Best Of List: Top Winter Boys Sports Performances

Soon enough the sound of aluminum meeting rubber cement and stitched cowhide will soon echo across high school diamonds, but for now we must be content to take a final look back at the season that has just left us.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: Windsor senior Zachary Langs won the 55-meter hurdles in the State Open. This was a week after winning the same event at the Class L meet and then anchoring the team of Alexander Smith, Dwight Meggie and Donovan Rodrigues to victory in the 4x200 meter relay.

Langs finished the 55 hurdles in 7.55 seconds at the Open, which edged Jermaine Chong, of Weaver-Hartford, who finished in 7.67.

A chance for Tolland to celebrate a State Open champion ended when senior Bryan Fowler did not run in the 3,200 meters. Fowler, who was seeded second, won the 3,200 in the Class M meet in 9:45.91.

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE: Staying in Windsor, the Windsor boys’ basketball team was upset by Xavier-Middletown in the Class LL tournament, but that shouldn’t diminish the Warriors remarkable regular season.

They went 23-2 and won the CCC Tournament by beating two previously unbeaten teams: Northwest Catholic-West Hartford in the semifinals and Maloney-Meriden in the finals.

The most remarkable thing about the team was that it was all but impossible to identify the star. The Warriors relied on Mike Fraylon and Andrew Hurd, Egerton Anderson, Scott Sill, Nasean Banks, George Curry and Garey Allen, each at different times and in different ways.

The credit goes to coach Ken Smith, who made it all work. One upset in March doesn’t change that.

BEST GAME: There were many good ones, but for drama it’s tough to top Enfield’s 52-50 victory over Ansonia in the Class M quarterfinals.

Enfield trailed 50-49 in the dying seconds. Anyone who knows anything about high school basketball was waiting for Tre Preston, the wonderful guard, to create his own shot.

Instead, the Raiders went to Hugh Lindo, who delivered an old school three-point play with 17 seconds left.

“Those were the scariest moments of my life,” Lindo said afterward.

The Raiders held off Ansonia’s final two shots at a tie and danced into the semifinals.

BEST GAME(S) ON ICE: Another nominee for best game could have been Tri-Town’s 4-3 overtime victory over North Branford in the finals of the Northern Hockey Conference tournament.

All season, Tri-Town was led by players such as Mitch DiResta, Mike Hanna, and Steve Pernal but it was Justin Locke who ended the drama with a goal six seconds before the end of overtime to give Tri-Town the championship.

Tri-Town was eliminated in the first round of the Division I playoffs, but can take memories of a conference championship with them into spring.

For Suffield-Granby-Windsor Locks, the season ended in the quarterfinals with a 5-1 loss to Guilford, but fans may choose to remember the 2-1 double overtime victory over Fairfield Ludlowe in the first round instead. Also, the excellent play of Dylan Balfore, Mitch Crosby and Steve Zaczynski.

In Division III, Windsor-East Granby-Avon made it to the semifinals before falling to Staples-Weston-Shelton. The WAVE was led by the mid-season addition of Adam Lebowitz, the timely scoring touch of Nick Berns and the goaltending of Ed Burke.

Also in Division III, Rockville-Manchester-Stafford had a winning season.

Even teams that didn’t qualify for the tournament gave hockey fans something to watch, including Enfield, which was led by the solid play Max Groszyk and Ian McDonald, and E.O. Smith/Tolland/Windham, which showed steady improvement.

MOST DOMINATING PERFORMANCE: Somers’ Kenneth Vollaro won the Class S wrestling championship at 215-pounds without allowing an opponent to complete a match.

Vollaro won with pins at 0:20, 0:28, 0:22 and 2:44. He really had to work for that last one.

Not as dominating, but still victorious, was Cheney Tech’s Forest Dolby, who won the 135-pound division in Class M. His victory in the final was a 7-0 decision.

IN THE POOL: East Catholic senior Jonathan Burr was the Class S champion in the 200 freestyle, finishing ahead of sophomore sensation Dylan Swanepoel, of Foran. Burr finished in 1:45.22 and Swanepoel in 1:45.33.