Lower Moreland Twp. School District
Athletics & Activities Newsletter
Lower Moreland Township School District Personnel:
Principal of LMHS: Mr. Bill Miles
Principal of Murray Avenue School: Ms. Jennifer Dilks
Principal of Pine Road Elementary School: Dr. Brian Swank
Director of Athletics and Activities: Mr. Matthew Heiland
Athletic Trainer: Mr. Scott DeLange
Faculty Managers: Mr. Matt Crouch & Ms. Kristy Hutchinson
Email: mheiland@lmtsd.org
Website: www.lmtsdathletics.com
Location: 555 Red Lion Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
Phone: 215 938 0220
Twitter: @lmtsdathletics
Message from the Athletic Director:
Our events could not be run without some of our behind the scenes support. I owe a special thank you to a number of people who helped make the spring season a success. Matt Crouch and Kristy Hutchinson, who serve as our faculty managers down at Murray. Their continued support and dedication in making our middle school sports experience a great one for our athletes does not go unnoticed. They continue to raise the bar for our athletes down at Murray in a positive way.
Thank you to the coaching staffs at the high school and the middle school. Without you, we would have no teams for our players to be a part of. You continue to make sacrifices on a personal level, to do what you do best, and that is help out the student athletes of our great school district. The job isn't always easy, but the relationships you constantly build with the student athletes never go unnoticed.
Thanks to Elizaebth Pinero, Bob, Bobby, & Barbara Crossin, Alex Curzi, Mary Esposito, John Lawlor, Pat Engleman, Tom McMahaon, Lee Mitchell, John Conrad, & Dick Rapson for working the track meets. Without these people, our high school and middle school track events would not have been able to be run as smoothly as they were.
Thank you to Mr. Duddy who kept the community aware of how the baseball team was doing via the GameChanger App.
Another special thanks to Kris Reed, Natalie Firko, and Andrea Schill for their support and communication in regards to the re-scheduling of games and attendance.
Thank you to Greg Zesinger, who was able to help with team pictures and galleries for our Murray Avenue teams again this spring. He was able to juggle this task, while helping coach Middle School Track with Mr. Small.
Finally, as always, thank you to the entire Lower Moreland community. We are lucky enough to have community members which continue to support our student athletes in a positive manner. Please continue to support our students, officials, and opponents with the respect they deserve, because ultimately if we don't have them, we don't have games.
I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable summer and I am looking forward to Fall 2019.
Sincerely,
Mr. Matthew Heiland
Become of Fan of Lower Moreland Athletics
Go to http://www.lmtsdathletics.com and select join in the upper right hand corner.
- You will enter your information to sign up for the website. Once you do that make sure you are signed into your account for the Big Teams website.
- There a list of tabs towards the top of the screen, you will see Email Alerts on the right hand side. Please click on that tab.
- That will take you to a new screen, click on the My Favorites/Alerts tab. Then you will see favorites. In that window you can add a school, which you will add Lower Moreland.
- Then you can add select teams you wish to follow and get alerts for. This is important in regards to receiving information when events change.
- Click on Alerts and check the boxes of how you want to receive alerts.
- Click on Alert Settings. You can add another email if you want, or add a cell number and receive text messages as well.
This is just another avenue of communication between the Athletic Department and the Lower Moreland Community.
ICal Feature
In conjunction with Big Teams, I am pleased to announce a new feature on our website that will allow you to download team schedules into your personal calendar. Visit our athletic page to subscribe to the schedule of your choice www.lmtsdathletics.com
If you need help getting started, CLICK HERE for instructions and find the type of calendar options you would like.
Online Store
The store is open now until Memorial Day night, so if you have not purchased anything yet, get your Navy and Gold gear.
Family ID
Registration Opens Monday June 3rd
We are excited to announce that we are now offering the convenience of online registration through FamilyID (www.familyid.com). We had a roll-out of FamilyID in the spring season, and it was a tremendous success. ALL MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES FOR THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR MUST REGISTER THROUGH FAMILYID.
