10 the Chronicle, Willimantic, Conn., Wednesday, October 25, 2017

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PRouDLy HonoRs ATHLeTes of the WeekDusTIn GARRIson

soccer, Windham Techsydney Crawfordswimming, Lyman Memorial

By MIKE SYPHERChronicle Sports Editor

Dustin Garrison was 5- or 6-years-old when he first took to the soccer pitch, suiting up with all of his kindergarten bud-dies for a Saturday-morning league in Ashford.

And in Garrison’s first game, he discovered that he had a knack for delivering in the clutch.

“At the time all my friends were doing it, so I decided to do it,” Garrison replied when asked how he was introduced to The Beautiful Game. “I realized I was good at it and just stuck with it.

“I loved it since the very first game when I scored from half the field on a mini-field.”

Garrison has continued to deliver in the clutch with the now 14-year-old freshman striker at Windham Tech hitting the back of the net with regularity for his Mighty Tigers en route to the Chronicle’s male athlete of the week honor.

Sydney Crawford settled on her sport of choice at an early age as well when, as a 6-year-old student at Lebanon Middle School, she jumped into a pool and discovered that she was pretty darn fast. So fast, in fact, that she joins Garrison as the Chronicle’s female athlete of the week in Week 6 of our feature page.

Sydney’s mother, Danielle, notes that as her daughter “...began to think about high school swimming, she has always wanted to represent Lyman Memorial and hopefully bring more recognition to swimming.”

Sydney has done just that during her freshman campaign with the Lyman Memorial/Windham/Parish Hill cooperative program that captured its second straight victory Tuesday night, swimming past Old Lyme/Valley Regional by an 84-77 margin with Crawford claiming victories in both the 50 free-style (26.14 seconds) and 100 backstroke (1:02.13).

Crawford, an Eastern Connecticut Conference athlete of the week honoree last week, began swimming with the UAC club in Storrs before advancing to SONOCO out of Tolland. Sydney then switched to the Nutmeg group where she trains, in addition to her workouts at Windham High’s pool, at East Lyme High School with USA Swimming.

Six or seven days a week, Crawford keeps herself men-tally fresh while covering anywhere between 8,000 and 9,000 yards by thinking about her school work, her activities and fun things that are coming up. And oh yes, meal time.......

“I just had a big dinner,” Crawford admitted Tuesday night just an hour or so removed from the victory over Old Lyme/Valley Regional. “For someone like me, you’re supposed to be eating about 8,000 calories a day between three main meals and snacking intermittently.

“During the summer months my club team coach has dou-ble-sessions with two hours in the morning and then one-and-a-half hours at night for six days a week. I told my teachers when I went back to school that my summer was … OK!”

It’s that discipline, self-motivation and work ethic that has stamped Crawford as a swimmer to watch in the state of Connecticut. Sydney has qualified for age group champion-ships and represented the Nutmeg State this past summer at the Eastern Zones in Richmond, Virginia.

Her personal-best times include 56.60 seconds in the 100 freestyle, 2:02.36 in the 200 freestyle, 1:02.13 in the 100 backstroke and 2:11.95 in the 200 backstroke, her favorite event.

Crawford will compete in the 50 free and 100 backstroke in the upcoming ECC championship meet and then switch it up a bit for the CIAC Class S competition, competing in the 100 free and 100 backstroke.

“Sydney is a hard worker who always strives to achieve her best,” said Lyman Memorial/Windham/Parish Hill coach Kelly Folan. “She came to watch a meet last year and I knew that she could potentially swim for us this year.”

Sydney’s favorite swimmers — Katie Ledecky and Kim Vandenburgh — serve as role models and the Lebanon teenager aspires to swim and attend school at either UCLA Berkeley or the University of Georgia.

And if you think that Sydney’s swim schedule has her on the run, check this out. Crawford is also an accomplished out-door track competitor and will lace ’em up for the Bulldogs in the spring.

“In sixth grade in middle school, I started doing track and I knew I was a runner because I was beating everybody,” said Crawford. “My coach said I should continue doing it and eventually I finished second in the 800 and third in the mile.

“So I swim with the club team all throughout the winter and then take swimming off for track. My swimming ends on a Sunday and I’m literally on the track the next day on

Monday.”Garrison had a decision to make after graduating from the

Ashford School where he scored a school-record 26 goals as an eighth-grader.

“It was kind of even between E.O. Smith and Windham Tech but then I did some research on Windham Tech and decided that’s where I was going,” said Garrison, who has scored 14 goals and dished off six assists for the Mighty Tigers.

“I definitely surprised myself a lot this season because I thought, at best, I might be a bench player for the varsity. To come in and start and be the leading scorer is just great.”

