Sports Around the Lake

Itacha Diamonds Ready for Nationals

sportsaroundthelake — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:23:25 +0000

Danielle Gravel of Sidney takes a sign.

The Ithaca Diamonds softball team is just about ready to bring their show to a national stage.
The Ithaca Diamonds is a competitive fastpitch softball program that is also a year round development and tournament team. The team was created in 2005 to give local softball players a chance to compete in competitive area leagues and in PONY and Amateur Softball Association tournaments in New York and Pennsylvania.
The team started as a 12-and-under program made up primarily of Ithaca and Newfield athletes, but has grown into a 16-and-under team that draws from schools all over the area. The current team includes players from Candor, Newfield, Ithaca, Trumansburg, Lansing and even as far as Sidney.
On the current roster, the majority of the girls; Angela Everhart, Emily Conlon, Jennifer Boynton, Ashley Boda, Sara Ford are from Ithaca. However, Newfield has two players form their varsity squad, Mikayla Myers and Karrie Snyder, and Candor also has two players on the squad in Emily Woodin and Kait Wilcox. Nikki Arcangeli or Lansing, Kaitlyn Percy of Trumansburg and Danielle Gravel of Sidney are all sole representatives for their teams.
However, head coach Dan Driscoll and other coaches took a look at the team’s performance at this weekend’s BAGSAI 16 and under Summer Sizzler and saw that the team was really coming together.
The Summer Sizzler included teams from all over the area and as far as Long Island and Pennsylvania. The two day event had the Diamonds play three games on Saturday and then in an elimination game on Sunday.
The Diamonds went 1-2 in the first days games, losing one game to the Lady Raiders 4-1 despite an Everhart blast to left center, winning a game against the Turnpike Titans 5-3 and then dropping the last game to Capital region Rampage 4-3. Gravel, Ford and Percy all pitched strong games to set the team’s seeding for play on Sunday.
In the elimination game on Sunday, the diamonds jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead against the Diamond Dusters of Binghamton when Ford hit a three run triple. But Ford, who was also the starting pitcher, couldn’t hold the lead. The Dusters tied the Diamonds at six and would have won if not for a play where Arcangeli made a great diving catch to and throw after hitting the outfield fence. Arcangeli did leave the game in an ambulance but should be okay.
The game moved into extra inning using International softball tie rules. Under these rules, the batter who made the last out starts the next inning at second base, creating a sort of sudden death situation. The Dusters however broke through first, scoring and winning 7-6.
However, coaches Driscoll and Maureen Brinkman saw their team get experience against some teams with some better pitching.
“Overall, the girls are really hitting well against stronger pitching, as was seen this weekend,” said Driscoll. “They are getting a great mix of teams and talent to play against in tournaments that take us from Rochester, to Ohio, to Binghamton to Syracuse.”
The varying tournaments have prepared the team for their trip to the PONY National Championships in Ohio beginning on Friday, July 25 and ending on Thursday, July 31. The Diamonds will play against other under 16 teams from the Eastern and Southern U.S., Quebec and the Czech Republic under-16 team.
“It’s a great thing to have these girls, from local schools, compete at this level,” Driscoll said. “It makes them stronger players, and will translate to making their school teams and the overall level of competitive softball better in the area.”

Empire State Games

sportsaroundthelake — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:36:19 +0000

Here are the local entrants to the Empire State Games

Scholastic Divsion

Baseball

Matt Colbert- Dryden

Matt Ford- Lansing

Cody Rose- Candor

Track and FIeld

Samantha Engel- Dryden -Javelin

Eddy Potter- Lansing -1500 meter run

Basketball

Girls’

Jocelyn Ford- Lansing

Boys’

Will Gates- Candor

Gymnastics

Rachael Koppel- Trumansburg

Soccer

M.C. Barrett- Lansing

Wrestling

Jon Glennon- Lansing -Freestyle, Greco Roman

Open Division
Basketball

Mens’

Jeff Foote- Lockwood

Track and Field

Carole Melice- Lansing -Pole Vault

Henry Potter- Lansing -800 meter

Cycling

Glen Swan- Freeville

Racewalk

James Miner- Dryden

Rowing

Womens’

Cecelia Madsen- Freeville

Sadie Smith- Newfield

Mens’

Chris Nordberg- Newfield

Shooting

Richard Leonard- Freeville -Trap

Wrestling

Anthony Jerome- Freeville -Greco Roman

Masters Division

Cycling

John Rueckheim -Freeville

Mark Shenstone- Trumansburg

Diving

Mark Wood- Newfield -3 meter dive

Racewalk

David Lane- Freeville

Rugby

Womens’

