COVID-19 disrupted sports seasons, but in addition to a state title in girls’ lacrosse, several East Chapel Hill teams enjoyed deep playoff runs over the course of the year. Below is our sports recap for the 2020-21 school year.
Girls’ cross country team places at States
The girls’ varsity cross country team placed eighth at the state meet led by sophomores Margaret Sept and Anna Ivanisevic, who individually placed ninth and 24th. The varsity boys’ team placed fourth at regionals and sent Liam Mullen to the state meet, who individually placed 26th.
“Overall the season was really good, it was just a little choppy with COVID and everything,” said Jaxson Villa, a senior and four-year varsity runner who placed 19th at regionals. “Usually you drive to the meets on a bus and get to talk to everyone and it gets really hype before a meet. This year there wasn’t really that, you’d drive in your car to meets… you were by yourself.” — Katie Clark
Swim team makes it to States
The swim team progressed through the regional conference, sending 11 swimmers to States. The team ran into some roadblocks, with most of their meets being canceled due to COVID, except for conferences, regionals and states. This made it especially difficult to qualify for States, and on top of that, state officials cut the number of people allowed to qualify in half.
“I had a lot of year round swim friends even who didn’t qualify, they only took three people per region, while usually taking six,” said captain Miles Charles. “Other than limiting the number of meets and people, COVID hasn’t really affected us.”
However, when speaking about the different team dynamic and relationships this year, Charles says it has been, “harder to connect with freshmen and other swimmers on the team, not seeing them as often as I would, but everyone’s in a good mood and thankful to have the opportunity to swim…. In the time we’ve had, we’ve all gotten close.” — Guthrie Richardson
Girls’ soccer advances to quarterfinals, falls to rival Chapel Hill
The East girls’ soccer team made it to the quarter-finals against Chapel Hill, where they were defeated in penalty kicks after a double-overtime. After a state championship in 2019, a cancelled 2020 season, and just a single loss this season to Chapel Hill, the playoff rematch was a high intensity matchup with a lot to lose. The girls fought hard, and although they lost, the team grew closer through the sports’ season. Ann Alexander, the only senior on the team, was grateful for the team dynamics and friendship.
“We made it to the third round of playoffs, which was a really incredible journey because we just grew so much as a team throughout the season,” Alexander said. “You could kind of tell that our energies really meshed well with each other and that we were all getting along and we all care about each other, and you could definitely see that reflected in how we play our game.” — Zoe Hiemstra
Boys’ soccer wins conference, loses in playoffs to Southern Lee
East boys’ soccer went undefeated in its conference after defeating Chapel Hill 5-3 in an away game, successfully making it to playoffs, but lost to Southern Lee early on. According to senior Matthew Hurd, the team was hoping to make it further into the playoffs, which left a feeling of disappointment.
“The season was a success, but the ending was very bitter, and everyone on the team was expecting to make a bigger push in the playoffs,” Hurd said.
However, even with the upset loss and the Covid-19 pandemic, the soccer team was grateful for the opportunity to play together and grow closer.
“The team dynamic was great; it was the most enjoyable team I’ve ever been a part of, and everyone got along really well,” Hurd said. “Covid-19 made our season way shorter than any of us would’ve liked, but it also made us a lot closer. I think it helped us because, for a lot of us, soccer was the only thing close to normal that we had, and we all cherished that.” — Zoe Hiemstra
Boys’ golf dominates conference play, gains experience
Like other Wildcat teams, East boys’ golf played this season for the final time in the 3A Big 8 Conference ahead of next year’s realignment. And the Wildcats took advantage, as they overcame several pandemic-induced changes to capture the conference title by having the lowest combined score over the course of the season.
East also qualified for regionals, where—despite finishing fifth out of six teams—the Wildcats gained valuable experience for future postseason runs.This is especially important given that four of the Wildcats’ top five players were either sophomores or juniors this year.
“All of them have a lot of potential,” coach Stephen Snyder said of the four returning starters. “It was a good experience to go to regionals and find out that if you don’t do well on that particular day, you won’t advance.”
Unable to play at Chapel Hill Country Club this year, the Wildcats were forced to shift to Sanford Golf Course as their home course for this year. Additionally, the NCHSAA competitive format was altered this year due to the pandemic, with only five players per team in each match as opposed to six (though the best four scores from each team were still the ones counted, per usual).
