Varisty Football
By Gigi Decesare
At the start of the 2023 season, Oviedo’s varsity football team held a 1-1 record. Two weeks ago, the Lions won their away game against the Lake Brantley Patriots with a final score of 60-47. This win was essential for the Lions to generate early season momentum.
The second game the Lions played was at home against the University (Orange City) Titans. Oviedo suffered a loss of 37-21 in this close game that was delayed multiple times due to lightning.
Going into this past week’s away game against the Lake Mary Rams, Oviedo had 4 previous years of losses against them, so the team knew the game would be a challenge. Despite this, many of the Oviedo players personally had a productive game.
“I feel like the game went well for me, I had a touchdown and a few good catches,” said sophomore running back Emiliano Galarza.
Many other players also did their part for the team along with Galarza.
“I made good blocks and got our team in a good position as the holder for the field goal to put us up 17-16 at halftime,” said senior wide receiver Alex McCoy.
At the end of the first half, the Lions were beating Lake Mary 17-16.
“I thought we really had a chance to win and it showed the skill our team has against top teams in the state,” said McCoy about the first half.
Although it was a tough game for the team, the family aspect on this team has not suffered because of it.
“After our losses we have picked each other up,” said McCoy. “We are determined to come back stronger to beat the harder teams coming up.”
Both McCoy and Galarza feel that they can change things to improve in the upcoming weeks. For Galarza, it’s working on improving his blocking during the game. For McCoy, it’s drinking water and making sure he knows his plays and responsibilities in future games.
Overall, the team as a whole has areas that they can improve on at practice this week.
“I feel like we had some ups and downs during that game,” said Galarza. “…but we just need to practice every day because we’re going to get better every time.”
In the end, the Lions suffered a loss of 17-46 to the Rams. This put their overall win/loss record at 1-2.
“In the second half I had three catches, but our team fell short and was not able to move the ball down the field as much, leading to our loss,” said McCoy.
The players hope to have better game outcomes in these next few weeks where they will play Heritage (Palm Bay), Timber Creek, and East River. The team is putting in the work everyday to make this possible.
“After that loss we’ve come together and we’ve recuperated,” said Galarza. “We don’t want to lose this week.”
Girls Volleyball
By Hunter Fuehrer
Heading into week 3, the Oviedo girls varsity volleyball team was 7-3 after their trip to the Nike Tournament of Champions where they finished 6th going 3-3. However, in the regular season the girls were 4-0 and were looking to keep the streak going in their game against the Lyman Greyhounds.
The Greyhounds went 15-12 last year, ending their season off in a 3-0 week against the Lions in the regional quarterfinals. This year would be a stark contrast from the year prior with the loss of 10 seniors, which made up the bulk of Lyman’s starting lineup. Lyman entered the game with a record of a 1-5 with their only win against the Geneva Knights.
Oviedo would start off the game competitive with a score of 7-7. But the Lions high-pace offense brought them ahead to a 19-17, ultimately closing the set 25-17. The second and third sets saw more of the same for this dominant Oviedo squad, closing out the game in a 3-0 sweep 25-17, 25-14, 25-14.
Swim and Dive
By Merrick DiCarolis
The Oviedo Lions swim team had a hot start in their first swim meet of the season, crushing the Lake Howell Silverhawks and cross-town rival Hagerty Huskies with a score of 243. Lake Howell scored a 31 and Hagerty scored a 20.
The Lions boys team was led to their victory by star senior Ryan Walker, who swam the 100 freestyle in 49.3 seconds and the 50 freestyle in 22.59 seconds, which led all swimmers.
The Lady Lions were led by Jane Coleman, who swam the 500 freestyle in 5 minutes and 39 seconds and Ciel Sanabria who swam the 50 freestyle in 25.78.
This week, the Lions have their second meet of the season on Wednesday at the Oviedo Aquatic Center, where they will face Seminole High School. Last season, both the Lions teams beat Seminole.
Cross Country
By Riley Sanderson
This past weekend, the Oviedo cross country team competed in the 51st Annual Astronaut Invitational at the Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville. The team left the school at 5:30am for a 40 minute bus ride to the 7:00am meet.
The Chain of Lakes course, which roughly takes the shape of a figure eight around two large ponds, is known for being generally slower. In addition, Coach Joseph Hazera decided to sit the top four boys (Myles Egerton, Aiden Aysun, Colin Aysun, and Yaniel Petrovich) and top four girls (Maya Cabal, Hannah Adamson, Courtney Calhoun, and Hannah Atwell) for the race to reduce any burnout the runners may experience towards the postseason.
“I feel like a lot of the younger underclassman runners stepped up and ran really good times for some of their first times running a varsity race,” said senior runner Lilly Johnson.
Coach Hazera’s strategy in turn gave those younger runners an opportunity to prove themselves.
“The course was a little hard for me because it was my first race but I’m proud that I did it,” said first-year runner sophomore Milaniz Petrovich.