When you register through FamilyID, the system keeps track of your information in your FamilyID profile. You enter your information only once for each family member for multiple uses and multiple programs.
All CIPPE forms for the 2019-2020 school year must be dated after June 1st 2019, or they are not able to be recognized by the school.
REGISTRATION PROCESS:
A parent/guardian should register by clicking on this link:
Lower Moreland HS/MS Fall Sports Registrations 2019
Follow these steps:
1. To find your program, click on the link provided by the Organization above and select the registration form under the word Programs.
2. Next click on the green Register Now button and scroll, if necessary, to the Create Account/Log In green buttons. If this is your first time using FamilyID, click Create Account.Click Log In, if you already have a FamilyID account.
3. Create your secure FamilyID account by entering the account owner First and Last names (parent/guardian), E-mail address and password. Select I Agree to the FamilyID Terms of Service. Click Create Account.
4. You will receive an email with a link to activate your new account. (If you don’t see the email, check your E-mail filters (spam, junk, etc.).
5. Click on the link in your activation E-mail, which will log you in to FamilyID.com
6. Once in the registration form, complete the information requested. All fields with a red* are required to have an answer.
7. Click the Continue button when your form is complete.
8. Review your registration summary.
Important Fall Information & Dates
Boys Soccer - Coach Barnhart - rbarnhart@lmtsd.org - Camp begins August 12th
Field Hockey - Coach Mayer - kurt.j.mayer@verizon.net - Camp begins August 12th
Girls Tennis - Coach Hausman - jhausman@lmtsd.org - Camp begins August 12th
Boys XC - Coach Rapson - drapson@verizon.net - Camp begins August 12th
Girls XC- Coach Green - gsgowls@msn.com- Camp begins August 12th
Competitive Spirit- Coach Gormley - jgormley@lmtsd.org - Camp begins August 12th.
Contact coach for spring tryout information.
Girls Soccer & Golf - Contact AD Matt Heiland @ Mheiland@lmtsd.org - Camp begins August 12th
Signing Day
Emily Kleintz - Chestnut Hill College - Lacrosse
Taylor DiJoseph - Bryn Athyn College - Soccer
Jess Murawsky - Brandeis College - Soccer
Allison Asmann - St. Franics University - Soccer
Gianna Penecale - Holy Family University - Soccer
Dan Maloney -Ursinus College- Track & Field
Bryce Horn - Penn Tech - Basketball
Andrew Buss- Bryant University - Soccer
Tommy Lutter- University of Delaware - Swimming
Colin Shipp - Bloomsburg University - Swimming
Mark Klinchin - Illinois Tech - Swimming
Dannehower Award
Elizabeth won 2nd place and earned a $2000 scholarship from the Montgomery County Triangle Club.
Elizabeth's Accolades Being Announced
2019 Award Winners
Runner Up - Lower Moreland's Elizabeth Berzin
Lacrosse
1st Team All BAL League members this year were Reyna Amit, Macy Morozin, Paige Malpezzi, & Maggie McGarry. Honorable Mention All League was Sr. Bianca Mirrielo. The coaching staff was very appreciative of the 8 seniors who left a lasting legacy on the program here at Lower Moreland. The staff is also excited for what will return, as all 4 members of the first team class are underclassmen, and will look to lead the Lions into the AA playoffs next season.
Speaking of the future, please contact Coach Ashenbrenner for an awesome opportunity and free lacrosse clinic which will be June 3rd, 4th, & 5th from 3:15-5:00. Details are on the flyer below.
2019 Lady Lions Lacrosse
BAL All League Selections
Class of 2019
Boys Tennis
On May 2nd, the team battled league rival New Hope-Solebury for the 2019 DIstrict I Championship, and came away victorious 4-1 in the match. This qualified them for the state playoffs, where they faced off against Pequa Valley from District 3 in the first round. The boys fell 3-2 in the match, to the eventual 2A PIAA State Champions. With a number of top players returning in 2020, the team looks to make a run at Hershey again next season.
