Wallkill Valley sprinters lead sectional effort
Hamburg. Sprint depth powered Wallkill Valley Regional High School to a fourth-place boys finish at the sectional indoor track meet as the Rangers also extended their basketball win streak and picked up a tri-op hockey victory.
Hamburg /
| 16 Feb 2026 | 11:24
Sophomore Jordan Ebelle won the 55-meter dash in 6.61 just ahead of teammate Lorenzo Flores DeBenedictis’ time of 6.65 and Dylan Miller, who was fourth in 6.75, to pace the Wallkill Valley High boys indoor track team at the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 1 championships on Feb. 7 at the Bennett Center in Toms River.
The Wallkill Valley boys finished fourth among 15 competing teams.
Other top six place-winners for the Rangers were Emmanuel Oti, was second in the pole vault with an effort of 11-0, Ryan Miller, who was fifth in the high jump with an effort of 5-0 and Justin Bonaparte, who was sixth in the shot put with a throw of 39-4.
On the girls’ side, Lore Hicks was sixth in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.22 and sixth in the high jump with an effort of 4-10. The Lady Rangers placed 15th overall in the team race.
Boys Basketball
Gavin Solano had a game-high 28 points, along with seven rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal and Alex Opilla added 24 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals to fuel the Rangers’ 76-69 victory over Sparta on Friday, Feb. 13, at home in Hamburg.
The win was the fourth straight for Wallkill Valley, which improved to 14-8 this season.
The Rangers will play at Veritas Christian on Thursday, Feb. 19, in Sparta at 4:30 p.m. before returning home to host Kinnelon on Saturday, Feb.21 at 11:30 a.m.
Ice Hockey
The High Point/Wallkill Valley/Kittatinny tri-op squad earned a 6-2 victory over Hoboken on Feb. 2 at Skylands Ice World in Stockholm.
The decision was steered by Michael Delaney (three goals, two assists), Christian Pignataro (two goals), Nathan Shindelman (one goal, one assist), Hunter Baker (two assists) and Waylon Harper (10 saves).
High Point/Wallkill Valley/Kittatinny (4-14-1) was seeded fifth for the Haas Cup and bowed to fourth-seeded Newton, 7-2, in a first round contest on Feb. 7 at Mennen Arena in Morristown.
Bradyn Husarenko and Noah Custode each scored a goal in the setback.
Delaney led the team in scoring this winter with 15 goals and 13 assists.
