Winter Sports Preview

Coming off a successful fall season with both Gilman Volleyball and Cross Country winning MIAA championships, Wrestling, Squash, Basketball, Swimming, Indoor Track, and Hockey have hopes to match these triumphant seasons. All rely on strong senior leadership to lead them to these successes. 

The Gilman wrestling team is coming off a victory in the 2023 - 2024 MIAA dual season, meaning they had the best regular season record, a victory in the MIAA tournament, and individual successes in national-level tournaments. The wrestling hounds are led by Emmitt Sherlock ‘25, who placed 3rd in Greco-Roman wrestling for his international weight class, won gold in freestyle wrestling, and is committed to wrestle at the division one level at the University of Virginia; John Jurkovic ‘25 who is committed to wrestle at the division one level at the United States Air Force Academy, and Sawyer Enright ‘25. Other wrestlers on the Gilman team who compete on the national stage are JD Vassar ‘27, Arthur Konshack ‘27, Gabe Smith ‘25, and Zach Glory ‘25. All of these individual successes are built upon great team chemistry and trust in both each other and last year’s all metro coach of the year, Bryn Holmes. Captain Emmitt Sherlock explained the team follows the motto: “be the best.” This does not only apply to being the best wrestler a person can be, but also the best character, teammate, and student. The team took this energy into their resounding victory over Calvert Hall, winning 54-21, and they look to keep this momentum up heading into spotlight night versus rival team Loyola Blakefield.

Similar to the Gilman wrestling team, the Gilman squash team won the MIAA championship last year for the 14th time in a row and is a top-16 team in the country filled with nationally competitive athletes. Two of these players are captains Parker Davis ‘25 and Jacob Li ‘25, who are committed to play Division III at Bates College and Hamilton College, respectively. The roster is composed of eight players, five of whom are senior veterans. Despite this present seniority, the team lost four-year varsity starter Isaac Mitchell ‘24, who is currently playing Division I squash at the University of Virginia and was ranked ninth in the country in the graduating class. The team hopes to overcome this massive loss and bring home a 15th championship in a row this year.

The Basketball team relies on its full squad for success; the team is filled with 15 players and two managers, nine of whom are seniors. The team follows a balanced approach, rotating all 15 players into the game at different points, utilizing each player’s strengths throughout the game. Despite this approach, the team has suffered two key injuries, losing Kellen Lettinga ‘26 to a stress fracture in his lower back and Harrison Schline ‘25 who had an extra bone in his ankle removed due to a rare disease called os trigonum syndrome. However, captain Tyler Marshall ‘25 explained the team is still very optimistic about their future, and the team looks to star players captain Evan Quintero ‘25, Jackson Brooks ‘25, and Matthew Gordon ‘26. When asked about team virtues, Tyler remarked: “we focus on communication and looking out for each other.” The team looks to utilize these factors to continue to bring them victories, like their solid wins over St. Paul’s School and Gerstell Academy. 

Despite losing a strong senior class, hockey has incredible chemistry and camaraderie due to their friendly coach, Coach Reagan, and the fact that every player on the squad is a returner. The team is led by four captains in their junior year, goalie Andy Krasulski, and field players Walton Staley, Warren Hernandez, and Brady Walter. The season has not started as the team hoped, suffering two close defeats, and a loss by 12 goals to the Loyola Dons. However, Captain Warren Hernandez explained, “the closeness and togetherness will get us through many tough games.” It is this closeness and togetherness that Gilman hockey must bring to defeat their rivals, St. Pauls, and every other team they face this season.

Being a hockey captain is not Warren Hernandez’s only athletic commitment in the winter at Gilman, but he is actually also a vital runner on the indoor track team. The Gilman running program jumped off to a hot start, with cross country earning gold in the MIAA conference championship. A big reason for that was the leadership and results from senior runner Jemmel Green ‘25, who captained the cross country team and does the same for indoor track. Jemmel is assisted by co-captains Timmy Edwards ‘25 and Ben Schatz ‘25 in their efforts to lead the indoor track team. These captains have big shoes to fill, as they are filling the roles of Ryan Collins and Ryan Coleman, both of whom are now running at the DIII level in college. In order to fill in the leadership position, Jemmel Green explained they instill these values to indoor track runners: “The indoor track team values hard work, competitiveness, and teamwork.”

To cap off all of the winter sports, swimming also seeks an MIAA championship this season, and will be led by the strong upperclassmen. Senior captains Jackson Heether ‘25 and Max Kunisaki ‘25 have both broken all-time Gilman swimming records, and Max Kunisaki is committed to swim at the division one level at the University of Villanova. These strong seniors are bolstered by a strong junior class of swimmers like Myles Koff ‘26, Bogdan Mytsak ‘26, and Matthew Lind ‘26. The swim team really believes they have their best chance to win it all this year because of how much they have improved, which was clear when the swim team beat powerhouse school McDonogh for the first time in twenty years. Captain Jackson Heether explained, “Our team has improved a lot since last year… hopefully that can lead to a championship.” He further said that the core values of the team are “putting in 100% effort all the time… that is necessary for this sport.” The effort of the swim team has been put on display thus far this season, as the Gilman swim team is 3-0 with three blowout victories over Calvert Hall, Poly, and Archbishop Spalding. The team hopes to keep this momentum through tough opponents like Loyola Blakefield all the way to their championship at Loyola University.

The Gilman winter sports teams are filled with talented athletes who work hard and respect each other, and almost every team is in a position to contend for a championship. It is an exciting time to be a part of the Gilman community this winter because Gilman Athletics is bound to bring back the coveted MIAA championship hardware for Mr. Smyth to proudly hoist in assembly.