Trisha Smrecak- Newfield

Track and Field

Robert Bland- Lansing -100, 200,400

Tom Demmo- Dryden -Shot put, discus

Robert Duthie- Lansing -4×8 relay, long jump

Ed Ferraro- Groton -Discuss

Rodney Foster- Candor – 100, 200, shot put, discus

Tim Hamilton- Trumansburg -110 hudles, 400 hurdles, pole vault

Jim Kazda- Candor -100, 200, long jump, triple jump, high jump

Christian Yatsko- Freeville -Javelin

Sports Around the Lake Column 7-9

sportsaroundthelake — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:01:29 +0000

The Fourth of July brought fireworks and fun to the area, though organized sport was noticeably missing.
Besides heaving down to the Glen for some Indy Car racing over the weekend, there was hardly an local action outside of family pick-up games..
One big event that occurred locally as part of the holiday weekend was the ATV festival put on by the 907 Wheelers in Candor.
The two day event featured a sled pull, similar to a tractor pull, several heats of kids racing and a chance to get you machine good and dirty trying to cross the bogs filled with a foot and a half of mud.
No one was able to make it through the s-curve bog but several riders made it all the way through the straight bog. Eric Leech, Brian Lamphere, Chad Clark, Jason Warner, Kevin Lance, Mike Quick, Scott Potter, Leeroy Vanderpool and Walt Cobley all made it rhough. Jessica Boyton and Micky Foster were the only female riders to make it through and Zeb Quick was the only under-18 rider to power through the bog.
The kids’ races were all very exciting and featured kids from age two on up to 12. Kamren Lehmen, Brandon Clark, Jacob Boda, Nathan Mack, C.J. Hall, Issac Quick and Austin Krauss all won at least one heat.
An omission from our Fingerlakes Newspapers Girl’s Track All-Stars was made a couple of weeks ago. Section V All-Star and South Seneca junior Missy Navarro should have received an All-Star slot. Also senior Candessa Jordon should have been named as an honorable mention.
The Empire States Games rosters will be up following sometime after July 9. Check out this sports blog, sportsaroundthelake.wordpress.com, during the next few days and stay tuned for previews over the next couple of weeks and coverage of the events at the end of July.

Team Photos updated

sportsaroundthelake — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:19:02 +0000

The south (Spencer-Van Etten, Candor, and Newfield) have all been posted. The East (Lansing, Dryden, Groton) should all be up before graduation.

Sports Around the Lake Column

sportsaroundthelake — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:00:14 +0000

I’ve been writing this column, all the sports news and laying out the sports section for almost five months now. And now I’m finally going to let all you loyal readers know a little bit about myself.
I grew up in the mid Hudson Valley, Wappingers Falls, N.Y. to be exact. In junior high and high school I ran track. I was good, not great, but at least better then average. I did long and high jump and the hurdles, and I even won a few medals during my career.
Now I tell you this because I have not run regularly since my senior year when I injured my knee in a freak floor-hockey accident. So when I saw the Tioga Fitness Challenge was holding a 100-meter dash contest I decided to see just how far I’d fallen out of shape in the last five years.
Fully expecting to come in last behind a guy who still does college intramural sports regularly and a guy with track spikes and gear I stepped up to the line to get ready to race.
As it turned out I ran one of my best times in 100, a 13.56, barely falling to the intramural college guy, Coulter Heavenrich of Candor, and putting a little distance between myself and the third-place, spike-wearing Justin Nugent of Candor.
I felt pretty good. The results of the challenge let me know I could work a little harder, but I left there thinking I had run the third fastest time on the day without really running in five years. To my knowledge only Heavenrich and Chris Winch, a runner from Spencer High School who had the fastest time all day, had beaten me, and on top of that our fun relay team lost by only a few strides, so I felt really good about my performance on Saturday.
Well, Monday I did not feel so good. It is amazing how 28 seconds of intense running and mess with an untrained body. I had sort of a limp as I dealt with the dull pain of muscles rebuilding themselves after the event.
But that wasn’t the only thing that reinforced the Tioga Fitness Challenge’s mission to keep us fit by showing our limits through competition. When I went to pick up the results of the event to write up my news article I found out that I wasn’t the third fastest on the day, I was lucky to be in the top ten.
All three top finishers in the 30-39 year old division finished in the 12-second range blowing us college age kids out of the water. First-place finisher Grant Vennel of Spencer beat me by well over a second and Peter Johanns of Van Etten at third place beat me by a little under a second.
All of a sudden I realized I wasn’t as in as good shape as I’d hoped, and that’s exactly what the Tioga Fitness challenge was all about, challenging your fitness levels and helping you get better.
But enough about me, a few of our readers have caught the boxes on the sports pages asking for information and they were nice enough to catch us up on some of the seniors moving on to college and some who just finished up their seasons at college.
Some soon to be graduates from Newfield High School have been accepted into colleges and the sports teams that go along with them. Michele Volpini will be attending SUNY Cortland in the fall and plans to play basketball for the women’s team there. Mike Armstrong will be attending Buffalo State and play in their football program.
Zak Stamp will join the baseball team while attending Keuka College and Ian Valentine will be going to Southern Vermont to play baseball.
A few more Newfield seniors hope to make sports teams when they get to their college of choice. Janelle Shipos will attend TC3 and hopes to make the basketball or softball teams. Nick Hayes will also attend TC3 in the fall and will try out for baseball. Jevon Pakkala will attend Cazenovia and hopes to walk on to the baseball or basketball team.
Eric Kohler of Trumansburg, now attending TC3, played as part of the Panther fourth place team in the NJCAA National Championships.
Kohler finished 18th overall in a field of 83 golfers from junior colleges all over the country.
Kohler also won the longest drive contest at the event with a distance of 331 yards.

