Friday April 26, 2024 
Averill Park Sports By Isaac Joseph
AVERILL PARK – Hello Warrior Fans! This week’s inclement weather forced the cancellation of many AP sports competitions.
On 10/27, the girls soccer team defeated Troy 8-0 in a shutout victory. Bailey Ouimet and Rebekkah Crawford-Harris scored 2 goals each while Gabby Geise, Frankie Morone, Julia Foster, and Julia Hanlon also scored in the winning effort. The girls will face Schenectady for their next game on 11/10.
The boys soccer team ended their match in a scoreless tie versus Troy on 10/27. The boys team will travel to Schenectady on 11/10 for their next game.
The girls tennis team swept Troy 9-0 on 10/27. The tennis team wrapped up their season with a 7-2 loss to Niskayuna at the Suburban Council tournament on 10/31. The doubles teams of Allison Lapinski & Julia Gelder and Lauren Paris & Sarah Wallace won their matches.
The boys cross country team defeated Schenectady (23-38) and CBA (28-29) in their meet on 10/31. Noah Bonesteel won the race finishing with a time of 15:32. The girls cross country team also defeated Schenectady on 10/31. Logan Barsalow won the race with a time of 18:23, followed by Julia Skiba, Violet Dupuis, Sarah Wing, and Emily Clark. The cross country teams will travel to Bethlehem for their next meet on 11/7.
The Troy-AP girls swim team won their meet on 10/29 versus Albany by a score of 105-65. The swim team will face Bethlehem in their next meet on 11/12.
I will be back again next week to report AP scores and highlights. Go Averill Park Warriors!
Scholar Athlete of the Week By Tyler Michaels
AVERILL PARK – This week’s Scholar Athlete is Roy Jacobson. Roy runs for the Varsity Cross Country team and participates in indoor and outdoor track. During his track seasons, Roy continues to run distance, throws, and sometimes high-jumps. Roy began running in fourth grade by joining the Averill Park Road Runners, and has been running for the past nine years since he joined. Roy says his favorite part about his sport is “the atmosphere and seeing my times get faster and faster. Everyone wants to improve and that drive pushes everyone harder to achieve that goal. When you do go faster, that just secures the drive in you even more and improves the atmosphere. The two work well off each other.” Over the summer, Roy would run 25-30 miles per week to prepare for the cross country season. Roy says the most difficult part about his sport is feeling some pain everyday and having to push yourself through when your body wants you to stop. Last year, Roy was able to cut over a minute off of his 5k time, and received the Coach’s Award and Scholar Athlete Award. This year Roy hopes to run a 5k in under 18 minutes, and during track aims to run a sub-five minute mile.
Roy excels both academically and athletically. Roy has a 98.28 GPA while taking a rigorous workload. This year Roy is taking four Advanced Placement classes: AP Biology, AP Government and Politics, AP English, and AP Calculus. Roy is a member of the National Honor Society and enjoys hiking, reading, and whittling. He was also a member of Science Club last year, and would have continued this year had COVID-19 not rendered the extracurricular inactive. To balance school and sports, Roy focuses on academics while at school and focuses on athletics while at practice. This allows him to concentrate on the task at hand and not worry about anything else. He also ensures that he does not take any shortcuts, instead getting the most out of everything that he does.
Roy says that his teammates, parents, and coaches all help him excel in his sport by motivating him to continue running and persevering. Roy would tell a younger athlete to “just stay with it. Even if it really hurts after a few weeks or you’re not seeing any improvement, overtime that pain will subside and the improvement will come. Seeing that improvement will give you more confidence to run farther and faster than you ever would have thought possible.” Roy isn’t sure what he wants to do, but is currently interested in biology, chemistry, and environmental fields. We wish Roy the best as he finishes his senior year and prepares for college.