The first race was boys varsity at 7:15am. Despite not being able to pace near the top four boys, freshman Jack Nugent came in first for Oviedo, placing 26th out of 238 runners with a time of 17:11.60. Lucas Boyer, James Speer, Nathaniel Watson, and Aidan Zahn all ran personal record times.
Not long after was the girls varsity race at 7:45am. Madalyn Falk led Oviedo, placing 49th out of 187 runners with a season’s best time of 22:08.90. Abigail Price and Audrey Wood ran personal record times.
The originally separate gender junior varsity races were announced to become one combined race during the meet as the temperature rapidly began to increase. This new combined race began at 8:20am in order to beat the quickly rising sun.
The junior varsity race was led by junior William Swisher in 5th place with a personal record of 19:41.80 and junior Kaitlyn Saydah in 7th place with a personal record time of 24:32.40. Soleil Schnoor, Milaniz Petrovich, and Kolby Peetz also ran personal records.
Next week, the team will compete in the Lake Buena Vista 2023 XC Invitational at Lake Buena Vista High School on Thursday the 14th. This will be the team’s first and only evening race of the season.
Golf
By James Bryant
After a strong start to the season, the first loss for the lions golf team was just handed to them. On Tuesday September 5, the Oviedo boys golf team traveled to Timacuan Golf Course, to take on Lyman High school’s golf team. The match did not go into the lion’s favor, as Lyman beat Oviedo High School 190-167.
It was a rough day for the team, as they did not play great to start the match. Caleb Anderson (sophomore), and Alexander “Xander” Pendry (freshman), were the two bright spots on the teams. Caleb had a score of 37, and Xander had a score of 38, which led all the players in scoring. Caleb earned himself three birdies in the game, and played great at each hole. Xander showed great skill during the course, and impressed Coach Howell with his play. Coach described his game, as far beyond his years, as while he is a freshman, he’s been playing as if he’s been playing high school golf for years.
Oviedo’s two other notable players were Tyler McGrath (Junior), and Tyler Adamczyk (Sophomore). Both of these players scored a 46, and it was not the best game for the two. The swings were a struggle for the two, and they weren’t able to get back in a rhythm.
Adamczyk had been an up and down player, after being phenomenal in the first two games. Adamczyk struggled to get his hits in, and unfortunately had four doubles in the game.
Coach Howell explained that putting wasn’t great for all of the players, and that it affected the rest of the game. Lyman unfortunately had a better game than the lions, but the team plans to bounce back from this.
Two days after that loss, the lions took on Lake Brantley at Wekiva golf course. After the disappointing loss against Lyman, the Lions followed it up with a tie against Lake Brantley. Certainly, after Tuesday’s big loss, a tie against a tough opponent is not a bad outcome.
Caleb Anderson, Tyler McGrath, Xander Pendry were the stars of the game, as Caleb scored a 38, Tyler scored a 39, and Xander scored a 37. Xander is starting to turn into a really good player, as he was once again one of the team’s best players. The freshman is destined to be great in the future, and has a lot of potential.
Despite Caleb playing a great game, he claimed that he was not happy with his score. He came up short on a couple of birdies, and wasn’t happy with not converting on those. Overall he played a great game, and this tough criticism shows how much of a competitor he is.
Tyler struggled a little bit at the end, but his strong start helped him finish with a great score at the end of the game. Coach Howell thought he held it together throughout the game, allowing him to get a higher score. Howell thinks if he continues to play like this, then he will turn it to be fine.
A disappointing start to the week for the Lions, with the loss against Lyman, was a step behind where they wanted to go. But, they kept their composure as many of the players had a great game against Lake Brantley days after the unfortunate loss. Despite it being a tie, the team was happy with the game, and hope to gain momentum coming into next week’s matchups.
Bowling
By Josh Sabbia
Heading into their 3rd week, the Lions first game was against Crooms High School.
“Crooms isn’t really one of the strongest teams in our league, so it was more of a battle within ourselves to play the best we can,” said Coach Freund. “The message that I preach to my team is to focus on what they are doing, not what the other team is doing.”
In the total of three baker games, they knocked down 515 pins. This gave them a +215 on total pins lead. Spencer Wainright had a high game with a score of 222, and he had a total of 370 pins scored between his two scores. One player with a high series of a total of 396 pins was senior Zack Horrobin which led Oviedo to their win.
“Zack Horrobin is one of the best bowlers in the county,” said Coach Freund. “He had the highest average in the district tournament and made it to the state tournament as an individual last year.”
The Oviedo boys bowling team ultimately beat Crooms 2120-1905 in total score. Adding another win to their record, making them 2-2.
The girls bowling team had also won their game with an updated win/loss record of 3-1. The score was 1647-1319, giving the lions a +328 win.
“The girls are playing great,” said Coach Freund. “They are really starting to gel as a team and it’s really exciting to watch.”