Some Announcements

sportsaroundthelake — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:33:55 +0000

Bowling

The Ithaca, NY Chapter of the United States Bowling Congress will hold a meeting on Monday, June 23, 7 PM, at the Ithaca Eagles’ Club on Cecil A. Malone Drive, Ithaca, NY. All officers and Directors of the local board are required to attend this meeting. Election of Officers and Directors for the 2008-2009 season is one of the items on the agenda for this special meeting. There are several openings for Directors on the board for the coming season, and anyone interested in serving on the board is welcome to attend the meeting on June 23rd. Those interested in serving on the board are asked to RSVP by contacting Sally Iacovelli at 277-4965 or Gerry Angel at 277-2966

Dryden

The Dryden Central School District would like to announce that the Memorial Sports Complex Football Field and Field #5(JV Soccer and lacrosse field) will be off-limits, for repairs) until Sept. 1st. If there are any questions, please contact the Athletic Office at 844-8694 ext. 201.

Dryden Athletes Honored

sportsaroundthelake — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:14:59 +0000

Award	*Winner*	*Winner*
Andrew Apgar	Billy Pargh
Frank L. Jordan Award	Kevin Vorstadt
U.S. Army Senior Scholar-Athlete	Justin Sinnigan	Nikki Button
Gary Cassell Scholar- Athlete	Nick Lange	Amy Lalonde
Babe Ruth Sportsmanship	Paul Aiken	Ashley Prunty
Jerome Mosher *One winner*	Doug Bushnell
Will to Win	Zach Griffin	Christina Perkins
Air Force Scholar- Athlete	Steve Rugg	Kate Perkins
Cal Abraham	Scott Converse
Dryden Sport & Spine	Melanie Ordway
Most Athletic/G.A.A. Gold Cup	Trevor Totman	Brenna O’Brien
Most Distinguished	Patrick Streeter	Amy Lalonde
Christopher Ackley Scholarship	Steve Rugg Kevin Vorstadt Nick Lange	Will Edgecomb Zachary Griffin

These awards are from Monday June 10 and include scholarship as well as recognition awards.

Postseason Around the Lakes

sportsaroundthelake — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:57:11 +0000

