High School Sports: Winter Wraps Up, Spring Games Begin in March

Spring sports are getting underway while winter sports are ending with tournaments for both individuals and teams. The South River girls basketball team is pretty hot right now. We’ll see on Sunday morning what seed they are in the upcoming Maryland State tournament for both South River and Southern High Schools.

Scroll down for a preview of upcoming spring sports at both high schools.

Winter Sports Wrap-up

Basketball

The Lady Seahawks basketball team is having a stellar year.

Basketball draws for Maryland state playoff tournaments will take place on Sunday (Feb. 17) at 10 a.m. The South River girls and boys will play in Division 4A (Central), while Southern will play against similar-sized schools in Division 2A (Central).

The South River girls are having a standout season, with just two games left in the season, they’re posting 18 wins, 3 losses. In the 16 in-county games they’ve played, the girls are undefeated. Look for an exciting post-season for the Lady Seahawks. Their final regular season game is against Arundel (away) on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

The South River boys basketball team has 4 wins and 17 losses. They’ll meet Arundel at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday in Gambrills.

Southern boys have 12 wins, 8 losses—a nice improvement over last year. Their last game of the regular season is away against North County on Friday night at 6:45 p.m.

Southern girls have posted 7 wins and 13 losses for the season. They’ll also play North County on Friday (5 p.m.).

Indoor Track

This Monday, the Maryland Track and Field Finals will be held at the PG Sports Complex. Last week, in the regional qualifiers, both South River and Southern had some top performers. The South River girls came out 2^nd overall. The Seahawks boys ranked 6^th. The Southern girls came in 9^th overall, while the Bulldog boys came in 8^th.

Standouts from Division (Division 4A Central) South River include:

• Reilly Wagner: 1^st in the girls 1600 Meter Run
• Kali Dawson: 1st in the girls High Jump 4’2”; 3rd in the girls 55 Meter Hurdles (first in the qualifier)
• Reilly Wagner, Caroline Thompson, Alex Watson and Kali Dawson: 1st in the girls 4×400 Meter Relay
• Lea Carter, 4th in the girls Pole Vault 7’0″
• Brent Musselman: 2nd in the boys 800 Meter Run; 3rd in the boys 1600 Meter Run
• Matt Long, Trevor Denno, Stephen Kulick and Gabe Segnatelli: 4^th in the boys 4×800 Meter Relay
• Will Fountain: 2nd in the boys Pole Vault 9’0”
• Nate Smith: 5th in the boys Shot Put

Standouts from Division (Division 2A Central) Southern include:

• Chelsea Watson: 2^nd in the girls Shot Put 2A
• Jonathan Burgee: 4^th in the boys 800 Meter Run
• Ken Wallis: 3^rd in the boys Shot Put

Wrestling

The wrestling season is nearly over.

The South River wrestlers, with 13 wins and 1 losses overall, head into individuals this weekend. They performed well at the Maryland Dual Wrestling Championship earlier this month. They walked away as the regional champions (Division 4A).

In the regional finals, South River defeated River Hill, 34-27. They headed into the finals of the state tournament seeded third in the state, but were taken out by Urbana (2^nd seed). Damascus bested Urbana in the Division 4A final to take the state title.

Individual wrestling championships get underway starting Friday (Feb. 15) at 4 p.m. at Meade High School. They will continue through this weekend, the following weekend and ending on March 2 at the University of Maryland.

Swimming

Last Friday, the Co-ed Varsity County Championships were held at the Arundel Swim Center on Riva Road. Southern High has not updated their standings.Top county finishers will advance to regional finals on Feb. 16. From there, regional finalists will go to the state championship on Feb. 23.

