VivaLoudoun High School Sports Year in Review: Winter 2010-11

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

(June 29, 2011) - The Potomac Falls boys basketball team not only repeated their Division 4 state title but the Panthers did it once again in dramatic fashion. In 2009-10 the Panthers became the first Loudoun boys team to ever capture a state hoops championship with a double overtime win in the finals and in March the Panthers repeated with Pete Simoneau’s 3-pointer giving them the 58-55 win over Hidden Valley with five seconds left.

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It was expected that the Panthers would be good with all five starters returning and a 10-member senior class and they made good on that promise with a magical 30-1 season behind the play of senior Lukas Mihailovich and 6-foot-7 junior Greg Graves.


Named the Division 4 State Player of the Year and the Panthers all-time leading scorer with more than 1,400 career points, Mihailovich hit a game-winning layin with three seconds left in a 46-44 state quarterfinal win over Tabb.

The back-to-back titles earned Panther coach Jeff Hawes – the school’s only coach since opening in 1997 -- his second straight state Coach of the Year honors.

While it was expected that Potomac Falls would advance to the Dulles District and Region II finals the Panthers opponent in the district tournament was totally unexpected as first-year Woodgrove, the tournament’s host, advanced to the finals as the No. 7 seed.

The Wolverines, with Steve Douglas moving from Dominion to start the new program, were led by Brad Gilson, one of the top scorers in the Washington D.C. area on the season and he poured in 38 points as
Woodgrove beat Monticello in the first round of the Division 3 regional playoffs. The Wolverines fell at Fluvanna in the semifinals but big things are expected next season as the program returns all of its roster.

A total of five Dulles District teams advanced to the regional playoffs with Broad Run and Briar Woods falling to Potomac Falls in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The Spartans were led by high-scoring sophomore Myles Johnson and the Falcons were guided by sparkplug point guard Myles Tate who as a junior has already broken the 1,000-point milestone.

Like Briar Woods, Park View had its 1,000-point scorer in junior Ryan McCarter. With McCarter, Tate and Gilson all returning to the Dulles District next year, it promises to be an entertaining and high-scoring season.

And the Dulles District will have Loudoun Valley’s John Yoxthimer as the Vikings, along with Heritage, will move back to the Dulles District and AA level.

(The opening of Tuscarora and Woodgrove has lowered the student population of Heritage and Loudoun

Valley enough to classify those schools as AA while growing attendance at Broad Run and Freedom will move those two schools up in classification from AA to AAA).

Yoxthimer broke the Vikings 23-year-old single game scoring record by breaking loose for 49 points in a win over Oakdale. The previous mark was 42 points by Chris Leonard in 1988.

The boys weren’t the only teams with record scorers as both Loudoun County and Freedom – the top two girls basketball teams the past four years – both saw their career scoring marks fall with Raider Brittany Batts topping the 2,000-point mark as she led her team to the Division 4 finals and Dionna Scott broke the Eagles all-time mark before Freedom’s season was ended by County in the regional semifinals.

Loudoun County (26-5), under first-year coach Derek Fisher, nearly captured its second state title in three years but fell to Liberty in the finals, just two weeks after beating Liberty by 16 points in the regional finals.
Raiders fell to Liberty in finals to prevent 2nd title in 3 years, 68-55 … team they beat by 16 points in regional title game 2 weeks earlier

The Raiders road to the finals included a thrilling 41-40 win over Turner Ashburn in the state semifinals with Erica Linnemann hitting the game-winning layin with four seconds left.

Loudoun County was just one of seven girls teams to advance to regionals though it was a tough draw for the Dulles District girls as Potomac Falls (12-13) was matched up with Loudoun County and Briar Woods (14-11) with Freedom (18-6) in the regional quarterfinals. Park View (9-13) also made it to the quarterfinals.

A Freedom vs. Loudoun County regional semifinal was a rematch of the Dulles District tournament won by the Raiders and a rematch of the previous year’s regional semifinals which Freedom won on the way to a second straight state title. This time the Raiders prevailed, 54-51, to advance.

On the AAA level, history was being made as Stone Bridge (23-4), led by the play of sophomore Murielle Tiernan, had its best season ever and captured its first ever Liberty District title with a 45-41 win over perennial power Madison. The Bulldogs went out in the quarterfinals of the tough Northern Region tournament.

At Heritage freshman Kayla Tibbs helped the Pride to its best ever

Kayla Tibbs helped Heritage (14-8) to best ever regular season and first ever regional playhoff bid.

