MUS Sports News

Owls Look To Get Back On Track At St. Benedict

The MUS varsity basketball team lost both games this past week as ECS first defeated the Owls on Homecoming last Friday night, 61-55, and then they were defeated at Briarcrest this past Tuesday night, 52-46. With the two losses, MUS’s record now stands at 13-7, 1-3 in the region.

With a large crowd coming to support the Owls on Homecoming, ECS deflated them early by trying to take advantage of their immense size advantage by going inside early. The Eagles' post players, led by Andy Johnson and Tim Johnson, got ECS an early lead with their strong play, and they maintained that advantage heading into the half, 29-22. The Owls knew that they would have to shore up their interior defense to get back into the game.

But the Eagles continued to score points down low and shot a sizzling 57% percent from the field in the second half to maintain the lead. For the game, the Owls shot only 38% from the field despite having three players score in double figures. Elliott Cole and Jay Martin both added 12, while Peter Zanca led the Owls with 14 points and 11 rebounds. 

Tim Johnson led ECS with 23 points and 17 rebounds.

On Tuesday night the Owls looked as if they would rebound from the tough Homecoming loss as they led much of the first half against Briarcrest. Behind Ferrakohn Hall’s 8 first-half points, the Owls led, 26-24, heading into halftime.

MUS would maintain the lead throughout much of the second half, but the Saints' pressure ended up getting to MUS in the last four minutes. Briarcrest went on a 10-0 run in those four minutes to prevail. Hall was the only MUS player in double-figures as he scored 12. The game was decided by turnovers and free throws as the Owls had 21 turnovers and could only get to the line four times, while Briarcrest had 17 free-throw attempts.

The Owls stay in region play this Friday night as they face an always tough St. Benedict team on the road. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.  Then, one night later they play their last non-conference game at home against Bishop Byrne.  Tipoff for that contest is also 7:30 p.m.

Swimmers Continue To Improve

The Aquatic Owls posted wins over White Station, Briarcrest, and St. Benedict but fell short to CBHS at their regular-season meet last Saturday at the Bartlett Rec Center.  This meet brings the Owls' season record to 41-15.

Starting the meet, senior Dex Witte, freshman Tucker Witte, and junior Bill Bell placed second, third, and fourth, respectively, in the 500-freestyle event. In addition, the MUS team placed the maximum three swimmers in the top eight in every event.

Other scorers included seniors Daniel Harriman and Collier Calandruccio, juniors Erim Sarinoglu, John Goldsmith, Andy Kim, Scott Guinn, Thomas McIntire, and Ashton Fisher, and freshmen Johnny Dillon and Jon Mitchell. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Witte, Goldsmith, Dillon, and Harriman placed second.

As the County Championships approach, MUS looks to the final regular-season meet on Saturday, February 4, at the Bartlett Recreation Center. The Owls have amassed 164 county qualifying times among the 37 swimmers. In addition, eight swimmers have acquired eighteen state cuts.

Wrestlers Head Toward Postseason

The varsity wrestling team participated in its final major tournament last weekend before the Regional Duals as the Owls and seven other rivals wrestled in the CBHS duals.

The tournament, one of the more prestigious in the area, began with two four-team pools. After round-robin action, MUS finished third in their pool, qualifying for a fifth-sixth place match with St. Benedict. 

MUS came out on top against the Eagles, 57-18, with wins from Barret Folk (103), Andrew Maroda (119), Cameron Ridgway (140), Frank Jemison (145), Sam Goldstein (152), Grayson Sharpe (160), Zach Gordon (171), Mason George (189), Ben Stallworth (215), and Andrew Gordon (275). Host school CBHS took first place, beating Father Ryan, 36-25.

The Owls have had a solid season and now look to the Regional Duals, which begin on January 28th.  For the past five years, the Owls have placed second in their region. The goal for the Owls this season as always is to be one of the top two teams in their Region to qualify for state. While CBHS looks like the top team now, St. Benedict and Harding will also be teams for the Owls to look out for in the upcoming Duals.

Basketball Splits Region Games

The varsity basketball team opened their region schedule this past week with contests against Harding and CBHS, while also facing non-conference opponent Lighthouse Christian. With wins over Harding and Lighthouse and a tough loss to CBHS, MUS advanced to 13-5, 1-1 in region play.

Last Friday night, MUS took on a quick, athletic Harding team on the road. The Owls jumped out early and dominated the first half with hot shooting from the three-point line and solid defense to lead, 42-19, heading into the break.