Emblematic of the successful but strange season was Snyder’s scoring board from the team’s final conference match of the year. Underneath five successful scores that had allowed the Wildcats to win the day’s match, Snyder had written in the same thing in the sixth and final name slot as he had for that of the other teams on the board: COVID. — Atticus Crothers
Boys’ lacrosse fights to the state championship
The boys’ lacrosse team worked their way through the playoffs, ultimately arriving at the state championship, culminating in a 14-6 loss to Marvin Ridge. On the season, the team went 10-5 and 3-1 in conference.
“I think we played very well, I mean we made it to the state championship,” academic All-American and senior defender Parker De Leon said. “We improved a lot over the season, and were a great overall team.”
This is the second time in four years that the Wildcats have made an appearance in the boys’ lacrosse state championship, both times under head coach Dominck Koplar.
In regards to the impacts of COVID on their season, De Leon said that it felt “like there were a lot less people on the team this year, probably due to less awareness because of not being in school and socializing as much.” However, he said that “it was really cool going through the playoffs with a smaller group; we were all pretty close by the end.” — Guthrie Richardson
Volleyball finishes third in conference play
The girls’ volleyball team finished its season with a 9-4 (9-3 Big 8) record. They finished with a +18 point margin on the season and had seven games in which they held their opponent to zero points.
“Though we didn’t get to play each team twice due to COVID, we had some really fun conference match-ups,” head coach Rachel Kline said. “Our seniors did a nice job of stepping up into a leadership role to encourage the younger girls and provide the spark of energy we needed during challenging moments.”
Despite the challenges the team faced, they were still able to create chemistry on the team.
“Before the season, our team had Zoom calls which made us closer,” said junior setter Riley Ellis. “I think that, as a team, we all love volleyball so much so it’s always such a great time.” — Ryan Murphy
Boys’ basketball finishes first in conference play
After starting 8-2 through the first ten games of the season, the Wildcats lost the last three regular season games to finish with a record of 8-5 (8-4 Big 8). However, due to COVID-19, only the first game against each conference opponent counted toward the conference standings, which gave East a 7-0 conference record and the regular season crown.
Senior Will Tyndall led the team in scoring with an average of 17 points per game.
Senior small forward Evan Aycock reflected on the season and its challenges.
“We were looking really good during the first half of the season, so it was a shame for it to end how it did, but I’m still very satisfied to go out as conference champions,” Aycock said. “It was tough not having my family and friends in the stands, but I’m definitely glad we were able to have a season at all.”
The Wildcats’ postseason concluded with a first round loss to Northern Guilford in the North Carolina Division 3A playoffs. — Ryan Murphy
Girl’s basketball overcomes challenges in a rebuilding season
Despite challenges amidst the pandemic, the girl’s basketball team finished out its season with several key wins.
Many of past years’ players were not able to play this year because of concerns with COVID-19 precautions. Combined with overlapping seasons with other sports like volleyball and lacrosse, low numbers throughout the season caused players to have to shift around positions throughout the season.
“In games, it was like our first time really playing basketball five-on-five,” said junior Riley Ellis, co-captain and point guard. “Sometimes we played against the coaches, but it’s not the same.”
The team’s top-scoring players were freshmen power forward Laynie Smith and guard Abbi Stone, with an average 13.6 and 10.2 points per game respectively. With seven players, mostly underclassmen, the team finished with a 4-8 record in the Big Eight Conference. The team generally improved in wins and point deficits throughout the season.
“Definitely the most fun game was winning against Orange,” Ellis said. The Panthers beat the Wildcats in their first matchup, but East triumphed 39-38 in the rematch. “We won by one point. It was just crazy at the end.” — Caroline Chen
Boys’ tennis wins at Regionals
In the regional doubles final, both teams across the net repped East Chapel Hill across their chests. Sophomore Max Winzelberg and senior Harris Marsland defeated their fellow Wildcats, sophomores Kabir Grewal and Michael Gannon, to win the regional doubles championship.
With an overall record of 10-4, the Wildcats came in second in the Big Eight conference, to rivals Chapel Hill. At Regionals, they were co-champions with the Tigers. Because of the individual nature of the game, tennis matches went on mostly per usual in the pandemic. The main difficulty caused by COVID-19 was losing opportunities to build closer relationships with teammates.
“It was disappointing that you couldn’t do the stuff you normally get to do, like going out to dinner after games. That was a little frustrating, but we were able to do stuff. You just had to be more creative,” Winzelberg said. “I think that will make me enjoy next season more, hopefully.” — Caroline Chen
All photos courtesy of Phil Stapleton, except boys’ tennis courtesy of Gary Winzelberg
