Powerlifting
The Boston Latin School powerlifting team, coached by BLS World History teacher Mr. Eric Cordeiro and BLS mathematics teacher Ms. Rachel Kelly, has been performing better than ever this season. Compared to last year’s 40 lifters, there are now over 70 members on the team. Amidst this massive increase of enthusiasm for the sport, all lifters participated in the annual Intrasquad meet this past December.
According to Coach Cordeiro, “The main goal is always to introduce students to lifting weights, give them confidence in the weightroom, teach them the proper form to lift and to make sure that all the lifters succeed and have progress.”
On January 13, over 40 BLS students participated in the 2024 USA Powerlifting (USAPL) St. John’s High School Classic, where they won overall first place team. Recently, BLS hosted the 2024 USAPL Sumus Primi Meet where 30 lifters set personal records. So far, 14 students have qualified for the 2024 USAPL High School Nationals in April taking place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they will compete against lifters from across the country. Currently, the students who plan to attend are Alex Ahmed (I), Alex Lam (I), Wendy Ruan (I), Simon Brown (II), Christian Le (II), Emily Polcaro (II), Ava Vu (II), Edison Wei (II), Kate Lincecum (III), Aidan Mak (III), Aina Nguyen (III), Katelyn Tran (III), Alexis Dakin (IV) and Lyra Kirouac (IV). In February, BLS Powerlifting will be hosting the 2024 USAPL Wolfpack High School Open, and in March, they will compete in the Ryan Moore New England High School State Championships.
Hockey
As of January 26, the BLS girls’ hockey team, led by Coach Tom McGrath, currently ranks No. 19 out of 44 teams in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division 1 with a record of 11-3-1 (wins-losses-ties).
On December 27, 2023, the team played in the Michael Giordano Christmas Classic, where they defeated Shrewsbury in a shootout victory, becoming champions.
This season, captain Maeve Murray (I) has tallied 13 points (nine goals and four assists) and captain Ava Enright (II) has earned 16 points (four goals and 12 assists). Angela Wells (IV) has earned a whopping 21 points (13 goals and nine assists). The defensive line is led by captain Maeve Greeley (I) and goalie Kelly McKenna (II) with three shutouts. Having qualified for the state tournament, the team hopes to make a deep playoff run and continue their fantastic form.
As of January 26, the BLS boys’ hockey team ranks No. 10 out of 40 in the MIAA Division 2 with a record of 6-6 (wins-losses).
Head Coach Frank Woods describes his 20th season, “The league is extremely competitive this season with four teams ranked in the top ten in the division, including Concord Carlisle who is ranked No. 1 and Tewksbury ranked No. 3.”
Captains Matt Carrara (I) and Aidan Fitzpatrick (I) lead the team in points with 16 (eight goals and eight assists) and 15 (five goals and ten assists). On the other end of the ice, captain Bobby Banks (I) leads the defensive line with goalie Oliver Murphy (III) totaling an impressive 215 saves. As the team enters the second half of their season, Coach Woods says, “There are no nights off in our league but we have played competitively in league play and hope to continue to do so in the second half.”
Boys’ Swimming
The BLS boys’ swim team has qualified in multiple events led by captains Piotr Kierner (I), Alex Xu (I), Cal Hale (II) and Caleb Kohn (II). Individually, Xu has excelled with his state-qualifying 100-meter butterflyand 100-meter freestyle times, in addition to qualifying twice for sectionals with his 50-meter freestyle time and three times in 100-meter backstroke event. Hale has also qualified for the state tournament in the 50-meter freestyle event and three times in the 100-meter freestyle event. In the 200-meter relay, Xu (I), Brian Xu (V), Hale and Kohn qualified for the state tournament and Xu (I), Xu (V), Hale and Kevin Wang (III) qualified for sectionals in the 400-meter freestyle relay. Impressively, Kohn has stepped up to become the first-ever diver for the boys’ swim team, earning some much needed points for the Wolfpack in wins against teams like Bedford, Cambridge Rindge & Latin and Waltham.
Basketball
The BLS boys’ basketball team has seven more games to look forward to this season against Bedford, Brighton and Medford among others.
For the BLS girls’ basketball team in the MIAA Division 1 League, although the team lost 22-35 in their game against Wayland on January 26, they put up a good fight with 49 rebounds and eight blocks. So far, they have won against O’Bryant, Boston Latin Academy and have a couple of games left in their season, including Bedford and Cambridge Rindge & Latin.
Indoor Track
As the Indoor Track Dual County League (DCL) Championship on February 15 draws near, the BLS indoor track team has been racing hard and training harder. They have competed in a total of ten meets so far and have three approaching. Past meets include the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association Coaches Invitational on January 27 where Colin Fisher (I) took first place in the one-mile, Bilal Elhaji (II) took second in the two-mile and Theresa Thompson (IV) took third in the high jump. Coming up is the long awaited MIAA Division 1 Indoor Track & Field Championship on February 15, the MIAA Meet of Champions on February 24 and the New Balance Indoor Nationals in March.
Wrestling
This season, the BLS wrestling team is dominating the DCL Large Division with an overall record of 16-2 (wins-losses). To claim the DCL Championship, they went against Wayland and won 44-21. At the Cape Cod Invitational Tournament on January 20, they took second place overall with 13 placers. They placed second out of twenty teams at the Weymouth Invitational on January 14 with seven individual placers, and at the Dan Balboni Holiday Classic, they took second out of 26 teams. At the George Bossi Lowell Holiday Wrestling Tournament on December 25, they finished 25th out of 93 teams.
