Post-Season Honors Pile Up for Local Athletes

By Mitch Silver

The games are over, the races won. In some instances, the trophies in their cases are already in need of polish. Nevertheless, New York State’s sportswriters and other worthies have been handing out post-season kudos to athletes from Rye High, Rye Neck, and Rye Country Day School. Here are a few of the recent honorees.

Rye Neck’s amazing softball battery of Olivia Dunne and Sam Yannuzzi were both named to All-State teams by the Sportswriters’ Association. Pitching star Dunne was placed on the Class B 4^th team and catcher/hitting star Yannuzzi was chosen for the 5^th. The good news for Coach Joan Speadfino is, they’ll both be back next year.

Playing on the hardball diamond about a hundred yards away from Dunne and Yannuzzi, another catcher—classmate Jack Sheldon—was named All-Westchester/Putnam Honorable Mention by the Journal News/Lohud baseball staff. The honor came on the heels of being named to the All-Conference III team. Other area baseball stars to be honored were Rye High’s Mat Bruno, chosen for the Westchester/Putnam second team, and fellow graduate Myles Burbank at Honorable Mention. Both Bruno and Burbank were Conference II all-stars.

Rye Country Day senior Joe Burns also earned Honorable Mention for his exploits on the diamond, while his classmate Enzo Stefanoni topped the charts with his crazy season on the mound for the Wildcats, setting a New York State record for career wins.

Rye Neck tennis star Eikoh Hayashi joins Section One singles champ Sean Wei of Yorktown, Hayden Cassone of John Jay, and Luke Smith of Scarsdale on the Journal News’ Westchester/Putnam first team. Hayashi finished the season undefeated playing at 1st singles, and he became the first male tennis player at Rye Neck to win the Conference Championship.

Awards in boys’ track & field went to a slew of Wildcats and Garnets. Country Day’s sprinting quartet of juniors Daniel de Leon and Jackson Brodwolf, soph Cameron Coleman, and freshman Cullen Coleman were considered the second-best 4×100-meter relay team in the area, behind only White Plains. Brodwolf also took individual Honorable Mention in the 100. Graduating Wildcats Evander Jackson (110 hurdles) and Hannes Boehning (Javelin) received the same honor in their specialties.

Down the road, Rye High’s 4×800 relay team of senior Mark Willis and three juniors—Anders Jensen, Alec Radtke, and Marek Nowak—were named Honorable Mention, as was Jensen in the individual 400 Hurdles.

On the lacrosse field, junior Pete Chabot of Rye was named to the Westchester/Putnam 2^nd team at his specialty of “faceoff/get off” man, the player who wins the ball for his team without necessarily staying on the field for the entire attacking play. Garnets who did stay on the field and were recognized for their excellence were Billy Chabot, Owen Hull, Will Hynson, and Ryan Kirkpatrick. They were all named Honorable Mention, as was senior midfielder and team leader Tommy Chai at Rye Country Day. Chai led all Section One lacrosse players with 86 goals and 130 points on the season. The Chabots, Hynson, and Kirkpatrick had previously been named to the public school All-Section squad. Teddy Aquilino earned Honorable Mention.

Out on the links, the Journal News named Rye Country Day eighth grader Matt Yamin to the Westchester/Putnam first team Here’s what they said in making the award: “Eighth grader Yamin played beyond his years. He anchored the Wildcats’ lineup and went on to win the NYSAIS tournament at Sunningdale Country Club. That qualified Yamin for the Federation tournament at Bethpage Black, where he placed seventh.”

His sophomore teammate Charles Jolly was named to the 2^nd team. Another mere stripling, freshman Doug Beney, took Honorable Mention while whacking balls for the Garnets.