What makes tennis so unique, is not only that there is there a team aspect, but there is also a chance for individual success. Josh Arno and Mihir Ram entered the BAL Singles tournament in early April. Arno finished in 4th and was able to qualify for the District I singles tournament. He reached the finals and earned the silver medal. In doubles, the team of Arno/Ram & Sherbakov/Patent qualified for league play. Arno/Ram finished in 3rd place for the league and qualified for districts where they went on to win the District Championship and earn a state berth.
The boys will be in action on Memorial Day weekend in Hershey. Good luck to Josh and Mihir.
Josh Arno
2019 District Champions
Arno & Mihir Ram
Track & Field
The outdoor track team, under the leadership of Mr Green had tremendous success this season. Between the boys and girls, there were 5 school records broken, lead by Nicole Castors three in the Triple jump, 100 High Hurdles, and the 300 Intermediate hurdles. On the boys side, Shane Cohen broke the school record in the 400M run and was part of the 4X400M relay which also included Josiah Wiggins, Andrew Buss and Noah Kim. For the second year in a row the Boys Sprint Medley Relay consisting of Shejin Shaju, James Duesler, Josiah Wiggins, and Shane Cohen qualified for the Outdoor National Championships and will compete later this summer in North Carolina.
At the BAL Championships, The girls competed well and placed 2nd as a team, trailing by only 9 pts from victory. The team was lead by Nicole Castor who was first team All League in 4 events, and Gianna Penecale who received 1st team All League in 3 events. Overall, there were 9 girls who received either 1st or 2nd team All League recognition, and another 5 who received Honorable Mention. The boys team placed third at the BAL Championships and were lead by Shane Cohen and Andrew Buss, who both received 1st team All League in 3 events. A total of 8 boys received 1st or 2nd team All League, and another 3 Honorable Mention.
The team qualified for the District 1 Championships in 7 events, the most since moving up to AAA, and qualified 2 athletes for the State Championships at Shippensburg University. Shane Cohen will compete in the 400M run and Nicole Castor in the Triple Jump. It was a great season, and the future looks bright moving forward for track and field at Lower Moreland HS.
Track Photo Albums
Softball
The team was led by lead-off hitter and shortstop Riley Malone. Malone was an All League BAL selection last year, and should be selected again this year. Sophomore Dana Schwarz was also a key player on the team this year as the pitcher. Dana pitched in all 19 games this year, and showed tremendous improvement between freshman and sophomore seasons. So. Phoebe Lynch, Jr. Jordyn Farber, and So. Samantha Himmelstein also played pivotal roles as returning players this year. Newcomers, freshman Jess Dugo and Hannah Klanderman were put into starting positions right away, and held their own at the varsity level.
The team returns everyone next year, and with a strong 8th grade class coming up to the high school, they look to compete for a District I berth.
So. Pitcher Dana Schwarz
Fr. Catcher Jess Dugo
2019 Lions Softball
Baseball
During the regular season, the team was led by seniors John Davies, Max Cousins, Tim Kennedy, Nick Derderian, & Coleman Peppleman. These returning players were integral parts to the ultimate success of the baseball team this year.
Underclassmen Emmett Cousins, Jack Doneker, Matt Haggerty, Connor Duddy, & Kenny Wieczorek balanced out the daily lineups and provide a strong steady returning cast for the Lions in future seasons.
In Round 1 of the District playoffs the Lions hosted 4th seeded Pottstown Trojans. The game was packed with a number of key plays throughout. One of the key plays was a 3rd inning grand slam homerun by Peppleman, which gave the Lions a 9-5 lead. The Trojans stormed back to tie the game and eventually took a 12-11 lead into the 7th inning. In the bottom of the 7th, Wieczorek led-off, and was pinch run for by Derderian. Tim Kennedy had a bunt single, which set the stage for Emmett Cousins, who lined a single to right field ,which tied the game, an error by the right fielder allowed for the speedster Kennedy to score and send the Lions to the finals on Friday 5/24.
