Fall Sports Recap – Jackson Lanning ‘13
Another trimester, another successful season of SAAS sports. As one of the busiest seasons for athletics, fall trimester allows no shortage of entertainment.
Cross Country
The cross country (XC) team was off to a great start this fall with one of the largest turnouts in its history. The top four male runners were seniors this year, which provided great leadership for the team. The top five point scorers in XC were David Kirske ’13, Rob Leet ’13, John Walker ’13, Will Greene ’13 and Alexander Castanes, ’14. These strong boys deserve congratulations.
The girls also had a strong showing, led by two first-time runners, Grace Trautman ’14 and Alana Saladino ‘14. Despite being hampered by injuries, the girls had one of their best seasons in the past few years. The last three spots of the top five female runners were always up for grabs which encouraged a healthy dose of competition.
Volleyball
Volleyball comes next as our girls returned for another year. Still a relatively young program, the girls put together their strongest season to date and just barely missed out on the playoffs. Captains of the team were Ellie Engel ’13, and Maria Pagano ’13. A highlight of the season occurred when two seniors, Ellie Engel and Sam Green ’13 were selected as 2nd team All-Emerald City League. Hats off to the volleyball team.
Tennis
As girls’ tennis meets in the spring, the boys’ tennis team was the only one participating in the fall season. Team leader and captain Max (Maxxy) Schoenfeld ’15 was joined this year by fellow captain Eli Etzioni ‘14. The boys’ team experienced an up-and-down year and concluded with a strong finish. Freshmen sensation singles players Zamir Birnbach ‘16 and Richard Khang ‘16 both played with heart in league matches with Zamir finishing 4th and only missing the district tournament by one spot. Eli Etzioni and Julian Hayes ‘13 made up a dynamic duo on the courts but also just missed out on the district tournament. The biggest success of the season was golden boy Maxxy Schoenfeld’s debut in the district tournament along with stud counterpart Connor Rice ’15. The two fought hard, demolishing their first opponent and just barely dropping the next two matches. With such a young team the SAAS tennis team looks forward to next year.
Golf
Next are the boys from the golf squad. After graduating a few dedicated seniors from last season, the golf team saw a thin senior class this year. No matter how thin the class, there was no shortage of hard work from star seniors Nick Walton ’13 and George Pierce ’13. The two fought hard for the team and while there were no official captains on the team, the duo showed great leadership through a tough season. Golf is a mentally grueling sport–some days the ball just does not spin the right way. Despite finishing last in the league, the boys’ team hopes to keep their season alive as they wait to see if their scores were good enough to push them into districts. Fingers crossed for you boys.
Soccer
Finally, the pride and joy of our school, the Seattle Academy Varsity Girls Soccer team (SAVGs). Having won state championships the past three out of four years, the SAVGs were expected to have another big year. After losing a couple of key seniors from the class of 2012, the girls bounced back with great leadership behind captains Izzy Fikso ’13, Emily Norris ’13, and Alexa Strabuk ’13.The SAVGs played through the league dropping only a couple of games to other teams and securing a spot in the playoffs. Once in the playoffs the girls put together a couple of big wins before running into UPrep. The SAVGs let in an unlucky goal early on then played from behind the rest of the game. It was a fight from start to finish, but the girls were not able to overcome the early deficit and fell 1-0. A disappointing end to a great season, Seattle Academy will miss all of this year’s seniors. Many of these girls played varsity from day one as freshmen and went on to two state championships. It is our honor here at The Cardinal to call the SAVGs our team.
Images Courtesy of SAAS SmugMug