Putting a positive spin on the Roslyn boys varsity basketball season is easy: the Bulldogs won their last three games and lost five of their contests by a total of 22 points (4.4 average).
Roslyn, competing in Nassau Conference A2, finished 6-11 overall and 3-8 in league play, missing the playoffs.
One of the last games was a 76-52 thumping of host Westbury, a Class AA team, in the Reid-Robeson Classic last month. The tilt was tied at 29 at the break, but guests blew it open with a 21-10 third quarter and pulled away. Junior guard Mason Goodstadt netted a career-high 27 points to pace the Bulldogs, followed by Jesse Khan and Maxwell Smith (9 each) and Harris Mihalatos (7).
Before the game, each team honored a scholar-athlete, and Roslyn’s choice was junior guard Daniel DiSanti. His citation read as follows:
“DiSanti has displayed an uncanny ability to display mastery in the classroom and sustained success as a student-athlete. His academic and athletic instincts are second to none. He has demonstrated an exceptional level maturity in balancing the demands of a rigorous curriculum with the pressures of being a varsity athlete. It is a great honor and privilege to have Daniel on the team, as he is a reflection of excellence on and off the court.”
The basketball squad wasn’t the only team making the news.
The girls’ varsity team finished their season with big plays and buzzer-beating shots. The Lady Bulldogs defeated a tough Bellmore JFK squad, with a score of 69 to 57. The team was led by Avery Leiderman with 21 points. Gia Patane hit a buzzer beater from well beyond half court. You can view that great shot at https://www.hudl.com/video/2/180887/63e66a17578d76052c49088f.
Then there are both the wrestling and track squads.
Last month, the Bulldog wrestlers scored a convincing 57-18 win over South Side High School.
The win left Roslyn with a 4-1 record overall and a 2-0 mark in conference play.
Top performers for Roslyn were Elijah Leader, Li Hao Jia, Samuel Ilizarov, Christian Morris, Ferman Puentas, Kevin Mendoza, Joel Lee, and Ryan Rosenberg.
The win was Roslyn’s fourth consecutive triumph. The season started off poorly for the Bulldogs, as they lost a Dec. 16 match to Bellmore JFK. The Bulldogs recovered with three consecutive wins, beginning the new year with triumphs over Great Neck North (42-31),Great Neck South (60-15), and Glen Cove (34-30).
On the track and field front, freshman gymnast Riley Green recently placed fourth on the uneven bars at the Individual County Championships and State Qualifier. Riley will represent Nassau County at the New York State Gymnastics meet on March 4 in Buffalo
Congratulations also to sophomore Zach Davidson and senior Ben Veneziano who both qualified to compete at the New York State Indoor Championship track and field meet. Zach cleared 11’6 in the pole vault and Ben cleared 6 feet in the high jump, coming in the top two in their events in all of Section VIII. The meet will take place on March 4 at the Ocean Breeze Athletic complex in Staten Island. The winter track and field team is coached by Kristen Hamilton and Nick Chiarelli.
We will update the performances of these fine athletes in the next issue of The Roslyn News.
—Joe Scotchie and Cynthia Younker for the Roslyn School District contributed to this article