However, like any good team, the Lions did not fold and got back into the game in the third quarter, but MUS would ultimately hold off a late rally to win, 72-63. 

Jay Martin scored 16 of his 20 points in the first half and shot 4-of-6 from three-point range for the game. Elliott Cole continued his solid play with 17 points, and Ferrakohn Hall added 10 for the Owls.

Then, the next evening the Owls returned home to take on Lighthouse Christian.

The home team was never threatened as the Owls led the entire game. MUS showed from the start that they were the more talented, deeper team against the Warriors as they led, 40-14, at halftime and extended their lead to 66-25 later in the second half before ultimately taking the 85-49 victory.

All players logged minutes as the squad had four double-digit scorers. Martin led the Owls with 16 points while Louis Amagliani added 15 points off 6-of-6 shooting, Cole 13 points, and Peter Zanca 12 points and 9 rebounds.

MUS then returned to region play last Tuesday night against rival CBHS.

Early, the Purple Wave hurt the Owls with their strong inside game as they looked to get the ball to the post. The strong inside game of Chris Walker, who scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, then led to open outside shots that the Brothers took advantage of.

CBHS was more physical than the Owls as they won the rebounding battle, 30-21. However, the Owls refused to give in as they cut a 12-point halftime deficit to just 5 in the fourth quarter before being halted by the Wave, 57-49.

Cole and Martin were the only serious offensive threats as they both scored 13 points for the Owls.

MUS next takes on ECS for Homecoming on Friday, January 20. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Aquatic Owls Redeem Themselves

Redeeming themselves after last weekend's loss to Germantown, the Aquatic Owls repaid the Red Devils with a 116-97 victory at a regular-season meet on January 12 at St. George's High School. In addition to beating Germantown, MUS also defeated Collierville (53), Briarcrest (27), Bartlett (16), and St. George's (14) at this meet.

Starting out the meet, the 200-yard medley relay team of freshmen Johnny Dillon and Jon Mitchell and seniors Daniel Harriman and Dex Witte was narrowly beaten out with a time 1:50.45, losing by only .55 seconds to the first-place Germantown team. And finishing the meet was the 200-yard freestyle relay team, consisting of juniors John Goldsmith and Bill Bell, Witte, and Harriman, who tied the Germantown team with a time of 1:37.26 in an amazingly close race.

Individually, the Owls scored the maximum three places in each event with Witte leading with a first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle. Second-place finishes were presented to Harriman in the 50-yard free and Mitchell in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke. Also finishing in the top eight in other events were Harriman, Witte, senior Collier Callandruccio, Goldsmith, juniors Scott Guinn, Tyler Johnson, Andy Kim, and Thomas McIntire, Dillon, and freshmen Tucker Witte and Forrest Wortham.

Hoping to build on their outstanding record of 39-14, the Swim Team has two more regular-season meets before the County Championships, to be held Saturday, February 11, and the State Meet on February 24-25 in Nashville. 

The Owls' next meet is Saturday, January 21, at 3:15 p.m. at the Bartlett Recreation Center against White Station, St. Benedict, Briarcrest, and rival Christian Brothers.

Wrestlers Finish Eighth in Brentwood

Last weekend, the MUS wrestling squad traveled to Middle Tennessee for the second time this season in order to compete in the Ravenwood Tournament in Brentwood as they continue to prepare for their postseason run. As a team, the Owls placed eighth out of twenty teams as they went up against some very solid competition.   

Individually, the Owls put forth impressive performances, the best of which were seen by seniors Mason George (189 lbs) and Andrew Gordon (heavyweight), who placed first and second in their weight classes, respectively.

Three days later, the Owls went to Harding to face off against the Lions and St. George’s.  Harding’s team stayed closed with MUS, but the Owls pulled out the victory, 48–30. 

After this triumph against a region opponent, the Owls cruised past St. George’s, 75–6. These impressive victories should give the Owls some momentum going into their next tournament, the CBHS Duals on January 14. Eight teams will be competing in this competion, which will be the Owls’ last major tournament before the Regional Duals.

The Owl’s coaching staff is satisfied so far with the impressive effort put forth by their team.  Coach Shaun Gehres says that the roster is pretty close to being set right now, but there will most likely be several challenges for positions before state competition begins. 

“Right now, we’re on track to peak at the right time as a team,” said Gehres, showing his confidence for the upcoming matches.

Basketball Heads Into Region Play With Momentum

The varsity basketball advanced to 11-4 after two blowout wins this past week.

Last Friday night, MUS faced a Catholic team on the road that they had beaten, 120-53, in the first game of the season. Though the difference was not as large this time, the Owls again won in dominating fashion, 79-47.

