The Saugerties Youth Hockey Mustangs. Bottom left: Ethan Cataldi, Andrew Searing-Burke, Trevor Bodie, Kamran Hetrick, Ryan Haberski, Anders Forrest. Middle left: Lily Zito, Jacob Stephan, Zane Cahill, Luke Profera, Matthew Montano, Blake Campbell. Top left: Coach Chuck Cahill, Coach Dennis Burke, Head Coach Shawn Bodie, Coach Mike Stephan, Coach Frank Zito.
Saugerties fielded 70 of the roughly 2,500 athletes that competed in the Empire State Winter Games hosted in Lake Placid between Feb. 1 and Feb. 4; those who placed in these competitions quality to compete in the 2017 State Games of America.
During the competition, the Saugerties Youth Hockey Mustangs won three of four games, and won the Bronze Medal Game against the Tri-County Eagles with a score of 3-1. In March, the Mustangs will compete in the Tech Valley Hockey League playoffs. The girls’ hockey team, The Fillies, also earned a bronze medal.
Eddie Montalbano, the coach of the Saugerties Nightmares adult women’s skating team, said the team earned three silver medals in speed skating. A slew of young Saugertiesian figure skaters placed in the competition. Gillian Lopez, Aurora Freeman, Ava Schmadel and Addie Kotsol won gold medals for their performances; Meagan Gleason and Gaia Franklin-Ross earned bronze medals. Rebecca Nace held the honor of torch bearer. The Peewee, Squirt and Mite teams also attended.
“It was a lot of fun– they make it really nice, they do the opening ceremonies and get to have the torch and this year they actually had the torch make it from NYC to Lake Placid,” said girls figure skating coach Amber Crispell. “They make it really nice, they had a lot going on up there. I think all the girls had fun.”
