Sports

The elite 8; Memories from an unforgettable year

David Willis
Published: December 26, 2007

Anyone who follows Andover sports has to feel blessed.

This year kicked off with a historic run by the Andover High hockey team, and saw the girls tennis team finally exorcise its tourney demons. School and state track records fell, as did records in football. And Andover was even represented in Major League Baseball.

Everyone is entitled to their favorite memories for the year. That's the fun part about sports; here are my favorite memories from 2007.

8. Randy Moss and .... Nick Caro?

ESPN SportsCenter's top 10 list is usually reserved for receivers like Randy Moss and Terrell Owens, but on Nov. 10, Andover's Nick Caro was right in that class.

Against arch rival Amherst, the Williams College receiver earned a spot on the ESPN countdown when he went airborne and came down with the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. He picked a great day for the highlight grab, since ESPN broadcast the game.

The former Governor's Academy standout finished his sophomore season with 16 catches for 278 yards and three touchdowns.

7. Water Warriors

It's been nearly a decade of dominance for the Andover swim team.

With the comfy confines of the Wellesley College pool packed to the brim with Golden Warriors fans chanting "A-H-S," Andover locked up its stunning ninth straight Division 1 title, besting second-place Chelmsford 245-227 on Nov. 18.

The names may keep changing but new heroes keep popping up for the team that recovered from having its dual-meet winning streak snapped at 99 meets to win its eighth straight MVC Meet title and ninth straight MVC dual-meet title.

Three-time state 200-freestyle champion Kristi Korsberg is off to Harvard, but two-time Division 1 state diving champion Katie O'Connell and freshman sensation Monica Patterson will be back.

No conversation on Andover swimmers can be complete without boys star Nick D'Innocenzo.

As a sophomore, he set the MVC league meet record in the 100 breast-stroke and broke the Division 1 North Sectional meet record in the 200 IM. He went on to win two events at Division 1 States. In the offseason, he is a standout on the national circuit, winning six events at the New England Senior Championships last month.

6. Moneyball

Want to know the area's pipeline to Division 1 college scholarships? How about Andover girls lacrosse.

A whopping six players from last year's Golden Warriors team are either off to college on scholarships or have signed a scholarship for next year.

The pack is led by two-time All-Scholastic Rachel Fox. Already having signed on with national champion Northwestern, she capped off her high school career with an 86-goal, 36-assist senior season to give her 256 career goals and 125 career assists.

She was joined by All-Scholastic Lindsay Hegarty, who is now at UMass Amherst. She scored 46 goals last year. Players from the 2008 team that have already earned Division 1 scholarships include Ilana Cohen (UNH), Kelly Driscoll and Jordy Shoemaker (Notre Dame), and Jessica Forster (St. Mary's of California).

Lacrosse players weren't the only ones to sign scholarships. Senior sharpshooter Meghan Thomann recently signed a full scholarship to play basketball at Bentley College. Her former teammate Maggie Cosgrove is now a starter at point guard for Sacred Heart.

And after playing only one year of football at Andover, Gordon DuBois just finished his freshman season at Division 1 Buffalo.

5. Comeback Kids

During her eight-month rehab from major back surgery, Margot Ryan had one goal: make it back into the pool.

After a freshman season that saw her score at Division 1 States, Ryan underwent surgery to insert two medal rods in her spine to correct a 40-degree curvature. That went with an eight-month recovery period, and she missed her sophomore season.

With teammates, fans and coaches holding back tears, Ryan returned to the pool in the Golden Warriors' first meet of the season against Belmont. And when Andover finished off its state title, Ryan was there swimming the 100 butterfly.

Doctors told John Hyslip that his season was over after the then-junior broke his wrist during the Andover hockey team's Jan. 10 matchup with Tewksbury. But Hyslip dedicated himself to rehabbing, and ended up scoring 10 points in Andover's historic five-game tourney run.

No sports award could match the news Wendy Pollack received in July when she was deemed cancer free. She had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in March but, with a clean bill of health, she rejoined the Andover soccer team for the second half of the season.

His "comeback" may have been a year ago, but Matt Rayner's return continues to pay off. Rayner, who transferred back from Texas, started the year by earning All-MVC honors in lacrosse, and finished it by catching 33 passes for 631 yards.

4. Record-Breakers

Andover has a history of great quarterbacks, but none can match Mike Pierce's gaudy numbers.

