FROM PRESS ROW: COLD WEATHER CAN'T SLOW AREA ATHLETES (2022-04-03)

Spring Sports is underway, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it’s Spring.

The weather last week often felt more like the dead of winter. Just watching games was tough, but area athletes are even tougher and they turned in dominant performances despite the weather.

The Horseheads girls took the field with snow flakes falling and the Corning baseball team played up at Corning Community College in wind so strong that you felt like you might get pushed over.

There would be plenty of excuses to struggle with how bad the weather was, instead area athletes put up the type of performances that would be impressive in the best of conditions.


LACROSSE TEAMS OFF TO DOMINANT STARTS
You can’t get much more dominant than what some area lacrosse teams did to start the year.

The Corning boys opened with a pair of big wins, taking down Horseheads and Ithaca to start the year. Meanwhile the Corning girls won their opener 21-1.

For the boys Ethan Hart had a one goal, four assist game against Horseheads and followed that up with four goals against Ithaca. Mike Gigliotti had four goals against Horseheads and Chris Grimaldi had three goals and two assists against Ithaca, while Nick Volpe had two goals and two assists.

For the Corning girls Jenna DiNardo had a season’s worth of success in one game with a 10-point effort. She had five goals and five assists in the game.

Alyssa Dobson (3 goals, 4 assists) and Kate Grottenthaler (5 goals, 2 assists) had seven point games. Brooklyn Batzing (3 goals, 1 assist) and Lexi Lapierre (3 goals, 2 assists) each had hat tricks.

The Horseheads girls opened the year with a 19-1 win over Maine-Endwell. Horseheads had four players score hat tricks in the game with Erin Christmas scoring five points (3 goals, 2 assists), Alexis Guzylak netting four points (3 goals, 1 assist) and Brooke Sumner and Abbey Kamas each scoring hat tricks as well.

The Horseheads boys open the previous week with a win over Maine-Endwell, and after a loss to Corning they beat Vestal by a goal. The win avenged a sectional final loss last year, by one goal, to Vestal. Domanik West had four goals in the win over Vestal and Garrett Elson had two goals and two assists. Pat Carpenter had two goals and an assist against Corning.

The Notre Dame boys’ lacrosse team picked up a pair of big wins on the week. Goalie Grant Crossley, who is a Division I commit, allowed just three goals in the two games.

Eighth-grader Finn Schweizer had back-to-back four goal games, recording eight goals and two assists to start the season.

Kellan Murphy had a four goal, three assist game and Shane Maloney had two goals and three assists in a game.

Sean Franzese had four assists one goal and a goal and an assist in the other to lead the team with five assists this year.

Kevin Green had a two goal game, and had an assist in the other win and Liam Schweizer had two goals and an assist in one game and a goal and an assist in the other.

The Elmira girls’ lacrosse team opened with a win over Johnson City, before falling to Section 4 power Ithaca during the week. Delaney Malone had a six-point game against Johnson City, with four goals and two assists.

The Elmira boys opened with a loss to perennial Section 4 power Ithaca, but they showed off their balance in the game. In the 11-6 loss they had six different players score in the game, with Ryan Stukey assisting on half the goals.


FAST TIMES, BIG DISTANCES FOR T&F TO START THE YEAR
Usually athletes start to put up big-time track and field performances as they get toward the postseason. But, area athletes are putting up strong showings just one meet into the season.

Jack Gregorski won state titles in the fall with cross country and in the winter in the 3200 indoors. Now, he’s off to a dominant start outdoors in a shorter event, winning the 800 at the N.Y./Pa. Invitational in Windsor. He went sub 1:59 the first meet out in the race.

Corning’s D.J. Cornfield won the 3000 steeple chase and Sophie ReSue won the high jump and teamed with Lauren Gerow, Megan Kirk and Faithe Ketchum to win the 1600 relay..

Corning, Horseheads and Elmira were all at the invitational and all three teams had athletes winning races.

Horseheads’ Tess Eisner won the triple jump and Elmira’s Cal Marks won the discus, while the Express also had Ben Allen, Caleb Belanger, Nasir King and Isaac May win the 3200 relay.

The Corning boys won the team title, while the Hawks were second on the girls side in an invitational with 25 teams in attendance.

There were also a lot of second and third place finishes by locals as area athletes showed just how great this spring is shaping up to be.


BASEBALL/SOFTBALL OFF TO SOLID STARTS
The weather at Corning Community College was cold and windy, but it didn’t slow down the Corning baseball team as they put up more than 20 runs in a win over Binghamton.

Landen Burch led the offense with four hits, a home run and a double and Zack Nelson had three hits, with a triple in the win.

Mason Smith started on the mound and got the win for the Hawks.

The Notre Dame baseball team went 2-1 this week against Watkins Glen. The IAC has gone with a Major League Baseball type series between teams during the seasons and the Crusaders had a big week. Owen Stewart struck out 12 in five one-hit innings in the opener and he hit a home run in the doubleheader Saturey, while adding a triple in the opener.

Luke Richards threw six innings of four-hit ball in a win Saturday and Ashton Colunio had three hits, three runs and three RBI this week, while Logan Meisner had three hits and three runs this week.

The Edison baseball team split a double-header on Saturday, beating Greene, 4-3 and falling to Lansing. Kyler Ripley had the game-winning hit against Greene and DeShon Cook had two hits in the game.

The Notre Dame softball team dropped a pair of games against a AA school and an A school as they played tough competition at the Mudville Tournament. While it was an 0-2 weekend they went to extra innings with Saratoga Springs, a AA school. Payton Miller had three hits, with a double, between the two games.
GOLF KICKS OFF
The Horseheads and Corning girls played a match this week, while the Blue Raiders opened the previous week.

While Corning was short-handed to start the year with two golfers, the Blue Raiders have started the year unbeaten. Brooklyn Moffe is showing she’s one of the best players in Section 4 to start this year.