Garrison finds himself just one goal shy of tying Mario Rangel’s program record for goals scored by a freshman and could find himself one day challenging Rangel’s 4-year pro-gram record of 104 goals.

“Dustin was not on our radar when he signed up to play summer league with the other kids knowing he was coming to Windham Tech, but it was a great surprise for us,” said Windham Tech coach Ted Decyk. “He’s a great student and an all-around athlete who is focused and works hard at every practice.”

Windham tech’s

Dustin Garrison

Michael Zaritheny | For the ChronicleFreshman striker Dustin Garrison has found the back of the net 14 times this season for his Windham Tech boys soccer squad, just one goal shy of the program record by a frosh established by Mario Rangel back in 2013.

Congratulations to:sydney Crawford of Lyman Memorial

Dustin Garrison of Windham TechGo Bulldogs! Go Mighty Tigers!

Peter Leeds 860-377-4433“Not Just The Sports Guy”

“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”

Juma Ikangaa, winner of the 1989 New York City Marathon

Michael Zaritheny | For the ChronicleSydney Crawford of the Lyman Memorial/Windham/Parish Hill girls swim team blazed to victory in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.13 to help lead her squad to an 84-77 vic-tory over Old Lyme/Valley Regional on Tuesday night.

lyman memorial’s

syDney CrawforD

Warriors miss out on opportunity to secure home match

DANBURY — Junior outside hitter Kamari King racked up a match-high 17 kills while classmate Jenna Skerritt dished out 35 assists to lead the Western Connecticut women’s volleyball team to a Little East Conference sweep of Eastern Connecticut State University Tuesday evening at The Westside Athletic Complex.

Game scores were 25-22, 25-15, 25-22.

With an opportunity to take over sole possession of third place and secure a first-round home match when the Little East playoffs begin next Tuesday by defeating strug-gling Western (7-19 overall, 2-4 LEC), Eastern (15-8, 3-3) instead lost for the fifth straight time against the Colonials.

With one LEC regular-season match remaining, Eastern shares

third place with Plymouth State and its final LEC opponent — outhern Maine.

A win Saturday at Southern Maine guarantees the Warriors no worse than a share of third place and a first-round home match in the Little East tournament.

After winning seven straight, the Warriors have been swept in LEC play by Umass-Boston and Western in their last two outings.

The win was only Western’s third at home against seven losses. The Colonials had lost 10 straight — winning only one game in the pro-cess — before now winning three of their last five.

Half of Western’s 16 roster play-ers are freshmen.

The opening game was neck-and-neck most all of the way, but the hosts broke a 22-all tie on three consecutive errors — one serving and two attacking.

It was all Colonials in the second game as they race to a 9-0 advan-tage and attacked at .435 in the game, making just two errors on 23 attempts.

Rookie middle hitter Nyilah Horton capped the game with a kill as Western breezed to a 10-point, second-game victory that set the stage for only its second sweep in six weeks.

Eastern trailed by only one, 22-21, in a see-saw third game, but Western got consecutive kills to move to within one of match point, then sewed it up with Eastern serv-ing with a kill by King.

Eastern attacked at just .102, including .000 in the important sec-ond-game loss.

Freshman Alaetra Long paced Eastern with seven kills while class-mate Abby Stern and senior Carly Balskus finished with six apiece.

The trio attacked at a misera-

ble .014, however, committing 18 attack errors against 19 kills.

Sophomore Mckenzie Maneggia topped the Warriors with 13 assists and senior libero Michelle Valliere collected 17 digs, exceeding the 900-career dig plateau in the match.

FIELD HOCKEYKean weathers Warriors

MANSFIELD — Ranked No. 9 nationally the NCAA Division III poll, Kean University scored three times in the last 8:27 to pull away from Eastern, 5-0, in the Warriors’ regular-season finale Tuesday night at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.

Kean (17-1), coming off a 2-1 win over No. 4 College of New Jersey, led 2-0 at halftime on the 21st and 22nd goals of the season from senior Krista LaMaina in the first 13 minutes of action.

The Cougars were unable to break

through against sophomore goalie Madison Renaud for the next 48 minutes before getting a pair of goals from Teresa Carr and one from Jenna Patrone in the final 8:27 to down the Warriors in the first meeting ever between the programs and finish the Warriors’ home sea-son at 4-4.

Renaud was making her collegiate debut after joining the team this week and practicing once in place of injured senior Maddie LaRusso, who had started and played every minute through the first 14 match-es.

Renaud made six saves against Kean.

Kean out-shot Eastern, 15-2, and was credited with all 11 of the game’s penalty corners.

Eastern visits Westfield State in the first round of the Little East Conference tournament Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

ECSU Roundup

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