In swim, Broad Run’s Mark Sarman ended his brilliant four-year career with a win I the 100 fly, just missing the state record with a 50.12 swim, and a runner-up in the 200 IM.

The Briar Woods girls showed their depth and took third in the AA state meet in the team scoring behind the power of sisters Alli and Kristin Haufler. Alli was second in the 100 fly and third in the 200 free. The Falcons also were second in the 400 free relay and third in the 200 medley relay with Caitlyn Brown and Caleigh
Hensley swimming on the 400 with the Haufler’s and Hensley and Erica Comm teaming on the 200 medley.

At AAA state meet the Rosenburg siblings from Heritage, Damon and Kaleigh, were making waves with top 10 finishes as did Loudoun Valley’s Kelsey Ryan.

The fact that the Dulles District swim meet took place was a bonus for the swimmers a year after inclement weather wiped out the meet. The Broad Run boys returned for their third meet title in four years (four straight if you count their top seed in the wiped out meet) and the Briar Woods girls, a year after not getting a chance to win it in the pool, powered to victory for their first ever title.

For the Falcon girls it was a runaway as they took nine of 11 events with All Haufler winning the 200 free and 100 fly and sister Kristin taking the 200 IM and 100 free. Teammate Hensley won the 50 free and 100 back and they all helped to bring home two relays in first.

On the boys side it was closer as Broad Run edged up and coming Freedom. Sarman and Jaco Leidy each won two events with Sarman taking the 200 IM and 100 fly and Leidy first in the 50 free and 100 back.

Briar Woods’ Matthew Nielsen was king of the distance with a first in the 200 and 500 free.

In wrestling, Freedom was the overpowering team in the county and demonstrated that with a commanding Dulles District tournament win where the Eagles, hosting the meet, took eight individual titles.

As it always does in wrestling it gets tougher as you venture to Region II and then the AA state meet at Salem. In regionals, Loudoun brought home six champions: Potomac Falls’ Nick Rea (112), Loudoun County’s Tyler Anthony (125), Freedom’s Sean Gaetani (130), Potomac Falls’ Batchka Zulkhuu (145), Loudoun County’s Kenton Perez (160) and Freedom’s DeQuante Timbers (285).

Freedom for the first time had two wrestlers take third at States with Gaetani and Timbers achieving that as the Eagles took 12th in the team race.

Also for Freedom, Michael Hosti at 135 was sixth. Other All-State wrestlers included Loudoun County’s Perez fourth and Raider Logan Smith seventh at 160. Zulkhuu was fifth and Rea was seventh, beating Dulles District foe Angel Rios of Broad Run.

In AAA, Stone Bridge’s Pat Taylor qualified for the state meet at 145 with a fourth place finish in the Northern Region. The Bulldogs as a team were runner-up in the Liberty District tournament.

In gymnastics Broad Run was the team to beat most of the season behind freshman Kerry Stolcenberg, but Freedom put it all together and defended its Dulles District meet title.

Stolcenberg did win the All-Around with a 37.425 and took the vault, bars and floor but Freedom’s Miranda Romano won the beam and tied for fourth in the All-Around and the Eagles had enough depth to take the title.

It only got better for Freedom as the Eagles own super freshman, Kaylee Anello, took second in the All-Around for the state meet qualifier and then finished sixth in the All-Around at the A/AA state meet, scoring 9.450 on the beam and 9.475 on the floor.

At that state meet, Stone Bridge, for the first time, advanced to the AAA team competition, placing seventh.

The Bulldogs had advanced as runner-ups from the Northern Region with senior Tori Severin, recovering nicely from a back injury, took third in the All-Around with a 37.050 and sophomore Tricia Grywatch was sixth.

There is no team competition for the AA teams as not enough VHSL teams compete across the state at that level. The girls from Loudoun did well individually as Woodgrove’s Amanda Huebner won the vault at the state qualifier and Loudoun County’s Jessica Drews took the floor.

At the AAA Northwest Region meet, Loudoun Valley’s Jess Bramhal won the floor. Earlier, Bramhall and teammate Victoria White, had helped the Vikings to qualify for the regional meet out of the Cedar Run District.

In the Liberty District meet it was host Stone Bridge, behind Severin, taking its third straight title.

In the Dulles District meet, Drews was runner-up to Stolcenberg in the All-Around with Woodgrove’s Michaela Paschal third and Huebner tied with Romano for fourth.

Finally, in a club sport over the winter, Stone Bridge returned to the top of prep ice hockey with a 7-2 victory over McLean in the finals of the Northern Virginia Scholastic Hockey League.

Coming Thursday: Spring 2011