Williamsburg Christian Academy held its annual winter awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 8th. The event, which recognizes WCA’s student-athletes in its three winter sports (basketball, swimming, and cheer), was held in a packed cafetorium, one of our best-attended ceremonies in recent memory. The ceremony was kicked off by Athletic Director Pam Gibbons, and opened with a recognition of our senior athletes, who were competing in their final contests as Eagles. The seniors recognized were Delaney Gibbons (Swimming) and Manny Banfi and Leah Rennolds (Basketball).

Here is a rundown of each sport’s awards and season.

Cheer:

Cheer is often an overlooked sport due to the fact that they do not engage in head-to-head competition. But the presence of cheerleaders can have a big impact on games by reinforcing homecourt advantage or mitigating another team’s homecourt advantage. Our cheer squad this year was one of the biggest we have ever had in the midst of the season. The cheer awards went to:

Nyiah Maxwell – Most Dedicated

Joana Collado – Best Sportsmanship

Caroline Cadden – Eagle Award

Kiana Mueller – Best Team Spirit

Swimming:

The Eagle Swim team was started seven years ago, and has since grown to over thirty members, accounting for almost 25% of the entire upper school population. The team’s Captain and student coach Delaney Gibbons is the sole remaining member of the ‘Big Three’ swimmers who would win back-to-back VISAA Division 2 State Meet Runner-Up titles, but her leadership was key to the success of this year’s team. The girls’ team, led by Gibbons, qualified for the State Championship meet in both the 200 Medley and 400 Freestyle relays, and Gibbons herself earned a spot in the finals in her signature event, the 100 Backstroke. The 400-yard freestyle relay was broken several times during the season, with the final record set at the State meet.

In addition to the girls’ team, the boys’ team, led by junior Anthony Kulwikowski, narrowly missed the state cut in multiple relays, and the combination of Kulwikowski and his younger brother Alex, huge addition 8th grader Vince Husband, Freshman Leonidas LaChance, and 8th grader Isaiah Powell set records in all three of the available varsity relays. In addition, Anthony Kulwikowski personally became our first-ever boy’s qualifier to the state meet and posted a record-setting under one minute 100-yard butterfly time. Additionally, Husband shattered the boys 100 Breast Stroke record by nearly 5 seconds.

With the return of all swimmers but Gibbons, plus the addition of year-round phenom 7th grader Jaclynn Buzek, and perennial summer league power swimmer, sophomore Ella James, next year’s team looks to be even stronger than this year’s!

Here are the award winners for the 2022-2023 Eagle Swimming Season.

JV Eagle Swim 

Noel Lubbers – Eagle Award 

Reid Walton – Most Improved 

Gabby Giese – Most Outstanding

Varsity Girls Eagle Swim – 

Anna Kurschat – Eagle Award 

Daniela Muro  – Most Improved  

Delaney Gibbons – Most Outstanding 

Varsity Boys Eagle Swim 

Leonidas LaChance-  Eagle Award

Danny Obayawat – Most Improved

Anthony Kulwikowski- Most Outstanding 

Basketball

Our varsity boys basketball team made the state tournament in the newly created VISAA Divison 4 as 5 seeds and earned a home game, which they took advantage of to win against 12-seed Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot. The Eagles then traveled to oppose 4th ranked New Community school and narrowly lost by 5 points, after having the lead going into the final minute of play. Read the full summary of the varsity boy’s season here.

Our varsity girls’ team continues to grow in size and talent and had some great performances against conference competition. Ours is a young team that will certainly continue to get better year after year as some of our major contributors as young as 8th grade continue to mature and improve.

Our JJV (Middle School) basketball proved there is a lot to be excited about coming up the ranks as the team played most of their games in or within striking distance of a win. Coaches Jack Rennolds and Fred Liggin showed they know how to run a fun team, and get the award for best awards– see pictures at the bottom.

The basketball awards went to the following players:

Varsity Boys Basketball –

Victor Racu – Most Coachable

Jack Marlowe – Best Teammate

Emanuele Banfi – Eagle Award

Tidiane Ly – Most Outstanding 

Nathan Watson – Most Improved

MS Boys Basketball –

Ryan Harwood and Alex Harwood – Most Improved

Nick Hoffman – Best Offense

Ian Liggin – Best Defense

Girls Basketball – 

Nevaeh Grant – Most Improved (Middle School)

Leah Rennolds – Most Improved (Varsity)

Rest of awards for Varsity as well:

Dakota Palmer – Best Defense

Aina Fargas – Most Outstanding

Bella Benitez – Heart and Hustle

Daisy Marlowe – Eagle Award

With the end of the winter season, WCA moves to Spring sports, including Baseball, Golf, and Co-ed Soccer, in addition to a non-competitive Track and Field program starting this year! As promised, here are Coach Liggin’s phenomenal paper plate images for some of his players!