ELMIRA HONORS ATHLETES AT ANNUAL ATHLETIC AWARDS CEREMONY (June 7, 2023)

Southern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA — The Elmira Express held their annual athletic awards ceremony on Tuesday night.

The Eileen Collins Female Athlete of the Year was Payton Ross and the Pete Curkendall Male Athlete of the Year is Alex McKerrow.

Awards were named in every sport, along with sportsmanship and academic awards.

For volleyball Hannah Lambert and Paityn Chorney were named team MVP and Hanna Rhode was named the coaches’ award winner.

In girls’ swimming and diving Natalie Rose won the ‘Molly’ Swimming Award, while Gabrielle Mattoon won the coaches’ award and McKenna Malone won team MVP.

For fall cheerleading Mary Juliano won the Jennifer Mustico Award (MVP) and Jenna Jones won the coaches’ award.

The team MVP for girls’ soccer was Emily Hanrahan and Tierney Krawczyk and Emma Pack won the coaches’ award.

The boys’ soccer Andy Lucas Memorial Award (MVP) was Jahmier Klee, while Shane Heifferon was the Sam Kutchukian Coaches’ Award winner, while Anthony Kitching won the Seth Benedict Award.

The girls’ cross country team MVP was Vicky Mordvinova and Ross was the coaches’ award winner, for the boys Caleb Belanger was MVP and Andrew Degnan Jr. was the coaches’ award winner.

The football Carl Raymond Award (Offensive linemen) winner was McKerrow and Brady Keefe won the Tom Hurley (Team MVP) award. The Lou Pirozzolo Award (Defensive Linemen) went to CJ Brink and the Kevin O’Dea Award (Most improved) went to Lucas Mott. Chris Woodard won the Dana Carpenter Award.

The boys’ golf MVP was Brady Magliocca and Collin Oakley won the coaches’ award.

Austin Ward won the unified soccer team MVP award and Austin Manning was the coaches’ award winner.

For winter sports Degnan Jr. was boys’ swimming and diving MVP and Creed Hackett and Gavin Shoemaker were the coaches’ award winners.

Jalea Abrams won the Vanessa Morgan Award (Team MVP) for girls’ basketball and Ellie Clearwater and Ross won the Mike Holleran Basketball Award.

Ja’Nyah Harris and Alaejah Wallace won the coaches’ award.

For boys’ basketball the MVP went to Woodard and Kitching and the coaches’ award went to Kobe Thomas.

The winter cheerleading Jennifer Mustico Award (Team MVP) went to Arielle Reese and the coaches’ award went to Emily Meck.

In boys’ bowling Alex Smith was team MVP and Ty Bolt won the coaches’ award.

For girls’ bowling Madison Smith was MVP and Abbi Hink won the coaches’ award.

For wrestling Matt Brown was the Natalie Phillips Award winner and Donavan smith won the Jeff Reese Award (Most Outstanding Wrestler). The coaches’ award winner was Ethan Hernandez.

In boys’ indoor track and field the track MVP was Belanger and the field MVP was Logan Goodwin. The coaches’ award winner was Ta’Hjay Molina-Bacome. For the girls Ella Devlin was track MVP and Zalayna Brown was field MVP, while Mordvinova was the coaches’ award winner.

For spring sports the Mike Holleran Softball Award went to Mackenzie Fusare and Addisyn Chorney was the Bill Emmick Award winner (Team MVP). The coaches’ MVP was Paityn Chorney.

The baseball coaches’ award went to Jack Carozzoni and the team MVP was Bryce Mashanic. Jones was the girls’ golf MVP and Juliano was the coaches’ award winner.

Emma Beach was the coaches’ award winner for girls’ lacrosse and Olivia Cleary won team MVP. The coaches’ award winner for boys’ lacrosse was Keefe and Danny manning won defensive MVP, while Ryan Stukey won offensive MVP.

In boys’ track and field Cameron Wright won the Mike O’Buckley Award (Sportsmanship) and Belanger was the coaches’ award winners while Nasir Bradford was track MVP and McKerrow was field MVP.

For the girls Mordvinova was the track MVP and Piper Hooey won the field MVP and Harris was the coaches’ award winner.

For unified basketball Edwin Bennett was team MVP and Rodney May was the coaches’ award winner. For unified bowling Desi Heater won team MVP and Brice Chaffee and Ravin Cleary won the coaches’ awards.

Sarah Butler was most improved for unified bowling.

For flag football Ross was team MVP and Krawczyk was the coaches’ award winner.

The Athletic Director Award sent to the Elmira Express Booster Club and Keefe was the Marty Harrigan Sportsmanship Award winner.

Donavan smith was the Mark Stephens Foundation Wrestling Scholarship winner and Harris won the Bea Stephens Award.

The other female athlete of the year nominees were Abrams, Hanrahan and Mordvinova. The other male athlete of the year nominees were Keefe, Woodard and Smith.

The Southern Tier Athletic Conference named sportsmanship award winners, who were recognized on Tuesday. They are Gavin Strunk (baseball), Lily Cornacchio (softball), Rhiannon Perkins (girls’ basketball), James Harris (boys’ basketball), Molly Remember (girls’ volleyball), Blaize Petricelli (boys’ soccer), Lauren Turcsik (girls’ soccer), Abby Cunningham (girls’ bowling), Skylar Shadduck (boys’ bowling), McKenna Malone (girls’ swimming) and Jan Mayoros (boys’ swimming).

Joey Mastrantonio (wrestling) was a sportsmanship award winner along with Alexis Matthews (fall cheerleader); Kallie Burdick (winter cheerleading); Zalayna Brown (girls’ spring track), Maciej Ziembecki (boys’ spring track); Jones (girls’ golf); Mashanic (boys’ golf), Abrey Johnson (boys’ cross country); Devlin (girls’ cross country); Nadia Cady (girls’ lacrosse); Madelyn Wise (girls’ indoor track); Nicholas Shellenberger (boys’ indoor track); Heifferon (boys’ lacrosse); Keefe (football); Abigail Lambert (flag football).

STAC Academic All-Stars were also named. The following were recognized. Benjamin Rhode (baseball); Madison Smith (softball): Caitlyn Wagner (girls’ basketball): Kitching (boys’ basketball); Ava Novotny (volleyball); Matthew Benjamin (boys’ golf); Heifferon (boys’ soccer); Mia Capilli (girls’ soccer); Malone (girls’ swimming); Mordvinova (girls’ cross country, indoor track, outdoor track); Belanger (boys’ cross country, indoor track); Trent Beloma (boys’ bowling); Madison Smith (girls’ bowling); Gavin Shoemaker (boys’ swimming); Ziembicki (boys’ track); Juliano (girls’ golf); Molly Moshier (competitive cheerleading); Smith (wrestling); Meck (fall cheerleading); Heifferon (boys’ lacrosse).
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IN PHOTO: girls and boys’ athletes of the year Payton Ross and Alex McKerrow. . . PROVIDED PHOTO.