Every school ended their team seasons last week with the two last softball teams losing on Thursday June 5 and the two remaining boys teams losing in the sectional finals the same day.
Individual track athletes are still going strong, however, and those who moved on to the state qualifier after sectional last week got a chance to extend their season once again.
But first, in Class B Softball No. 6 Trumansburg was edged out by No. 3 Susquehanna Valley 2-1 on Thursday ending their season.
Morgan Mullen scored Trumansburg’s lone run in the fifth inning. She singled, then advanced to third on a botched pick-off play before being driven in by an Amber Royce base hit.
The Blue Raiders finished the year 15-6
In Class C Softball, Southern Cayuga defeated Groton 8-0. Val Senter had both hits for the No 6 seed Indians, who ended their season with a 15-6 record.
In tack state qualifier competition on the same day Dryden’s Tara Brenner took second in the pole vault. Her jump of 11-6 ties her IAC and school record and qualified her for the State Meet.
While no other Dryden runner made the state qualifying standards many did have good showing for the Purple Lions. Beth Schwab finished sixth in the 1500, running 4:59.16 for a new school record. Samantha Engel took fourth in the triple jump.
For the boys, Tyler Beck placed fifth in the 3200. His 9:48.14 time set a new school record. Tim Scheftic finished fifth in the long jump and Billy Pargh placed sixth in the triple jump. Dryden’s 400 relay placed sixth and was made up of Andy Horton, Tim Scheftic, Sean Norman, Sam Hodgson.
For Lansing Ryann Cretney placed second in the steeplechase and qualified for the state championship as well as the Nike Outdoor Nationals this summer. Carole Melice will join her at states because her third place pole vault met state qualifying heights. The Lansing girls also placed their 3200 relay fourth and their 1600 relay sixth. Kathryn Hornibrook captured sixth in the long jump for Lansing. Henry Potter qualified for the boys in the 800.
Candor’s Katie Ahart finished eighth in the 800 and Oli Riemer place twelfth in the 400 for the boys.
Lauren Nelson led Trumansburg’s athletes scoring a second place finish in the 400 hurdles.
The boys’ 400 relay placed third overall. Dylan Balcome, Danny Sullivan, Andy Finnigan and Greg Addicott made up the state qualifying team. Jeff Swayze also qualified for states with a third place in the shot put. Danny Sullivan tied for fourth in the high jump and Brad Slocum finished sixth in the 110 hurdles.
Spencer-Van Etten’s Jon Lineberry took fourth in the 200, but it was Kurtis Ahart who bested everyone in the 110 hurdles, scoring a victory in the race. Ahart also was seventh in the 400 hurdles.
Corey coon led the Newfield boys with a fourth place state qualifying 400 hurdles race. Teammate Dejour Gandy finished fifth in the shot put but did not qualify for states. Micki Volpini took third in the pentathlon for the Newfield girls.

Championships Around the Lake- Softball, Baseball

sportsaroundthelake — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:02:17 +0000

Class B Baseball

Lansing 6- Trumansburg 4

Lansing continued their climb towards the Championship on Tuesday, defeating rival Trumansburg at home. Brian Milliman started the game for Lansing. Hank Newman led the Blue Raiders, going 2-fpr-3 with two RBI as they finish the season 14-8. No. 2 seeded Lansing will take on No. 1 Chenengo Valley in a rematch of last years Class B final, on Thursday at Binghamton University.

Class C Baseball

Candor 19- Marathon 15

Jake Tubbs was 3-for-5 with a double, four RBIs and three runs scored and Jim Zacharias was 3-for-4 with two RBIs to in a game that saw the Indians take a 12 run lead into the seventh. Marathon scored eight in the seventh inning and put the tying run up to bat, but Candor recovered to record the final out.

Candor will move on to the finals to face No. 1 seeded Thomas A. Edison on Thursday at Union-Endicott’s Sylvester Field. The teams split thier season series, but the two teams have quite a playoff history, Candor knocking TAE from the IACs the two previous years and TAE knocking Candor out in the finals for the section in 2006. Candor has reached the finals in each of the last three years.

Class B Softball

Susquehanna Valley 2- Trumansburg 1

No. 6 Trumansburg was edged out by No. 3 Susquehanna Valley on Thursday ending their season.

Morgan Mullen scored Trumansburg’s lone run in the fifth inning. She singled, then advanced to third on a botched pick-off play before being driven in by an Amber Royce base hit

The Blue Raiders finished the year 15-6

Class C Softball

So. Cayuga 8, Groton 0

Val Senter had both hits for the No 6 seed Indians, who ended their season with a 15-6 record.

Update- Golf State Champs

sportsaroundthelake — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:07:04 +0000

Lansing’s Jess Esposito finished three-over-par-75 after the first day of play at the NYSPHAA State Championships at Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University.

Esposito finished the day strong, saving a water hazard on hole 17 with a bogey and then getting the birdie on 18. Esposito also played in the group with the first day leader, something he felt was a great help.

“I can keep up with him shot for shot,” Esposito said. “The only difference was he hit the one puts and I had some three puts. He’s someone I know that I can play with.”

Espositio said that the 75 put him in a good position for the second and final day of play tomorrow.

Sports Around the Lake

Itacha Diamonds Ready for Nationals

Empire State Games

Sports Around the Lake Column 7-9

Team Photos updated

Sports Around the Lake Column

Some Announcements

Dryden Athletes Honored

Award

Billy Pargh

Nikki Button

Amy Lalonde

Doug Bushnell

Postseason Around the Lakes

Championships Around the Lake- Softball, Baseball

Update- Golf State Champs