A-7
The Lancaster Sun / Saturday, February 14, 2015
Lancaster boys finish second, girls third
Two Redskin records fall at league championships STAFF REPORT
The Lancaster High boys indoor track team scored 93 points and finished second among 13 large schools at the Section VI team championships last Saturday at Houghton College. The Redskins garnered five first police finishes and broke two school records in the process. Junior Steve Neumaier won the 1000-meter run in a school record time of 2 minutes, 31.64 seconds. The 4x200 relay team of Connor Fuller, Steve George, Cal Hoag and Jesse Kucewicz also took top honors in a school record time of 1:34.04. George also won his specialty the 55-meter dash in 6.61. Junior Collin Blair was a double winner in the throws, taking the shot put (52-feet, 10-inches) and the 25-pound weight throw (60 feet). It broke his own personal mark
by six feet. Jake Valley was also second in the long jump with a leap of 20-2, while junior Brad Bedell had an outstanding effort in the 1,600-meter run. He took third in 4:34.17. Kucewicz continued his improvement in the 300, running 37.55, which was good for third place. Matt Faulise also took third in the 25-pound weight throw with a toss of 51-5 1/2. The 4x800 relay team of Evan Helenbrook, Bedell, Kellerman and Neumaier took fourth in 8:48, while senior Dan Emerson matched his personal record in the high jump, clearing 5-8. That was good for fourth place. Connor Strusienski also took fourth in the shot put with a toss of 48-3. On the girls side of the house, the Lady Redskins finished third among 13 teams, amassing 67.5 points, along with four first place marks. Senior captain Kelsey Barrett set the tone early with a win in the 1,500-meter race-walk in a time of 7:29.25. Sophomore Olivia Gervan also took the high jump event. She cleared 5-5, while Gina Graziani won the 20-pound
WILLIAM ‘SKI’ WILCZEWSKI
The Lancaster High boys indoor track team scored 93 points and finished second among 13 large schools at the Section VI team championships last Saturday at Houghton College. weight throw with a personal best toss of 43-4 1/2. The 4x200 relay team of Allie Mazur, Molly Scarpello, Tiffany Cycon and Gervan set the section-best time of the season (1:46.95) in their first place run. Sophomore Katy Jargiello
took 22 seconds off her best time in the 1,500-meter race-walk in a second place time of 7:56.16, while Mazur had a personal best of 7.35 in the 55-meter dash. That was good for third place. Winter Barry also improved her time and took fourth in
the 55-meter hurdles in a time of 9.54. Cycon also lowered her best time in the 300-meter dash, clocking a 42.49, which was good for fourth place; while 4x400 relay team of Lauren Wiatrowski, Morgan Foster, Maria Wild and Jenna
Neumaier improved their season best for fourth place in 4:27.70. Newcomer Olivia George also took fourth in the weight throw with a heave of 32-1. Lancaster now travels to Fredonia State on Feb. 14 for a 9 a.m. select meet.
Depew girls take 4th place, boys 6th at Depew takes three team track and field championships grapplers to S-VI STAFF REPORT
The Depew High girls track and field team took fourth place in the small schools division of the team championships on Saturday, Feb. 7 with 40 points. Leading the way were Katelynn Frawley, who took third place in the 600-meter run with a new school record time of 1 minute, 43.85 seconds; Samantha Spinella, who took third place at the 55-meter dash in a new school record time of 7.69 seconds; and Caitlin Augustyn, who took second place in the 55-meter hurdles in a new school record time of 9.24 seconds. Cassie Serafin also who took third place at the triple jump with a jump of 32 feet 10 inches, while Angel Stenzel took sixth place in the 1500-meter run in a personal best time of 5:48. Sarah Steiner then took
fourth place in the weight throw with a personal best mark of 20 feet, 9 inches. Frawley, Spinella, Augustyn, and Serafin re-broke their school record in the 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:52.52 and took 2nd place. The boys team took sixth place overall with 37 points. Leading the way for them was Nick Serafin. With this being the first meet he was able to jump this season, Serafin took second place in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, third place in the long jump with a school record jump of 20 feet, 5 inches; and was part of the 4x200 relay team that took third. The other members of the relay team were Andrew Brooks, Antonio Antonov and Dylan Haak. Other strong performances came from Tyler Deuschle in the 1000-meter run, 600-meter run and 4x800 relay; plus Marcus Salvadore in the mile and 4x400 relay. The Wildcats have upcoming meets on Feb. 14 at SUNY Fredonia, and the sectional championships on Feb. 20 at
Leading the way for the Depew girls were Katelynn Frawley, who took third place in the 600-meter run with a new school record time of 1 minute, 43.85 seconds; Samantha Spinella, who took third place at the 55-meter dash in a new school record time of 7.69 seconds; and Caitlin Augustyn, who took second place in the 55-meter hurdles in a new school record time of 9.24 seconds. Houghton College. The week before on Jan. 31, during the 9th and 10th grade championships at SUNY Fredonia, freshman Noah Shaw took second place in the 55-meter hurdles in a time of 10.52. Sophomore Antonio Antonov also took second place in the 55-meter dash in a time of 7.08. Sophomore George Pollinger took third in the pole vault with a leap of 8 feet, while freshman Katie Steckstor took fifth in shot put with a toss of 23 feet.