The District Championship game will be Friday 5/24 at Villanova Field at Plymouth Park in Plymouth Meeting at 4 PM. The Lions will face off vs. Springfield. The winner will advance to the state playoffs which are slated to begin on Monday June 3rd. Stay up to date on the athletics website for more information.
Murray Avenue Athletics
Softball
Demmi Fox, Payton Lennon, and Carlie Keller were tremendous assets in the field as well. Isabella Riciarrdi and Emma Kupper have had timely hits all year to help the Lady Lions experience success. Christiana McKenna has been terrific behind the plate all year and has received several compliments from umpires and opposing coaches . One of the many highlights on the season was the girls come from behind victory over typical power Colonial Middle School. Coach Hutchinson and Neto have high praise for a tremendous group of girls and terrific teammates to one another.
Baseball
Track & Field
Led by gold medalists Alexander Kebuz, Michelle Hall, and Max Bulakh, the Murray Avenue track and field team capped an outstanding season at the Montgomery County Middle School Athletics Association Championship May 22 at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School. Coaches Mike Small (Coach Mike) and Greg Zesinger (Coach Z) saw their squad of seventh and eighth graders collect over 20 medals and record multiple personal records (PRs) while competing against eight other area middle schools.
Eighth-grader Ian Alicea got the meet off to a fast start, capturing bronze in the 100m hurdles in 16.78. Battling illness all week, Alexandra Kupper rallied to win her own bronze in the hurdles with a time of 17.10, while seventh grader Johnah Magill just missed the medal stand in the 100m by 0.02 seconds, taking fourth in 13.99. Hall (14.32) and Eric Kuong (13.79) also recorded PRs in the 100m.
Seventh grader John Kroll continued his impressive inaugural season in the 1600m, pulling away from a pack of runners in the final lap to finish second with a 6-second PR of 5:03.13. Sophia Hu (6:39.55), Perri Rubin (6:53.39), and Liam Cowley (5:42.22) also ran tough in the mile for the Lions.
Jumpers Hall and Bulakh claimed gold with leaps of 13-05 and 15-10 respectively, while shot putter Adrianna Ciuciu finished seventh with a 24-04 heave.
In the girls 400m, seventh grader Amelia Ogawa broke the 70 second barrier for the first time with a 1:09.96 PR. Ogawa would join Hu and eighth graders Sophia Zaplinsky and Lilly Elebah for a hard-fought 4x400m relay (5:06.27). Elebah led the team off with her best time ever, splitting 1:14.49. Kupper (30.35), Talia Wiggins (30.99), Shane Mertens (27.84), and Jude Blumhardt (27.85) all turned in strong efforts in the 200m.
The Lions returned to the medal stand after the 4x100m relays with the team of Jack Becker, Magill, Jesse Spoerl, and Maddox Feldman taking second in the A division (57.19), while Kuong, Timothy Kim, Ashton Feldman, and Ayden Kerrigan grabbed silver in the B division (53.87). The quartet of Dimore Hananel, Valentina Sellecchia, Lizzy Lebanidze, and Amelia Brown snagged the A division bronze with 1:00.94.
Rookie Zaplinsky dropped 5 seconds off her 800m PR finishing sixth in 2:48.00, with seventh grader Clancey Benfer finished two spots back with a 2:53.55 PR. In one of the most exciting races of the day, Kebuz charged down the last 100m to overtake the leader and win the half mile in a PR 2:19.55, while Kroll shook off tired legs to finish fourth with a personal best of 2:22.46.
In the final boys’ race of the day, Kebuz joined Aidan Linus, Shae Woods, and Henry Howard for the 4x400m relay. Seventh grader Linus led off for the Lions, turning in a 1:05.49 split to keep the team in contention. Woods, who earlier ran 1:01.24 in the open 400m, closed the gap with the medal contenders before handing off to Howard. Coming off a season best 1:03.07, Howard made up even more ground, in his own words “running angry” to split 1:01.75. Solidly in fourth, Kebuz needed every last inch of the final straightaway to overtake the Cedarbrook anchor, splitting 1:00.55 to snag the final medals of the day with a season best 4:10.15. Coach Mike felt the race’s result was an accurate reflection of the team’s overall performance throughout the season, stating “We have the heart of a lion. We refuse to be outworked.”
