By Kim J. Harmon

While many eyes were focused on Newtown High School his fall and some thrilling South-West Conference championship races, a number of former athletes were performing quite well on the collegiate level.

For instance –

[Last year he was the leading scorer at Newtown High School and the leading scorer in the state of Connecticut and pretty much nothing has changed in his first year at Fairfield University.

Mike Troy was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) All-Rookie team after leading the Stags in scoring with 16 points (seven goals and two assists). In 17 games, Troy was the backbone of the offense, unleashing 38 shots on the net (far and away the most on the team). Of his seven goals, two were game-winners.

The Stags finished 7-8-2, 6-3-0 in the MAAC.

[With a 3-2 win over St. Lawrence University, Wheaton College captured the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional Tournament men’s soccer championship and junior goaltender Matt Pachniuk helped make it possible by recording eight saves.

Wheaton is ranked 20th in Division III with an 18-3-1 record and advanced to the national quarterfinals (against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) this week for the second time in three years.

Pachniuk started in 21 of 22 games and put together nine shutouts. In 1,823 minutes of action, Pachniuk recorded just 57 saves (fewer than three per game) and allowed only 16 goals (0.75 per game).

In the win over St. Lawrence, Pachniuk had to make a last-second save to preserve the one-goal win.

[Andy Smith, a sweeper and captain for the Ithaca College men’s soccer team, was an honorable mention selection for the Empire 8 All-Star team. Smith – who notched two assists – was a first-team Empire 8 selection a year ago.

Smith has also been an iron man for the Bombers, having never missed a contest – a streak reaching 53 consecutive games.

The Bombers finished 11-2-4 this season and were undefeated in conference play, capturing the regular season championship. They lost to Alfred University on penalty kicks in the semifinals of the conference championship tournament.

[Ryan Tracy got a taste of Ivy League soccer while playing in 10 games (starting three) for the University of Pennsylvania. He had an opportunity to unleash four shots, one of those on goal, as UPenn finished 6-9-2 (2-5-0 in the Ivy League).

UPenn has high hopes for Tracy, an All-State and All-New England selection while at Newtown High School. In the pre-season prospectus, head coach Rudy Fuller said, “Ryan is an exceptional athlete and has the ability to play just about anywhere on the field. We believe he has the potential to develop into a special player in our program.”

[Alison Healey went 6-4 in singles play for the Western Connecticut State University women’s tennis team – which, coincidentally, went 6-4 overall and 2-3 in the Little East Conference. Healey was also 7-3 in doubles action, teaming with Stacey Slater.

In singles matches, Healey defeated Joanna Robbins on Manhattanville, Rebekah Nelson of Bard, Heather Mortimer of UMass-Dartmouth and Cindy Wong of UMass-Boston before finally suffering a defeat in her first step up to No. 2 singles. She went on to defeat Rachel Swygert of Hunter and Whitney O’Leary of Plymouth State.  In doubles play, Healey and Slater earned wins against Manhattanville, Bard, UMass-Dartmouth, UMass-Boston, Hunter, Plymouth State and St. Joseph’s College.

Alex Aitchison of Newtown coaches the WCSU tennis program.