Sophomore Samantha Spinella then took fifth place in the 55-meter dash in a time of 7.92 seconds and 5th place in the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 7 inches. Sophomore Angel Stenzel took fifth place in the 1000-meter run in 3:46.2 and sixth place in the 1500 in 5:52.7. Cassie Serafin also took second place in the high jump with a jump 4 feet, 10 inches, plus second place in the triple jump with a of leap of 31 feet, 11 inches.
STAFF REPORT
The Depew High wrestling Wildcats had three grapplers place at Saturday, Feb. 7’s Section VI Class B tournament at Cheektowaga High School. They were Philip Calandra (120-pound champion), Silas
Garrison (runner-up at 170 pounds) and Ryan Majerowski (4th place at 182 pounds). “The team as a whole wrestled well,” Wildcat skipper Jim Szefler said. “Competition was tough.” Szefler’s Big Three now go on to the Section VI tourney, where they can qualify for the state meet. The Section VI meet is schedule for this weekend at East Aurora High. Wrestling is slated to begin at 10 a.m., with finals set for 4:30 p.m.
WILLIAM ‘SKI’ WILCZEWSKI
Seen here early in the season, Depew’s Silas Garrison took second at the Class B tournament.
Lancers take 4th of five teams at All-Catholic tourney “Wrestling” from page 6
“I plan on placing at states this year,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to win, just due to the fact that I am wrestling 182 but I’m weighing 165, but I feel like I should definitely be able to wrestle with these kids and hang with them; hopefully top three, top four.” On Sunday, he also finished third after losing to Canisius’ Antonio Montanez 7-6 in the first round, then whitewashing Tom Lidlow of St. Francis, 15-0, in the second of a four-man bracket. “I could’ve sworn I had back points for the tie,” he said of his match with Montanez, “but it turns out the ref didn’t give me the points I was expecting.” St. Mary’s freshman Matt MacDonald came up even shorter at 126, where the youngster took sixth place,
which was outside the qualifying mark. Fellow freshman Jake Fay (132) also didn’t make the grade, but Weiss said his youngest grapplers still benefited tremendously from the experience. “They’re both freshman and they’ve got a lot of wrestling ahead of them,” he said, “and they’ve done a lot of wrestling this year that other freshmen at other schools wouldn’t get just by virtue of the way our team’s set up. And they’re only going to be better off for it in the long run. I tell them that and I have a feeling they both understand it. “But now it’s all about fine tuning what we can,” he added about this weekend’s All-Catholic state tourney. “We’re not looking to learn anything new. It’s just about figuring out what we’re go-
ing to bring downstate and hope we can make some waves.” If they do, it would pay off in the form of advancing to the public school state tourney, although just the overall winners of the catholic tourney will go on to do that. St. Mary’s took fourth place overall in the five-team tourney on with 60 points. Gow brought up the rear with 38, while St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute won the title with 329 points. They were closely followed by St. Francis (325.5) and Canisius (204). “I’d like to thank the parents and everyone that helped us put this on,” Weiss said after the Lancers hosting All-Catholics for the first time since 2005.
WILLIAM ‘SKI’ WILCZEWSKI
St. Mary’s’ Brad Stephens (182 pounds) gets the better of Gow’s Bryan King on Tuesday, Feb. 3. Stephens took third at the All-Catholic tournament in Lancaster on Sunday.