Coach Z added “We are so excited to see our team win medals and rise to the occasion at the championship meet, but Mike and I are equally proud of all our kids who kept coming back to work hard and push themselves every day to get better and faster. We’re proud of the kids who fell or ran a bad race but picked themselves up and kept going. That’s a big part of what this Murray Avenue team is all about.”
Students Against Melanoma Club
SAM Students w/ Mike Schmidt & Andre Dawson
SAM w/ Philadelphia Mayor Mr. Kenney
Melanoma Awareness Day 2
PJAS
The following students represented Lower Moreland Township School District at the 85th annual state meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) competition held at Penn State University main campus from Sunday May 19th through Tuesday May 21st. These students previously presented their projects at the regional competition in February and advanced to the state level. Murray Avenue School came home with six 1st place score awards, and five 2nd place score awards. Lower Moreland High School achieved four 1st place score awards, and one 2nd place score award. Juniors, Aviel Resnick and Phillip Grabovsky both received 5 year Perseverance Awards for longevity in their participation in the PJAS competition. Additionally, Aviel Resick was awarded the most prestigious award in his category, winning the PJAS Talent Search Award for the Most Outstanding Senior High Project in the area of Computer Science. This award was presented to only one high school student in the area of Computer Science in the entire state!
Clancey Benfer - 7th grade - Chemistry - Alka-Seltzer Dissolve Time Depending on Water Temperature - 2nd Place Score
Alexandra Berzin - 7th grade - Physics - The Dependence of Surface Tension in Liquids on Temperature - 2nd Place Score
Lucy Fassler - 7th grade - Botany - Does The Ph level of water affect plant growth? - 1st Place Score
Sophia Hu - 7th grade - Chemistry - Do Mints Truly Give Your Mouth A "Cooling" Sensation? - 2nd Place ScorePayton Handler - 7th grade - Physics - How will different materials affect your WiFi signal? - 1st Place Score
Ellie Lynch - 7th grade - Physics - The Best Material for Soundproofing a Room - 1st Place Score
Nidhi Ram - 7th grade - Physics - How Does Color Affect Heating by Absorption of Light? - 2nd Place Score
Liam Resnick - 7th grade - Computer Science - Evaluating Genetic Theories through Evolutionary Simulation - 1st Place Score
Phillip Duarte - 8th Grade - Physics - Effect of Pressure on Tire Efficiency - 1st Place Score
Ashwin Thomas - 8th Grade - Chemistry - Effect of Temperature on the Ripening of Bananas - 2nd Place Score
Sarah Kideckel - 8th grade - Chemistry - Is a More Expensive Brand of Paper Towels More Absorbent? - 1st Place Score
Gopiga Dass - 9th grade - Behavioral - The Truth About Lie Detectors - 1st Place Perfect Score
Manav Singh - 10th Grade - Earth and Space - Modeling Effect of Climate Change - 2nd Place Score
Phillip Grabovsky - 11th grade - Physics - Simulating Large Multiparticle Systems - 1st Place Score ,
5 year Perseverance Award recipient
Aviel Resnick - 11th grade - Computer Science - Phylogenetic Reconstruction via Levenshtein Distance of rRNA - 1st Place Score - Winner of the PJAS Science Talent Search Award for the Most Outstanding Senior High Project in the area of Computer Science , 5 year Perseverance Award recipient
Rauf Makharov - 12th grade - Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence in Astronomy - 1st Place Score
What To Look For in 2019-2020
End of Year Sports Banquet - We will be having an end of the year sports banquet, tentatively scheduled for June 1st 2020, at a location VE Club. This is a great way to close out the year on a positive note for all of our athletic teams, athletes and parents.