Former CHS Stars: Where Are They Now?

By Tony Catinella

Some of Canton’s finest athletes have been scoring goals and grabbing rebounds at the collegiate level. Here is a list of Canton residents who have been outperforming their classmates on and off the playing field.

Michelle Allen

One former Canton athlete who has not stopped competing since leaving Canton High School is former Bulldog swimmer Michelle Allen. Since leaving the CHS swim team, Allen has not left the pool.

As a sophomore at Utica College, she is the captain of the swim team and also competes on the water polo team. On November 11, Allen won both the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke with times of 2:20.62 and 1:13.79, respectively, to help Utica defeat Wells College 61-34.

This year Allen has already been named the Utica College Athlete of the Week and has placed second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:02.77. She also recently reached her goal in the 100-yard free with a time of 1:00 and swam personal bests in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke at the recent state championships, held last week in Rochester, New York. She is currently gearing up for the water polo season, which gets underway this week.

Moving on to the rink, former three-sport standout Brittany Lyons was recently the hero in the most important hockey game of her life, as she scored the game-winning goal with five minutes remaining in regulation to lead the Division 1 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team to a dramatic 2-1 win over Princeton in the first game of a best-of-three series in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals. It was Lyons’ 11^th goal of the season, which is good for third most on the team. Earlier in the game, she collected her ninth assist when she dished the puck to junior defender Bethany Dymarczyk, who then smoked it past the Tiger goalie for the game-tying score.

The Bobcats went on to beat Princeton 2-0 the next night, advancing to the ECAC semifinals against top seeded Cornell. This is the first time in program history that the Bobcats (22-11-3) have reached a conference semifinal.

Brittany Lyons

Xaverian Brothers graduate and Canton resident Greg O’Brien recently completed his football career at Bentley University. O’Brien, a middle linebacker, was a team captain and led the team in tackles with an average of nine per game. He had a career-high 15 tackles against 2009 NCAA Division 2 national semifinalist Carson Newman College in Tennessee. He was also awarded a game ball for his play in a victory over Merrimack College and finished his career by being named the Northeast-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in Bentley’s season-ending victory against Stonehill College.

In addition to his outstanding play on the field, O’Brien was recently named to the Northeast-10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll for the 2010 fall semester.

Speaking of Stonehill, former CHS ice hockey star Bryan Rooney just wrapped up an outstanding freshman season for the Skyhawks, earning a spot on the Northeast-10 Conference All-Rookie Team and finishing in the top five in scoring among all NE-10 freshmen.

The former Hockomock League MVP appeared in 23 of 24 games this season and was second on the team in goals with nine while also collecting three assists. He scored his first career goal in Stonehill’s home opener, a 4-1 victory over Franklin Pierce on November 20, and was a fixture on the power-play unit late in the season, recording two goals.

On February 12, the freshman forward scored a pair of power-play goals to spark a come-from-behind victory against Southern New Hampshire. He was also named Northeast-10 Rookie of the Week in early February in honor of a two-game stretch in which he tallied three goals. Rooney’s former Bulldog teammate, Sean McNeil, was also on the team this year as a sophomore. McNeil had two goals and two assists for the Skyhawks this season.

Another former Canton High School star who is playing extremely well at the collegiate level is freshman Erika Bornemann at UMass Dartmouth. The women’s basketball star started every game for the Corsairs and was recently named the Little East Conference Rookie of the Year. Bornemann, who was named Rookie of the Week five times, finished as the team leader in both scoring (13.3 points per game) and rebounding (8.5 per game).

Former CHS hockey standout and Eastern Junior Hockey League all star Chris Rooney now has three goals and nine assists for the Providence College men’s ice hockey team. The sophomore center is now tied for fifth on the team in points with 12 on the season.

Former Bulldog hockey star Dino Federico helped the Franklin Pierce University ice hockey team set a program record for most wins in a season with eight, while also leading the Ravens to the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Conference championship. The sophomore forward finished the season with four goals and nine assists – good for fifth best on the team.

Did we miss your collegiate accomplishments? Send us an email at submissions@thecantoncitizen.com. (Please note new email address.)

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