A-8
The Lancaster Sun /Saturday, February 14, 2015
Depew Wildcats continue their roll … even at home Boys basketball team is charging strong down the stretch By William ‘Ski’ Wilczewski SPORTS REPORTER
The road warriors can win at home, too. The proof came when the Depew High Wildcats boys basketball team came off a four-game road win-streak and then clobbered visiting Springville-Griffith on their home court on Thursday, Feb. 5. It made the magic number five for a Wildcat team that seems to be getting hot when it matters most with the postseason just around the corner. “We’re really coming into our own, and it’s a good time at the end of the season coming into playoffs,” said Wildcat senior Collin Gemerek, who led all scorers with 23 points. “We’ve just been having harder practices and everybody’s focused.” That was evident more so late in the game, because aside from edging out the Griffins 30-24 in the first two quarters, Depew also held Springville to just two points in the third quarter and a mere 11 in the entire second half. “I don’t think we did anything specifically, but we tried to take care of (Kyle Warner, who had a team-high 14 points),” Depew skipper Larry Jones said, “and I think we did a better job tonight than we did over in
their gym.” Jones was talking about three days prior when Depew also defeated the Griffs 63-52 in Springville something assistant coach Ed Bates said has its upsides and downsides. “There’s a lot of good and bad with that,” he said of the back-to-back contests. “You learn a lot about them, but you don’t have a lot of time to adjust. “We played with a lot of heart in the first half,” he added. “On the floor with loose balls, I think we outworked them in the first half. In the second half, though, they picked it up a little bit and a little bit of fatigue set in for us, I think; not a lot of depth in our bench.” That meant that Springville led the game just once briefly in the second quarter and tied the game on a couple occasions. Other than that, it was all Wildcats. “They’re one of the better programs in Western New York,” Bates said, “and we try to emulate that, but we’re taking baby steps along the way.” Those baby steps dropped Springville’s record to 3-12 with eight straight losses. Depew, on the other hand, upped its slate to 9-6 overall and 7-2 in ECIC Division III. “We’re starting to play a little better,” Jones said. “It’s been steady process. We’ve got more guys contributing offensively and Collin’s getting back into it … plus Tyler (Anna) is playing better much better than he did earlier in the year; defense, rebounding
WILLIAM ‘SKI’ WILCZEWSKI
Depew’s Dylan Sekuterski (right) defends a driving Colin DeWitt of Springville-Griffith on Thursday, Feb. 5. Depew prevailed 56-35. and assists. Against pressure he was really good tonight. “We tired them out,” Gemerek added. “I mean, all 11
guys played tonight … so it’s good to keep rotating fresh bodies and fresh legs. It’s good to know that you can go
hard for your shift and then somebody come get you so you can get your legs again. We’re good with that because
everybody just wants to win. That the main goal. It doesn’t matter how you do it.”
Girls high school hockey continues Walking on water to catch big winter fish to grow at state tournament By Mike Haim
By Forrest Fisher
SPORTS COLUMNIST
OUTDOOR COLUMNIST
Less than a week after Katy Perry performed her “female empowerment” songs at the Super Bowl, Western New York experienced its own form of “girl power” on the feature rink at HarborCenter. Buffalo’s newest hockey venue hosted the fifth annual state high school girls ice hockey championship tournament last weekend. A local flair was even more evident as the Kenmore Devil Dogs, comprised of students from both Kenmore East and Kenmore West, won their semi-final game against Alexandria Bay from Section III to qualify for the championship game against Massena from Section X. Kenmore may have lost the final by a 3-0 score, but every other aspect of the weekend was a victory for not only the team, but also for a Section VI program in only its fifth year. The section, one of only four in the state to offer girls hockey, is the only one located west of the Syracuse area. It is also the newest, making Kenmore’s appearance in the final game incredibly significant. It was especially sweet for the section’s organizers, which started to explore a framework for interscholastic girls hockey about 10 years ago. Among the group who had a vision for the sport in the area was Rick Hopkins, who coaches the Williamsville district team and is sectional chairman. For Hopkins, seeing a state championship tournament being held locally much less with a local team in the final game was quite gratifying. ”It was a long arduous project, but we were able to convince seven school