At counties, the Seahawk ladies came in third with 84 points after Annapolis with 117 points,and Severna Park with 103. For the boys, first went to Severna Park with 129 points, Broadneck came in second with 101 points, and South River was third with 84.5 points. Here are the highlights from some individual swimmers:

• Zoe Cyphers came in first in the 50 freestyle and improved on her personal best by .14 seconds
• Also in first place was Michael Seabert in the 100 breaststroke with 58.45. Seabert broke not only his own record, but also the county meet record (59.18).
• The Ladies 200 Free Relay also took the number one spot. That team consists of Kasey Pearson, Hannah Schlegel, Bella Pyne and Zoe Cyphers. They broke a South River record when they finished in 1:44.22.

Spring Sports

Lacrosse

South River Lacrosse gets underway officially on March 21 with a 7 p.m. home game against Broadneck. Both the boys and girls play the same high schools on the same day, two hours apart. The girls will play Broadneck at home at 5 p.m.

The boys will get a few workouts in before the Broadneck game with scrimmages against Dematha, St. Mary’s, Ryken, Madison, and Salesianum on March 9. The next weekend (March 16), they’ll host another scrimmage with participants from Hereford, Westminster, Fallston, Avon Grove and Loudon Valley.

They’ve got a tough act to follow. The 2012 Boys Lacrosse team from South River were the Maryland champions. Their season ended last year with a big victory at the state final against Westminster (10-8). Overall, they won 20 games during their 2012 season. As for losses? None. Coach Paul Noone has a strong roster despite losing eight seniors to graduation.

The Lady Seahawks had a pretty strong 2012 as well, with 13 wins and 4 losses overall. Seeded third overall heading into the state tournament, they fell in the semifinal to Severna Park (12-6).

Southern’s Lacrosse schedule is not yet posted on their website. In 2012, the girls LAX team fell in the regional semi-final to Queen Anne’s (16-11). They were 8 wins, 3 losses in regular season play. The boys lacrosse team can make some improvements over last year, 6 wins, 8 losses. Seeded 12^th in the state tournament, they fell in the second round to Patterson Mill (12-5).

Baseball

The Southern boys baseball season starts on 4 p.m. March 21 in a game against Severna Park at home. An all-south county game, Southern vs. South River, will be played on April 3 at Southern.  A second all south county game will be played on April 29, this time on Seahawks’ turf.

Southern softball girls were 5 wins, 14 losses in 2012. Boys were 4 wins, 15 losses. The girls’ first game is also at 4 p.m. on March 21 against Severna Park. They’ll have a couple scrimmages before that — March 9 at 10 a.m. (Mt. DeSales) and 12:30 p.m. (Great Mills High).

South River Seahawks 4 p.m. against Arundel for both the boys and the girls teams.

In 2012, the boys went 13 wins and 9 losses, finishing in the state quarterfinal against Old Mill. Six of 21 players on last year’s roster graduated. A total of 13 players on last year’s team are now juniors, making this year a big one for recruiting for head coach Ken Dunn.

The Seahawk girls went 10 wins, 12 losses in 2012, leaving room for improvement. The lost the quarterfinal in the state tournament by one run against Glen Burnie. They’ll get to avenge that against Glen Burnie in mid-April when the girls meet the Gophers at home.

Tennis

Southern’s Tennis schedule is not yet posted. Last year, the team posted 7 wins and 5 losses for the season. No players moved on to the singles or doubles state tournament.

South River’s tennis starts on the first day of spring, March 21 against Glen Burnie at home. First serves at 3:30 p.m. They finished 2012 with 9 team wins and 2 losses. With two-time state champion Xiaosong Shang off to the University of Maryland, there are possibilities for other players to move into the spotlight. In 2012, Shang was the only player to move on to the state tournament. She fell in the second round, unusual for the girl who swept the tourney two years in a row.

Bocce

Southern’s unified Bocce gets underway in early March with practices starting after school on March 5. On March 19, look for the 3^rd annual Teachers vs Bocce Team game at Southern High. The fun gets underway at 2 p.m. Two days later, they’ll play Meade High’s Bocce Team at Southern starting at 3:30 p.m.

South River’s Bocce season starts Thursday (Feb. 21) when they meet Annapolis High (away) at 3:30 p.m.