make the spring season the best one yet!