Islip honors academic, athletic, and musical achievements at Night of Champions

The Islip School District recently recognized numerous exceptional student achievements from fall and winter at the Night of Champions event, held during the board of education meeting. Elementary and secondary students who demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, music and leadership received certificates honoring their accomplishments while their proud families looked on.

Director of fine and performing arts Michael Hershkowitz and music teachers honored students who were selected for the SCMEA PEAK Festival from Commack Road Elementary School (Haleigh Casimir, Owen Chandler, Kathleen Doyle, Erin Lella, Emma Myles-McAnally and Korra Saliba) and Maud S. Sherwood Elementary School (Lexi Fernandez, Hunter Grando, Lilah Hirschmann and Joseph Zarchy); a student chosen for SCMEA Day of Tuba (Makenzy Covelli); students participating in the Long Island String Festival from Commack Road (Chelsea Cooper), Sherwood (Christopher Liang), Islip Middle School (Titley Das and Malcolm Friedman) and Islip High School (Lucas Bohr and Alexandra Fitch); and students chosen for SCMEA All-County Jazz (Lucas Bohr and Daniel Rubinson), NYSCAME All-County Band (Jessica Cruz), NYSCAME All-County Mixed Chorus (Lucas Bohr, Isabella Dragos, Rebecca Leo, Alexandra Noles, Michelle Quinteros, Daniel Rubinson, Aaron Thorn and Daniel Turk); and NYSCAME All-State Mixed Chorus (Daniel Rubinson).

Islip High School principal Lara Gonzalez and assistant principals Charlie Rizzuto, Meghan Stern and Lisa Ward presented the high school’s academic awards. The NSCD Award for Academic Growth and Student Leadership in Learning was presented to high school seniors Emma Cirulnick and Emily Lewis for pursuing a high level of academic effort and serving as positive role models for the student body, while Eagan Biscari and Jaci Narducci were recognized as Presidential Scholars Program Nominees.

Advanced Placement awards were then recognized, for students earning the AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Brandon Garces and Daniel Rubinson), AP Scholar designation (Katherine Cottral, Louise Kane, Lawrence Lena, Emily Lewis, Raquel Luna, Melody Madrigal, Caitlyn McDonald, Luna Mendoza, Andrew Owen, Saul Pavlin, Hunter Pellicane and Michael Sanko), AP Scholar and AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Jeremy Carroll and Eric Maniscalco), AP Scholar with Honor designation (Brenna Weber), AP Scholar with Honor and AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Emma Cirulnick), AP Scholar with Honor and AP Capstone Diploma (Connor Mullins), AP Scholar with Distinction designation (Parker Barry, Erica De Lapi, Maxwell Haynes, Lia Pesiri and Charlie Zimmerman), AP Scholar with Distinction and AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Jaci Narducci), and AP Scholar with Distinction and AP Capstone Diploma (Eagan Biscari andRyder Hansen).

Athletic director John Sparacio and several of his coaches presented sports recognitions for the fall season, noting that all of Islip’s fall varsity teams achieved New York State Scholar Athlete Team status.

Honored high school student-athletes included girls cross-country athlete Elizabeth Hamm (All-Division); field hockey player Sabrina Frazer (All-County Honorable Mention, Suffolk County All-Star Team); football players Michael Sanko (All-Academic First Team), Jake DeGennaro (Second Team All-Division), Talan Mede (Second Team All-Division), Michael Vitale (Second Team All-Division), Dominick Albertelli (First Team All-Division), Collin Haug (First Team All-Division and Single Game Yards Receiving Record), Brady Nash (First Team All-Division, Single Game Passing Record) and Jack McLoughlin (All-County, National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete); gymnastics athletes Nicolette Ferraro (All- County), Brianna Lanza (All-County) and Isabella Field (All-County, New York State Qualifier for Beam and Floor); boys soccer players Jamie Atlas (All-Conference), Maxwell Haynes (Academic All-County) and Ronan Montana (All-Conference, All-County, All-State); girls soccer players Gianna Capolongo (All-Division), Abby Dieumegard (All-Division), Mackenna Eastwood (All-Division), Carley Mullins (All-Division), Dakota Dieumegard (All- County), Nicole Matute (All-County, All-State), Peighton McKenna (All-County, All-State, Class A Goalkeeper of the Year); girls tennis players Ava Andria (All-County), Annika Cripe (All- County), Erica De Lapi (All- County), Riley Halpin (All-County) and Reese Wallace (All- County); and league champions boys golf team members Jacob Gordon-Lopez, Ryan Kelly (also All-Academic), Carlo Napolitano, Dylan Nieves, Andrew Owen, Jacob Petelin, Dylan Rhodes, Jacob Schifter (also All-Academic), Brandon Simonetti, Tyler Simonetti (also All-County), Blake Unverzagt and Jake Urban.

In his Night of Champions address, Superintendent Dr. Dennis P. O’Hara highlighted the generosity and support of the Islip community.

“Over the last two years, we’ve added $70,000 worth of instruments to our music program, we’ve added AP courses and we’ve added athletic opportunities such as track and field for our middle schoolers, competitive cheer and field hockey,” Dr. O’Hara said.

“Without the support of the community, and without the foresight of our Board of Education, we might not have recognized the 100 students that we recognize this evening for their athletic, musical and academic achievement. So, thank you to the community, and congratulations of course, to our students, who work so hard to earn those achievements.”