On The Bay: March 22, 2013

On a bitterly cold Sunday in late January, the Port Washington Yacht Club held its annual meeting, which included the installation of new officers. While this annual event at all yacht clubs is important for the future of each club, the one this past January at PWYC was significant. With a vote of total confidence, the members of the PWYC elected their first woman Commodore, Theresa Capoziello. She is the 50th Commodore of the club. The first Commodore was H.B. Rankin.

Track & Field Top Honors At State Championships

While athletes were greeted by dropping temperatures and a steady snowfall in Ithaca this past weekend, inside Barton Hall things were just beginning to heat up.  As has become tradition at Manhasset, the indoor season culminated at the New York State Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The Indians had four individual qualifiers this season, which is twice the number from the previous year. In a sport that has seen an explosion in both growth and depth of talent over the past several years, this alone is quite an achievement. However, the qualifiers sent to represent Manhasset were not satisfied with merely having been given the opportunity to compete - they each came with the goal of stepping up on the podium as an All-State selection.

Junior Tara Belinsky led the way, continuing her dominant season by throwing a career best of 42’10.5” in the shot put to finish as this year’s silver medalist. In fact, Tara reset her personal best three times throughout the competition, throwing her best series ever to earn All-State and All-Federation honors. Tara will look to continue her breakout season when she competes at the New Balance Indoor Nationals next weekend in New York City.

Swimmers Qualify For Regional Competition

Manhassett residents Giorgia Piantanida, Carlotta Piantanida, Zachary Leng, Jeffrey McNeary, Luca Sodi, Conor Beil, Nicholas Sodi, Michaela DePhillips, Claire McNeary, and Allegra Sodi have qualified to compete at the 2013 Metropolitan Swimming Junior Olympics.  These young swimmers will compete representing the nationally ranked host team, Long Island Aquatic Club (LIAC).  Each year LIAC sends a large squad to the Junior Olympics to compete for the titles as the best age group swimmers in the Metropolitan LSC.

The Junior Olympics are a culmination of months of hard work for swimmers all over the metropolitan region.   Thanks to their determination and dedication in practice these athletes will be very confident when they step up on the racing blocks to compete.  

Kwon’s Karate Promotes Munsey Park Students

Are Thomas Rowan, Noah Rubin and Donovan Barcelona budding young superheroes? Could be. By day, they’re students at Munsey Park Elementary. But at night, they don special outfits and sharpen the skills they need to battle the bad guys.
The youngsters don’t possess actual superpowers. But several times a week they do put on sparring gear and practice self defense techniques at Kwon’s Karate studio in Manhasset. Over the past five years they’ve steadily risen through successive skill levels and received belts of different colors. Finally, several months ago, the boys traveled to New Jersey, along with dozens of other practitioners from the region, to take a sweat-inducing, hours-long test for that martial arts milestone, the black belt. How did they fare? Superbly! All three passed the grueling exam, the Korean self defense system known as Soo Bahk Do, with flying colors. That’s quite an achievement for 10-year-olds with nightly homework and early bedtimes.

All Hail The Champs!

St. Mary’s wins St. Vincent de Paul tournament

St. Mary’s sixth-grade team 7 won the 40th Annual St. Vincent de Paul Basketball tournament with a 41 – 39 win over St. Rose of Lima White of Massapequa. St. Mary’s defeated St. Rose Red in round 1 and bested St. Rose White in overtime in the semi-final. This is the fourth time in four years that this team has won this tournament. The most telling statistic of the tournament was Joseph Mulholland taking six charges in the tournament, three in the final game. Congratulations to: Kelly Quinn, Charlie Young, Jackson Cherry, Alex Racanelli, Chris Glynn, Steven Vlahakis, Duncan Barcelona, Steven Salerno, Jack Hannan, Joseph Mulholland, Louis Perfetto, Timmy Kiggins and Patrick Weber.

Boys Wins CYO Title

St. Mary’s fifth-grade team faced tough opponents in the first round of the St. Raphael’s winter tournament.  St. Mary’s went 2-0 with wins against St. Brigid (30-15) and St. William (33-30) and entered the semi-finals as the 3 seed and won against St. Barnabas and that guaranteed the team a spot in the championship game vs. St. William.  

It was a nailbiter all the way until the last 20 seconds when St. Mary’s clinched the win and with it, the championship. It was the tough defense and clutch free-throws in the last seconds that sealed the victory for St. Mary’s.  The boys who played on the winning team were: Joseph Busch, Luke Bakshandeh, Liam Cash, John Crimmins, Jack Doherty, Cole Gaccione, Jimmy Kelly, Brendan Lane, Brian Mack, Nick Morton, Dylan Shelley, Cole Zaffiro and Tommy Zahn.

On The Bay: February 22, 2013

Back in 1938, a Mr. Otway Hebron Chalkley was on the cover of Time for its `July 4 edition (price: 15 cents). For many readers, that name has no meaning, but for skippers of the Manhasset Bay One Designs (MBOD), he is known as “Father of the Class.” He changed the name of this one design class from the Junior One Design to its present name and formed the MBO class at Manhasset Bay YC. Ever since then, the MBODs have been a vibrant and social fleet. Considering that these boats are wooden and take tons of upkeep, their long history is quite remarkable.

This past month, the group gathered at the home of Nancy and Lew Lane to celebrate the fun times and award annual trophies. But this being the MBODs, the best part of the evening, besides the tremendous food and libation, were the “ha ha” awarded at the end of the meeting.

Boys Swim To Three New School Records

The Manhasset Boys Swim Team competed in the Nassau County Swim Championship on Monday, Feb. 11. After a strong Division showing, Manhasset’s swimmers seemed to be peaking at the right time. The Indians had a strong showing of 10 County Qualifiers competing in the days’ event. Their goal was to be competitive with Nassau’s best.

In the meet’s opening event, 200yd Medley Relay, The Manhasset team of Conor Beil, Andrew Chin, Damien Quinn and Alex Chee set a new school record time of 1:43.46 to finish fifth in Nassau County.

Ice Hockey Roundup

Big improvement for Portledge squad

Congratulations to the Portledge Girls Ice Hockey team who finished their season as runners-up in the Women’s Ice Hockey League of the Mid Atlantic.  Second place is not usually something that satisfies teams who possess a true competitive nature; however, this accomplishment was seen as a positive by the team.  Last year the Lady Panther skaters ended with an overall mark of 5 wins and 13 losses, so they were definitely looking for a revival during the 2012-13 campaign. 

First 5K Rower’s Run

Save the Date

What: 5K Walk/Run through Manhasset

When: Sunday, April 7 – 9 a.m., start

Who: Everyone welcome to participate

Why: Fundraiser for MHS Crew with 10 percent of funds 

donated to Manhasset UFSD Fields Initiative

More Info: To follow, or email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it