Nachum Segal presents Elliot Weiselberg on JM in the AM to deliver the Yeshiva League Sports (YLS) Update. Tune in for the latest Yeshiva League hockey and basketball information, as well as, the occasional update on other sports happenings in the Jewish world. A transcript of this week's update is below.
Thanks Nachum!
Today on the Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, the Yeshiva League puts on a showcase at the 2026 Red Saracheck tournament. All that and more straight ahead. Good morning, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
With the Winter Sports Season wrapped up, the final piece of the puzzle was the 2026 Red Saracheck Tournament which took place over the past weekend at the Max Stern Athletic Center on the Campus of Yeshiva University. Nine Yeshiva League teams, including HANC and JEC who kicked off the festivities with a play-in game Wednesday evening, took part and would factor in every championship, including the Tier I Final. HANC would defeat JEC and Scy High of San Diego before falling to Hillel of Pittsburgh in the Tier III Championship.
As for Tier’s I and II, Thursday saw all 16 teams in action, with DRS, Valley Torah, JCHS, Ramaz, SAR, Frisch, Flatbush and Shalhevet, all higher seeds walk away with wins over the lower seeds. In Tier 2, the trend would be bucked as 13th seed TABC defeated 12th seed YULA and 9th seed Berman to make their way to the Tier II Finals against #10 Ida Crown who advanced with victories over MTA and Fuchs Mizrachi. A close game for 26 minutes, the Storm would open up a double-digit lead with just under 4 minutes to go. The margin would hover around the 10-point mark for the remainder of the contest with TABC finishing off the Aces 61-54 to cap off a Tier II Saracheck win for the Storm.
Tier I, though, would continue the trend mostly throughout as Top seed DRS defeated Valley Torah, #4 JCHS downed Ramaz, 3rd seed Frisch avenged their post-season upset loss to SAR and #2 Shalhevet knocked off Flatbush to see all top seeds advance. DRS would weather an early JCHS lead and cruise through 3 quarters to advance to the final with a 65-43 win. In the second semifinal, however, the first Tier I upset finally showed up as the Frisch Cougars behind a big day from Isaac Stepner outlasted Shalhevet 51-42, closing on an 8-0 run after Shalhevet made it a 1 point game with just over 3 minutes to go. This would set up an all Yeshiva League Final between DRS and Frisch, the two teams most believed would be fighting for the league crown this year before SAR stepped in and spoiled the Frisch party, but now, the Battle of the Cats would occur, for the third year in a row on the Saracheck stage. For the last two years DRS and Frisch have met early on with DRS knocking Frisch out in the play-in game two years ago, and last year, Frisch shocked the league champions in the first round, knocking them down to Tier II.
Early on, it looked like Frisch was well on their way to another shocker, as the Cougars opened up a 10-point lead with 40 seconds to go in the first on a Stepner pull up- jumper from the foul line and would take an 18-8 lead into the 2nd quarter. The Wildcats would finally wake up and chip away at Frisch’s lead taking a 15-6 run capped by an Elisha Tsaidi bucket with just under three minutes to go to make it a 24-23 Frisch lead. Stepner and Yitz Bennett would trade buckets to round out the half with Frisch still up 26-25. Tsaidi would open the 3rd with a 3 pointer to give DRS its first lead, and would then intercept a Frisch pass on the way back down the court and put it home himself for a solo 5-0 run to give DRS a 30-26 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the way and would grow to multiple 7 point. Frisch would close the gap to 50-46 with 1:30 to go, but Michael Solomon and Noah Bornstein would ice the game away with DRS following up its Yeshiva League Championship with a Saracheck tournament victory 54-50.
And with that, we have reached the conclusion of the 2025-2026 Winter Sports year. Next week we will turn the calendar to the Spring season, already in action, with Soccer, Boys Volleyball, girls hockey, tennis and the diamond sports.
And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.