Spring Sports Recap

The spring season is a short one, but in 2017, it did not lack any feeling of accomplishment or team spirit. On the tennis court, around the track, on the lacrosse field and on the baseball diamond, our teams aspired and persevered, bringing home many victories and several honors.

Baseball

The 2017 Varsity Baseball Team finished with an overall record of 16-4. Avon won the Founders League with a perfect 8-0 record while finishing one game behind Loomis Chaffee in the Colonial League. Avon's Colonial League record was 11-3.

"This year's team might be one of the deepest and most talented teams in recent memory," said Head Varsity Baseball Coach Brian Doyle. "Nine seniors will go on to play baseball in college ball while several more of our sophomores and juniors will be committing to colleges over the next year or so."

Avon started the season with 12 straight victories including eight straight wins in the Founders League. During that time Avon displayed dominating pitching, timely hitting, and played very good defense. During this 12 game stretch, Avon won several close games including come-from-behind victories over Brunswick, Taft (twice), Kingswood, and Choate.

Golf

The Avon Old Farms varsity golf team posted a regular season record of 16 wins and five losses. Many of these matches were extremely close and a few were even decided by a tie-breaker. Many of the players on this year's varsity team earned medalist honors in several of our matches.

"Our score of 409 has been a winning score in previous years," explained Varsity Golf Coach Peter Deckers. "This year the competition brought in lower scores and beat us out, but I was proud that our men played to their ability and represented us well."

Lacrosse

"2017 was a special year," said Head Varsity Lacrosse Coach Skip Flanagan. "We achieved our goal of becoming a top 25 team nationally, and I am thankful to everyone involved in helping us get there."

This year's varsity lacrosse team had some big wins, including a home match against the Salisbury school that ended in a 16-8 victory for the Winged Beavers. Overall, the varsity lacrosse team had a 12-2 season record.

Among many of the team's great players were two individuals who have been named Under Armour All-Americans and will play in the 12th Annual Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Games on Saturday, July 1, at Towson University. Ryan Lanchbury will play attack for the North while his AOF roommate Raines Shamburger will play defense for the South - putting them head-to-head. The game will be nationally televised.

Tennis

"Our mission at the beginning of the season was to achieve a winning record and perhaps sneak into postseason play," said Varsity Tennis Coach Henry Coons. "We achieved our primary goal by going 10 and 6 with key wins over Salisbury, Westminster, Pomfret, Loomis and Suffield."

There were several reasons for the tennis team's success this year. Five returning players and co-captains who were determined to have a winning season. They won all of their close 4-3 matches, in fact, four of them. We had no "disappointing losses" which is rare for any team. We competed well against our toughest opponents, five of which made it to the Elite 8 postseason tournament and we made them earn their wins, and in turn we became more competitive. In every win someone on the team "stepped up" and played above and beyond their everyday ability.

"With five returning players next year and some new faces from JV and our first year students, we will hopefully get back to postseason play in 2018," said Coons.

Track & Field

The 2017 track and field team finished with a regular season record of 4-6. After some early season losses, the team rallied to beat talented Williston and Suffield squads. In our final regular season meets, the team had 32 personal bests, including top 10 all-time marks by Luka Vasic '17 in the long and triple jumps, Kevin Zhang '19 in the 100m and 200m, and Jimmy Christiano '17 in the shot and disc.

"The season was measured in far more than simple numbers, as this was a young and enthusiastic team," said Head Coach Matt Biggart '02. "The 2016 squad graduated 22 seniors including the entire national qualifying 4x400m relay team."

As the championship season wrapped up, several athletes emerged as All Founders or All New England scorers. The team finished sixth in the Founders League and eighth in the NEPSTA Championships.

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