Girls’ Varsity Track and Field

Aiming for records

 “Zoe Li-Khan: New pole vault school record! Avery Hart: longest triple jump in school history!” You might have heard some of these phrases being tossed around in school and on Instagram, but what really happened in the Girls’ Varsity Track and Field season?

 Co-Captain Zoe Li-Khan ’25 said the team improved, reaching new personal records.

“This season has been pretty good. We got third at the Independent School League Championships by one point, which was big for us, because that’s something we were hoping to place at. Our team’s been doing well, everyone’s been hitting PRs and the team’s been getting better.”

 The team dealt with unexpected race and practice schedules.

 “Some of the biggest difficulties we faced this season were just not having a lot of meets because of cancellations due to the rain and wind and our schedule,” she said. “Our team lost access to the track that we’ve practiced on. So, it’s been hard for us to practice because we switched to the Watertown track, but we’re only allowed to go twice a week. We’ve shown up multiple times and others have had track, so we haven’t been able to practice.”

Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse

‘Setting up for success’

 The Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse (BVL) team started the season out hot. Winning their first two games, BVL faced the ninth best high school boys’ lacrosse team in the country — Dexter Southfield. The whole game was back and forth with each team racking up goals until it was 11-11 at the end of regulation.

 In overtime, BVL lost 11-12. Co-Captain and goalie Phil Ellis ’25 said the game showed BVL’s identity.

 “It was a tough loss, but we were showing really good signs for the rest of the season. Our defense and offense were both playing really well, and we had a strong motivation to stay in the game.”

 After a solid start, BVL slumped, ending the season with a record of 4-9, Phil said.

 “I would say that the mentality of the team sometimes let us down,” he said. “Sometimes, we lacked the passion of winning that we had at the start of the year. And I think that’s a piece that some people don’t realize is important. You have to just play hard the whole game, no matter what the score is.”

 Attackman Jake Kavet ’27 saw value in the season.

 “Getting some experience on our backs this season is going to be huge as we progress in these next two seasons,” he said. “Especially for the sophomore class and these younger guys, learning what it feels like to lose is very important. Understanding how desperate you feel when you want to win a game and how winning feels like the greatest thing ever. So, I think just looking into the future, this team is set up for success as we progress in the next couple years.”

Girls’ Varsity Tennis

Powered by ‘team spirit,’ Instagram support

 An essential part of a successful team is having strong bonds within it. Even in tennis, which many consider an “individual sport,” positive team spirit is still what drives success.

 “I don’t think we’ve faced too many challenges this season,” Girls’ Varsity Tennis (GVT) Co-Coach Sam Crihfield said. “The team, as a whole, from the very first moment from our trip, has come together really well and been a really positive team environment for everybody. Any difficult matches, we’ve made doable just by the team approach and the team spirit.”

 GVT finished with a 12-4 record, placed third in the Independent School League (ISL) for the third year in a row and will likely have the ISL MVP again in Mia Andreoli ’27, Coach Crihfield said.

 Because of strong competition in Class A, GVT barely missed the chance to make the New England Tournament, Coach Crihfield said.

 “Sadly, in Class A, there’s so many good teams. We ended up being tenth, and eight teams got selected. Looking ahead to next year, we are hoping to increase the difficulty of the competition or schedule to hopefully put ourselves in a better position for the seeding because we believe that we’re right there with the other teams in Class A.”

 Coach Crihfield was surprised by the GVT Instagram, he said.

 “The thing that surprised me the most were the Instagram videos that the girls made me appear in. I learned we have a lot of followers, apparently.”

Varsity Baseball

Improving through teamwork, attitude

 Throughout the Varsity Baseball (VB) team’s season, Co-Captain and pitcher Kenny Tsay ’25 found one thing to be the most rewarding: “Actually winning games,” he said.

 At this time last year, VB only had three wins. Yet, only one year later, VB ended with a record of 11-8-1. Though losing out on making the top bracket of the playoffs because of a coin-flip, VB made it to the final of the second bracket thanks to a walk-off double against Middlesex from Co-Captain Brady MacCutcheon ’25.

 Kenny attributed some of the team’s success to the captains’ dedication.

 “Our role as leaders helped us improve,” he said. “After coming off a season where you lose so much, you kind of lose that edge a little bit, you lose that feeling of winning. And so, we as captains and as seniors wanted to get back to that winning culture that BB&N used to have, especially as a baseball team. We had a team that won like 21 games 10 years ago. And ever since we’ve kind of been in the middle of a pack. We wanted to bring back that winning culture that we’ve been missing.”

 Overscheduling tested the team.

 “The biggest challenge for our team has been dealing with a number of games,” Kenny said. “There were moments where we didn’t practice enough, and so, it felt like we were unprepared for games. And there were weeks where we had like five games, and maybe we can add a couple JV games in there because it felt like we were being overplayed.”

 Second baseman Langan Fisher ’27 agreed with Kenny.

 “You can go from one game, have a lot of energy, and then if you lose, you still have to play again tomorrow. So, it’s about having the mindset of going in and forgetting about the result right after you play so that you can move on to the next game. Unlike a sport like football, where you play on Saturday, and then you get a whole week to think about it, we don’t have that time.”

 Langan’s favorite game was the first against Middlesex.

 “Last year, we got beat by them,” he said. “Then, coming into this year, we really set the tone. If we lost that game, our season would’ve been completely different. How we played that game set the tone for the rest of the season, and we brought that same fight into the rest of the games we played.”