Winter sporting enthusiasts in WNY have endured (enjoyed?) multiple consecutive weeks of a chilly arctic air blast this year and that has made recreation that depends on cold and snow the best in many years. Ice fishing activities in WNY lakes and ponds have been successful for hardy anglers and numerous good catches of fish have been reported throughout our region. One popular ice fishing destination for veteran Erie County ice anglers has always been the Bay of Quinte, in nearby Ontario, where big perch and walleyes are the target. Fishing in 19 feet of water near Big Bay near “Wager’s” on Big Island, Lake Erie Charter Captain Bob Rustowicz has been fooling some hefty walleyes. With several fish over eight pounds, Rustowicz has been fooling the monsters on gold-color Sidewinder spoons tipped with a minnow and simply working a vertical jigging motion. Several trophy fish in the 12 to 14 pound range are taken from the Bay of Quinte every year. Rustowicz says that when Lake Erie firms up more solid off Sturgeon Point, he plans to fish our New York waters for walleye and perch. Closer to home at Chautauqua Lake, anglers fishing the lower end of the lake off Grass Island, right in front of the Lakewood Rod and Gun Club, have been catching yellow perch and crappie on jigs tipped with salted minnows in six to eight feet of water depth. At center lake areas off Mission Meadows, Rich Davenport has been fishing with friends
JEFFREY T. BARNES
The Kenmore Devil Dogs celebrate a goal. The team is comprised of student-athletes from both Kenmore East and Kenmore West. districts that girls varsity ice hockey would be a good thing,” Hopkins said. “Five years after having the first puck drop, we’ve grown in numbers of girls playing and the talent level has grown along with it. “We were thrilled when the other leagues in the state asked us to host the state tournament. And it was a big thrill for the other qualifiers, who came out of the North Country from small communities, and their eyes were wide open kind of like someone from Buffalo going to New York City for the first time.” In fact, the Massena team ended up staying at the same hotel as the Dallas Stars, who were in town for a game against the Buffalo Sabres. The high school squad got to meet some members of the Stars, including Erik Cole, who grew up in Oswego
and worked one summer in Massena. It all made for a memorable two-day tourney, and proved that the idea of having girls playing varsity ice hockey at the high school level really does make sense. Hopkins admitted the organizing group needed to overcome doubts about the level of play from some district administrators. “You don’t question someone’s ability to play a trumpet if they want to go out for the band,” Hopkins said. “But once the league started, any doubters or naysayers could see the level of play and the amount of interest and excitement that girls hockey generates.” In addition to Kenmore and Williamsville, the section has four “combined district” competitors: Orchard ParkFrontier, Lancaster-Iroquois,
Amherst-Sweet Home, and West Seneca-Hamburg. All play in a federation league which also has a Monsignor Martin team composed of players from various Catholic schools. Kenmore forward Ana Orzechowski, a key player in the Devil Dogs’ four straight sectional championships, will even go on to play Division I collegiate hockey at RPI. Many other players from the area already play at Division III colleges, so there is already a developmental success story in the making. “Girls should have every opportunity that the boys have,” said Kenmore coach Jeff Orlowski. “We’ve come a long way in five years. We’re glad to be the pioneers.”
in 50-54 feet of water to catch perch in the 9-10 inch range and walleye to seven pounds. On the Mayville end of the lake near Mayville Town Park, perch, crappie and walleye are falling to tipped jigged as well, except anglers are working the weed bed edges there in 11-13 feet of water. In the Buffalo Small Boat Harbor, anglers working over six to eight feet of water with 12 – 15 inches of ice thickness have continued to catch smaller perch and sunfish, with some smelt and occasional northern pike as well. Mousie grubs fished on tiny titanium head jigs with extra sharp hooks are reported best offerings for the panfish, with tip-ups presenting mid-depth chubs the best for the northern pike. To cope with the cold weather, the one thing that anglers need this year is a sure way to keep their exposed hands warm when fishing. Most anglers use the portable and disposable hand warmer packs that we buy in local stores for a dollar or two. These last for 6-12 hours, but then they are finished putting out heat and must be disposed of. This year, a new device made by Swyper’s Company offers another hand-warmer option with rechargeable heat that offers 113 degree of heat for seven hours. The device is small, about ½ inch thick by 1-1/2 inch wide by about 3 inches long, and is protected by an aluminum shell casing with dual face heating on both sides, it’s water resistant too. It comes with a clip to attach to your zipper jacket or other loop in your outdoor clothing and is the perfect new device for hiking, skiing, fishing and all forms of winter outdoor activities. Tight lines to all.