MUS showed from the start that they were the more talented and deeper team against the Chargers. The Owls never trailed and extended their lead to 69-32 at one point. All players logged minutes as the squad had four double-digit scorers. Elliott Cole led the Owls with 19 points off 8-of-11 shooting. McCauley Williams added 16 points and 9 rebounds, Jay Martin 14 points, and Ferrakohn Hall 12 points in the easy win.

The next evening at home, the Owls took on an athletic, quick Lausanne squad and easily handled the Lynx, 70-48.

MUS dominated again from the outset as they jumped out to a 22-6 lead early in the second quarter and never looked back. The Owls led by 15 at half and extended the lead to 63-32 by the fourth quarter.

For the second straight game, all players played and got valuable minutes. And again, Cole led the team in scoring as continued his fine play with 22 points. Hall scored 17 points, and Philip May distributed the ball nicely with 8 assists. For the game, the Owls shot 50% from the field and held Lausanne to just 30% shooting.

The Owls next play at Harding in the region opener on Friday, January 13. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.

Swimmers Take Third At Germantown

The MUS swim team added to their impressive record when they competed over the weekend in the Germantown Invitational, a prestigious county event, placing third out of twelve teams.

The Owls earned 84 total points, finishing behind rival CBHS (310 points) and Germantown High School (128 points). This meet was the second invitational on the Owls’ schedule, which now has entered its second half.

Highlights included some strong performances from the relay teams.  In the 400 freestyle relay, the Owls placed three teams in the top four, including a second-place finish from the team of John Goldsmith, Dex Witte, Daniel Harriman, and Erim Sarinoglu.  Also, in the 200 freestyle relay, the team of Keith Parsons, Sarinoglu, Bill Bell, and Witte claimed third place.  And freshman Jon Mitchell got state cuts in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley.

Last year, after the Owls had finished second in the Germantown Invitational, they cruised to the County Championships by winning two consecutive events. This season, MUS has three events until the County Championships. Coach Laurie Clark’s squad will have several more chances at these upcoming meets to size up their major opponents, CBHS and Germantown. 

The first of these three remaining meets in January 12th at St. George’s.

Basketball Goes 2-2 in Illinois

The MUS varsity basketball team traveled to Carbondale, Illinois, over the Christmas Break to play in the Carbondale Holiday Tournament. The team went 2-2 for the tournament as their record now stands at 9-4.

The Owls opened up the tournament strongly against the Herrin (IL) High School Tigers. The result was never in doubt as MUS would go on to win, 72-41. All varsity players logged time for the Owls, and Elliott Cole led the squad with 18 points as he went 9-of-9 from the free-throw line. Jay Martin added 13 points, and Peter Zanca tallied a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

MUS’s second-round game was against a strong Westbury Christian (TX) team, and the Owls came up just short, losing, 45-43, in a contest that was close throughout. With fifteen lead changes, the result came down to the final seconds as Chris Lies hit a shot to break the 43-all tie. Martin had a desperation heave at the buzzer but missed, giving Westbury the win. Zanca was the lone Owl to reach double figures as he scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

In the consolation round, the Owls next faced the Murphysboro (IL) High School Red Devils.

MUS got off to a good start, jumping out to a 13-2 lead as Martin hit three early three-point field goals. But the Red Devils finished the half on a 17-6 run to tie the game at the break.

The contest stayed close throughout, but ultimately two Cole free-throws and a lay-up gave the Owls the lead as they held on for the 38-36 victory. Martin led MUS with 14 points, and Cole added 11.

Later that day, the Owls faced Ocoee (Fla) High School in their final game of the tournament and ultimately lost, 66-56. MUS never got anything going offensively as they shot poorly from the field, 34%, while the Knights shot an impressive 59% from the field.

But Cole kept MUS in the game as he broke out, scoring 25 points off 4-of-6 three-point shooting and hitting 9-of-10 from the line. For the tournament, Cole shot a sizzling 95% from the line (21-of-22). But Cole's play was not enough as the Owls eventually succumbed to the athletic Knights.

For his play, Peter Zanca would go on to make the Class A All-Tournament team as he totaled 37 points and 31 rebounds during the four games. 

The Owls showed that they could compete with good competition and return home eager to start the new year. MUS begins the new year on the road against Catholic, a team they beat, 120-53, earlier in the year. Tipoff against the Chargers is set for 7:30 p.m. this Friday night. Then, the Owls face Lausanne the next evening at MUS. Again, tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.