The senior signal-caller was so good, Andover coach Ken Maglio and his staff dropped their traditional Power-I offense in favor of the spread, which put the ball in their QB's hands; Pierce did not disappoint.

Pierce finished the 2007 season with 2,179 passing yards and 20 touchdowns through the air | both school records. He also scored a team-record 133 points on 13 touchdowns and a school-record seven field goals. His career marks of 3,826 passing yards, 37 touchdown passes and 225 career points are all believed to be school records.

At times during the season, Pierce was joined in the backfield by Chris McConnell. But it was not on the gridiron that the sophomore has made biggest impact.

As a freshman in indoor track, McConnell set the Andover High record in the 55-meter dash with a scorching 6.60 at preliminaries for All-States. He ended up taking 10th at New Englands (6.62).

The girls 4x100 relay team did one better in the spring.

The team made up of then-juniors Bizzy DiTroia and Christina Muccio, sophomore Melissa Knapp and freshman Vanessa Singleton set the state record in the 4x100 in 48.26 at All-States. They broke the mark held by the 2005 Andover Golden Warriors squad of Jenny Dlesk, Meghan Keefe and Brittany and Caroline Pierce: Mike Pierce's twin sisters.

Dan Godefroi rapped his milestone 100th career hit on April 21. He ended up with 121 career hits, 91 runs scored and a 22-3 record as a pitcher. He will soon start his freshman season for Georgetown University.

No one saw more records reached and marks hit by Andover athletes than legendary Townsman sports reporter Rick Harrison, who retired from the paper this year. By his own estimation, he saw about 50,000 athletes go through Andover in his 42 years on the job. Pretty good.

3. FINALLY

The numbers were dubious at best.

From 1988-2006, the Andover girls tennis team won 19 straight Merrimack Valley Conference titles, putting together a 255-match MVC winning streak. But in all 19 cases, the season ended in disappointment in the Division 1 North tourney.

However, that all ended on June 13.

JooHee Yoon's 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles locked up the program's first state title with a 4-1 win over Longmeadow in the Division 1 final. Caroline Koch and the doubles teams of Rikki Sartor and Kristina Black, and Heather Arvidson and Satin Zarkar also tallied wins.

And how did they celebrate?

Two days later, Sartor and Black teamed to down Amanda Fitzpatrick and Caroline Hobert of Longmeadow to win the state doubles title 6-2, 6-0 at Clark University.

The pair, who became the first Andover duo to advance to the finals a year ago, finished 25-0 in their 1<1/2> years as partners. Sartor was a starter on the Saint Anselm soccer team, and will be playing tennis this spring.

2. Give him a Hanigan

One year ago, Andover's Ryan Hanigan could not find playing time with the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts. On Sept. 9, he received a high five from baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. after scoring his first Major League run.

The former Andover High star went undrafted out of Rollins College in 2002 and spent all or part of six seasons toiling in the minor leagues. But then he received the news every little boy dreams of on Sept. 5 when he was promoted to the major leagues by the Cincinnati Reds.

The catcher got his first at-bat four days later, and he promptly delivered a line drive double to left field off three-time MLB All-Star Ben Sheets. He then scored on a wild pitch.

Hanigan is believed to be the first person from Andover to make the major leagues, and the first to play major professional sports since Sid Watson spent three seasons in the NFL (1955-58).

The 27-year-old with the career .289 minor league batting average played in four more games for the Reds, highlighted by a 2-for-4, 2-RBI performance on the final day of the season.

1. Ice dreams

The next time you attend a Boston Bruins game, look up at the Jumbotron when it is showing the history of hockey in Boston. For a moment, you will see a pair of teams in Blue and Gold.

One of those teams happened to be Andover, as it closed out the greatest season in team history with a 2-0 loss to Hanover in the Division 2 state title game.

It may have ended with a loss, but the run to the Garden was amazing.

Paced by the record-setting scoring of Tucker Mullin (33-29|62) and goaltending of Dan Abreu (school record seven shutouts), the Golden Warriors outscored opponents 20-3 in the first four rounds of the tourney, including a 7-1 drubbing of Lynnfield in the North finals.

The scene for the state finals at the TD Banknorth Garden was something to be seen. Led by leather-lunged Golden Warriors super-fan Avelino Abreu (grandfather of Dan), the Andover fans far outnumbered the Hanover supporters, and delivered cheers that seemed far louder than anything at a Bruins game.

The Golden Warriors responded in a big way against the high-powered, once-beaten Indians; it proved a poignant sign of what was to come for the rest of 2007.