With each Class Night season comes the annual Sports Night competition. This year, however, the competition looked a little different. Due to snow days, Sports Night was only two nights long and was rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 26 and Monday, Mar. 2. All of the relays were done the first day, and the second consisted of team competitions, such as ultimate frisbee and volleyball. Nevertheless, this year’s event still made for an unforgettable experience.
New rules were also implemented this year that limited each athlete to either one team competition and one relay, or two relays only. This made it a bit difficult for the Sports Night chairpeople to ensure that the best of the best were competing in each competition. Senior Sports Night Chair Addison DiFiore explained, “The new rules for Sports Night definitely challenged me and Cooper Cordes as chairs, especially because we are seniors and most events have been set for a year or two now. We [had] trouble finding new people who wanted to participate. The only thing I didn’t love about the new rules was needing to take people out of events that they love.” Sophomore Sports Night Chair Benjamin Dichter added, “With the new rules, making the teams was definitely harder for us, and the days getting moved hurt our team.” Yet, the competition stayed strong and if not better with these new challenges. DiFiore further elaborated on some strategy changes going into the making of the rosters: “We definitely saved some of our strongest athletes for big events such as frisbee and volleyball while on the other hand saving some for the more difficult relays.” DiFiore did have some positive feedback on the new rule changes: “The new rules did push [us] to increase the amount [of athletes] participating, which is great! I think the [new rule] should definitely stay!”
To kick off the events, the seniors entered the gym with loud speakers blasting music with some of the athletes dressed up as leprechauns in honor of the class color: green. They sprayed silly string and charged the crowd with megaphones that they would use throughout all the events to cheer on their classmates. This intensity directly translated to the upcoming events as they would soon dominate the competition.
Other grades did not appear intimidated by the seniors’ intensity as they cheered loudly for their respective grades during health teacher and announcer Jen Kramer’s introductions. The juniors followed the seniors’ lead and brought in a speaker of their own, while the sophomores even brought in some of the band to help cheer on their class throughout the events.
The initial event was the infamous obstacle course with the freshman and junior girls competing first. The juniors cruised past the freshmen with speedy times by Caleigh Buckley and Hana DeSilva that propelled them past the freshmen to the 4-0 sweep. The junior boys also swept their competition 4-0 with Aidan Renois and Garin Martinez having fast times. Next up, the senior and sophomore girls went head to head, and the seniors dominated in another 4-0 sweep. Gianna Marafioti did a celebratory backflip after her victory, which hyped up the senior crowd for the next competitors. Next up were the senior boys and sophomore boys, and in a stunning 3-1 victory, the sophomore boys upset the seniors after clutch performances by James Pisano and Thomas Potash.
Following the relays was the first-ever Challenger Basketball Sports Night event. The Challenger athletes were tasked with starting at halfcourt and dribbling up to the basket for the layup. There were three teams with two Challenger athletes participating in each, with fellow students from the Varsity Club helping with the activity. The crowd cheered as each athlete made a layup, spreading the feeling of community and sportsmanship.
The next few relays were concentration, partner scooter, mats on scooters, basketball, team walkers, and finally the square run to finish off night one. The seniors came out on top for concentration thanks to leadership by Sports Night Chairs DiFiore and Cordes. Partner scooters were just barely won by the sophomores who snuck into first place after a fast performance by their final partnership. The juniors came out on top for the mats on scooters event. Then for basketball, the seniors won by a huge margin with Jake Prince dunking to finish off their flawless run. As for the team walkers, it became more intense than expected. The freshmen came out of the gate hot, and made it to half court at an astonishantly fast pace, surprising spectators. However, they became flustered when it was time to turn around and return to the baseline. The seniors, in a come-from-behind effort led by DiFiore’s leadership, won the event for the first time in four years. DiFiore offered some insight on the seniors’ victory, explaining, “Since freshman year, we’ve struggled with the team walkers… This year, we put together an experienced group with a new method.” This new method proved to be successful as the seniors even had time to spare to help the other grades who were struggling. Next was the square run that left the crowd screaming. Michael King, Class Night advisor for the juniors, exclaimed, “The square run [is my favorite] because it’s the most exciting.” As for the results of the event, the seniors came out on top due to clutch performances by seniors Timothy Odiah and Tyler Berke.
Night two on Monday kicked off with girls’ volleyball; the junior girls won over the freshmen thanks to efforts by Lesbia Sierra and Avery Milukas who carried the juniors on serves to victory. The seniors, who won girls’ volleyball last year, were then dethroned in a wild upset by the sophomores who won in a close matchup. Grace Straub came in clutch for the sophomores multiple times and helped the girls qualify for the finals. In the finals, Sierra got the juniors off to a hot start with five aces in a row. Additionally, Valentina Esposito helped in the juniors’ big win against the sophomores to be crowned champions. For the boys’ matches, Ethan Galo made some great plays, helping the junior boys move onto the finals. Seniors Odiah and Devin Byrne helped in a big win over the sophomores to push them into the finals. However, the boys’ volleyball finals were a bit different than the results on paper. The juniors were forced to forfeit after an unfortunate injury to one of their key players that kept them under the seven player threshold that is necessary to compete. The freshmen were then installed as the juniors’ replacement. And just like his match before, Byrne carried the senior boys to the championship. At the same time as the volleyball matches were taking place in the large gym, the badminton players were battling it out in the small gym. The girls’ and boys’ matchups were won by the juniors, with the seniors coming in second for both, and the co-ed bracket was won by the freshmen with the sophomores coming in second.
The proceeding frisbee matches were also full of excitement. As for the girls’ matches, the juniors took a quick early lead against the freshmen thanks to Regan Casey’s and Olivia Ramirez’s efforts and never looked back. The senior girls had a similar outcome for their match against the sophomores, ultimately crushing their competition. Seniors Sophie Deifel and Natalie Kehoe made big plays that contributed to the girls’ success. For the finals, it was an intense matchup with the senior and junior girls going head-to-head. After five minutes of play, there was no score, and it was announced they were going into “sudden death.” Mia Corley caught a deep ball and won it for the senior girls in a triumphant win. As for the boys, the junior boys won their match against the sophomores and quickly righted the freshmen. As for the senior boys’ matchup, they were looking to build upon their success from previous years and become back-to-back and three-time frisbee champions. Prince wasted no time and quickly racked up four points against the sophomores. He made great stops on defense that contributed to many opportunities for the seniors to score and gave them the eventual victory. As for the finals match, it was a seniors versus juniors rematch from the girls’ frisbee; yet again, the seniors came out on top. It all started with Prince, Chase Samelson, and Garrett Reid connecting multiple times to give the seniors an early 3-0 lead against the juniors. They would eventually go onto win with a score of 9-0.
At the conclusion of the events, Kramer said the current standings for 98th Annual Class Night and winners of Sports Night would be announced following all the events. The standings were as follows: seniors, juniors, freshmen, and sophomores, with the seniors leading in first place, and the sophomores in last.
It was two nights filled with fun and exciting competition for students. King said, “Sports Night is a lot of fun… and it’s fun to see the kids grow.” Dichter reflected, “I thought our second-ever Sports Night didn’t go as we expected, but it was a lot of fun.” As for the Class of 2026, they look to build upon their success and be crowned Class Night champions.
