Community Corner

Athletes Of The Week: Olivia Arent and Lev Litichevskiy

Arent is working hard on defense for the girls' varsity lacrosse team, while Litichevskiy is trying to break school and personal records during his last season with the boys' varsity track team.

Olivia Arent

Although this is Olivia Arent’s first season with the girls’ varsity lacrosse team, she has been an asset on the field and continues to improve with each and every game.

The starting Low D and D-Wing began playing lacrosse in fifth grade with the Rebels, a New Providence/Berkeley Heights club lacrosse team. After competing with the spring track team during her freshman and sophomore years, she decided to join the lacrosse team under the new direction of head coach Jennifer Henry.

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“We have the new team and new coach. I used to play lacrosse when I was younger so I figured I’d try it out,” said Arent, who also plays on the varsity soccer team and competes on the varsity winter track team. “It’s been good. [Coach Henry] is really great; I really like her a lot. She’s definitely turned the team around and made us better.”

Arent said coming back to play lacrosse has been a learning experience for her, and she is still trying to improve and get back into the game.

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“It took me a little while to pick it up again, but I feel like I have definitely learned a lot this year,” she said. “It’s a different game from when I was younger, so this year was very much a learning year for me. [There is] definitely room for improvement.”

Recently, Arent and the Lady Pioneers took on rival Governor Livingston in the first round of the Union County Tournament, winning 12-9.

“We played well together. We have been having some trouble working together and all putting in an effort together, but we definitely pulled it together that game and our efforts definitely showed. We managed to pull out a win,” Arent said.

Unfortunately for Arent and the team, their UCT run ended on May 7, losing 1-17 to Westfield.

“It was a good game, but it was tough. Westfield is a very skilled team, but we did the best that we could,” she said. “We tried to change up some tactics, like better preparing ourselves for their style of play. They’re faster than us usually; so we try to spread the field out a little more, make longer passes, and get rid of the ball quicker.”

After an emotional overtime loss to Clifton last Monday, 7-9, Arent and the Lady Pioneers faced Academy of St. Elizabeth on Friday, winning 17-12 on the way to the upcoming State Tournament.

Coach Henry said Olivia performed well, scoring one goal with seven ground balls.

"She’s definitely one to focus and help recover if we do something that wasn’t intended," Coach Henry said. "She’s always really good with recovering and working things out. She’s just a really positive kid to have on the team, so we’re really lucky to have her."

The Lady Pioneers are the No. 15 seed in the State Tournament this year, and the team is scheduled to face Glen Ridge this afternoon. Arent is hoping the team will perform well and move onto the next round.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Arent said she is confident in her team.

“We definitely continue to improve each game. We always have to put in our full effort,” said Arent, who plans to play on the varsity lacrosse team again next season. “Even if we relax for a minute, that’s usually when the other team comes back… definitely need to keep our heads in the game.”

Although college is well over a year away, Arent said she has been visiting colleges to see where she would like to apply.

The junior said she would more than likely play intramural sports in college, especially soccer, and has her sights set on majoring in Environmental Science.

“I wish the team luck for the rest of the season,” she said. “I think we’ve had a good run. I would like to thank my team for getting through all the games and my coach, definitely, who has taught me a lot.”

Lev Litichevskiy

Senior distance runner Lev Litichevskiy is well on his way to accomplishing his goals with the varsity spring track team before he graduates this June.

Litichevskiy, who has been a member of the New Providence varsity soccer, varsity winter and varsity spring track teams all four years, broke the 4Xmile school record at the Union County Relays last weekend along with , Chris Aresco, and Joseph Flanagan. The team broke the record by .15 seconds, with a time of 19:08.55.

“We set the record last year actually with two other guys and this year, Everett Price and I were on the team again. Chris Aresco and Joe Flanagan were on it, so it was a really big deal for me to break it because last year when I ran it, I ran a terrible time. And, so it was one of my main goals this year to break it, but to break it while running well,” Litichevskiy said. “So when we did break it, we were really excited because with the Westfield mix-up [where the officials had their second runner run five laps], we ended up waiting for the results for 25 minutes just to hear our time. We knew we were really close because of the hand time and so when we found out we broke it by .15 seconds, it was pretty exciting.”

After the Westfield team re-ran their race, they took first, moving New Providence from fourth place to fifth place.

Litichevskiy’s other goals include breaking his personal record of 4:47 in the 1600, breaking the Distance Medley school record, and breaking his 2:08 personal record in the 800.

He came close in the Distance Medley at the Union County Relays, with Matthew Garvin, Aresco and Price, missing the school record by three seconds, with a time of 10:56.42.

“In East Coast Relays, we’re hoping to run the Distance Medley again so if we break the record, that will be huge,” Litichevskiy said.

At the Union County Championships this weekend, Litichevskiy ran the 1600 in 4:47.93 on Friday, remaining consistent with his personal record, and the 800 in 2:07.34 on Saturday, beating his 2:08 personal record.

Litichevskiy said the conference this year has been very tough and expected a lot of competition at the Championships. The boys’ team ended up finishing third overall.

“This year, it’s a strange situation because the competition is much, much better than usual. We lost a lot of seniors last year so it’s been a tough year for us because we have a lot of younger kids than usual,” he said. “But I think this year, we did better than we expected to so far. At sectionals, it will be a big reach, but I think we have a chance to get first and if we do that, that will be a very big deal.”

Litichevskiy, who is the New Providence Board of Education Student Representative, will attend Brown University, this fall, to study Biomedical Engineering.

Congratulations, Olivia and Lev!


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