Lady Hawks, Crusaders Ousted in County Tournament by Higher Seeds

Twenty points stood between the River Dell Lady Hawks and Bergen Catholic Crusaders from moving forward in their respective County Basketball tournaments. The Lady Hawks fell to Holy Angels, 45-26 while the Crusaders came up short against Hackensack, 88-66.

But the good news for both teams is they rebounded quickly picking up two consecutive wins this past week. River Dell's Kayla McGovern netted 11 points in the 45-18 victory over Fort Lee and Kayleen Melvin chipped in 15 during a 60-33 win over Cliffside Park.

Nadi Beciri (18) and PJ Reed (17) led the way in the Crusaders 68-64 win over Ramapo and then Liam Fowler pitched in 15 points including five treys to defeat Fair Lawn, 62-58.

Basketball

The Golden Hawks dropped two in a row this week as they await their entry round in the Bergen Invitational Tournament. The Hawks fell to Fort Lee, 57-33, and then Cliffside Park, 44-32.

Swimming

After defeating Paramus Catholic 99-71, the 9th seeded Lady Hawks outswam Fair Lawn, 99-71 to earn a state tournament match-up with top seeded Westfield next week. River Dell was lead by the 200 Medley Relay (Lienne Barrise, Emily Reynolds, Sophia Scholes, Emma Scholes), the 200 Free Reyal (E. Scholes, Barrise, Denicola, Maddy Toohey), 400 Free Relay (S. Scholes, Denicola, Reynolds, Toohey), Gabi Denicola (200 Free, 100 Fly, 500 Free), Rebecca Bronfeld (500 Free), Reynolds, (200 IM, 100 Breast stroke) and Toohey (50 Free).

Bergen Catholic is waiting to face Paramus Catholic in their opening state meet after finishing off the regular season with a 100-70 victory over DePaul as the 200 Medley Relay (Josh Sembrano, Ralph Cannarozzi, Sebastian Lopez, Liam Kelly) and 200 Free Relay (Sembrano, Rob Farrell, Kelly, John Om) continue to make waves together and as individuals in the 200 Free (Om), 200 IM and 100 Back (Sembrano), 50 Free and 100 Free (Kelly) and 100 Breast stroke (Cannarozzi). 

The River Dell boys were not as lucky this week as they fell to Paramus Catholic 113-57 with Liam Oberlander claiming the 50 Free and 100 Fly, Peter Mari the 100 Breast stroke and the 200 Medley Relay (Albert Figueiredo, Mari, Oberlander, Steven Akdimir).

Wrestling

River Dell, which was awarded the number two seed for North 1 Group 3, the Hawks earned huge wins over Old Tappan (47-25), Cranford (39-26), South Brunswick (48-15) and Hackettstown (64-15).

Standing up for the Hawks this week were Dylan Mitchell (three pins, one decision), DJ Tirelli (four pins), Chris Kallensee (two pins, one decision), Danny Lynch (two pins, one decision), Cenzo Cariddi (two pins, one major decision, one decision), Brendan Campbell (three pins, one decision), John Arancio (one pin, one major decision), Nick Baranello (two pins, one decision), and Drew Nirchio (two pins, one major decision).

Bowling

In the girls team state tournament, the Lady Hawks trailed in Group 2 with 1,737 points for a ninth place finish.

While Vincent Oimaya (224 game), Simon Lezaja (217) and Freddy Dressel (210, 203) had great outings on the lanes this week, the Crusaders came up short 4-3 against Teaneck.

Ice Hockey

One win away from clinching a state tournament berth, the Golden Hawks skated away with a 2-2 tie with the Clifton Mustangs courtesy of Matt Candilli and Jason Conroy. Connor O’Reilly had 29 saves. The Hawks and Mustangs will meet again this weekend where RD has to win to enter states.

Bergen Catholic split their week with a 5-1 loss to St. Joseph Regional, a 4-3 win over Pope John and a 6-0 victory over Bishop Eustace. Evan Wisocky led the week with four goals followed by Tucker James and Joseph Brown (two each), Kyle Marano, Sam Field, Tyler Antonucci all had one apiece. Gennaro Anzevino finished the week with 70 saves between the pipes

Indoor Track

At the state North 1 Group 2 tournament the Lady Hawks finished third overall with 41 points behind Ramapo (54) and Westwood (46) as Sam Schleiger claimed sixth in the 400m (1:02.48), Paige Fernandez third in the 800m (2:21.24), Emily Croonquist ran for third in the 1600 (5:20.06) and fifth in the 3200 (12:04.72), the 4x400 relay finished third (4:10.18), Payton Wagmeister fourth in the high jump (4-8), Bridget Brindley third in the pole vault (10-0), Liz Arluna fifth in pole vault (8-0) and Laura Oh took second in the shot put (36-6).

The Golden Hawks placed fifth in North 1 Group 2 with 32 points with Zach Hubner placing second in the 55 dash (6.80), Christian DeSanctis sixth in the 55 hurdles (8.47), the 4x400 relay was third (3:35.66), Brandon Jurasin second in the high jump (6-2), Calvin Hartman fourth in the pole vault (13-0), Austin Berringer fourth in the shot put (51-0 1/2), and Drew Tummino sixth in the shot put (49-1).

Follow Patch on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our free daily newsletter.