Hunter Langley, Abigail St. Jean
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team has continued to perform well under the leadership of new coach Lisa Willis. They keep taking down rival after rival with wins against Mount Vernon, Hayfield, Annadale, and West Potomac, leaving them with a 9-4 record. After the team dismantled Mount Vernon 47-11, Willis had the team run laps after the game. “They didn’t reach their goals. That wasn’t one of our better performances. I’m trying to instill discipline within the girls. We need to show up and compete at our highest level whether the competition is great or not; and we didn’t do that against Mount Vernon,” said Willis.
There are a lot of great pieces to the team that have lead them to this record. Seniors Trinity Palacio and Sasha Bates have been a tough duo to stop offensively, and they bring leadership to make the team run smoothly. Senior Geonna Stockton brings competitiveness and energy off of the bench with the ability to play lockdown defense. Junior Caroline Schie can heat up fast and make tough contested buckets when needed.
Boys Basketball
With the loss of two incredibly athletic players to injury in Justus Cruz and Terrence Turnage the JV team seemed to be on a downward slope. However, sophomores Jack Milliken, Michael Teal and Braden Portfield have stepped up and have delivered some electrifying performances. Teal has been an athletic playmaker at point guard and Milliken has been great on the wing with a surefire 3 point ball and aggressive defense. Porterfield is a back to the basket center who can snag rebounds and make tough buckets down low. In the game where Cruz went down they rallied together with 38 combined points.
The varsity team has been inconsistent yet much better than last season with a 8-8 record. They have had flashed of greatness yet seem to be missing that dominate piece down low. Coach Prue has tried to remedy this by running the Princeton offense which uses a lot of passing and cutting.
The team has benefited tremendously from the leadership of seniors Sean Walsh and Jaquan Johnson. Walsh is a playmaking point guard who can hit the the three ball on a consistent basis. Johnson is an athletic forward that can handle the basketball and shoot off the dribble with ease. Walsh said, “Really proud of out guys for fighting through adversity and getting better every single day. Any other team in NOVA should be terrified because we want all the smoke.”
Hockey
T.C’s hockey team is leading off the season undefeated. They won against West Potomac (1-0), against Colgan High School (8-2) and against George Mason (15-3). Currently they are ranked first in the Capital Scholastic Hockey League (CSHL) with one more game left in the regular season.
Swimming
T.C. swim and dive continues a record breaking season with wins against Hayfield Secondary School (333-293), Falls Church High School (313-311), and Washington-Lee High school. At the meet against Falls Church, sophomore Ronan Lauinger set a new record in the 500 freestyle breaking the old record by .33 seconds. The old record was held by Kenyon Huber-Wilker and set in 2014. In addition to a strong start in the dual meet season T.C. diver sophomore Henry Wiedemer was awarded Alexandria Swimmer of the Month by the Alexandria Sportsman Club for his performance so far as a diver.
Districts was held last Friday and Saturday and the girl’s team and the boy’s team both placed second in the Gunston district. The girls and boys both set records in the 200 Medley relay, the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay and fresh man Emil LaSida broke the boys 100 back record by 1 second. 21 individuals are moving on to regionals the most the team has had in years.
Track
T.C.’s track team visited Liberty University for the Liberty Invitational, a track meet with over 50 teams. Some standout performances at that meet include senior Louisa Obenwa’s first place overall in the 55 meter hurdles and Ibrahim Bangura’s senior who set a record 6.37 in the 55m dash on December 26th.
Wrestling
The wrestling team is going to be a lot weaker with the loss of sophomore heavyweight Jackson Sullivan and 220 pound senior Dillon Miranda. Miranda is going to be out with a knee injury and Sullivan who was undefeated and second in the division for his weight class has decided to give up the sport to focus on football. Sullivan said, “I love wrestling it was one of my favorite things to do, but i need to give 100% to one thing and not 50 percent on both.”
For now, the Titans will have to rely on junior Nicholas “Wink” Winkel who is hurt with a high ankle sprain but should be back in time for districts. Winkel said, “It is an honor to represent T.C. Williams as their varsity heavyweight wrestler and I look forward to my next match.”
Zion Marshall has still been the standard of excellence for wrestling at T.C. this season, he is undefeated and ranks first in the district. As a wrestler he has impeccable technique and throws around varsity wrestlers all over the mat.
