Every once in a while, however, history is made in a fashion that seems too good to be true.
Tappen Zee had one of those moments Saturday in the 100-yard backstroke final at the combined Conference IV and Rockland County Swimming Championships at North Rockland. Senior Lance Neuendorf won the race in 53.73 seconds, bettering by .07 seconds a record set in 1980 by Robert Neuendorf – his father.
"It means so much to me and my dad," Lance Neuendorf told The Journal News. "Ever since I've been on the team and we broke the medley record, I've been looking up and saying that I wish I had that record. He's been saying that it's time for the record to come down. He came down to the water and he hugged me."
Neuendorf and teammate Stanley were the only swimmers to win multiple individual races at the meet, helping Tappen Zee pile up 493 points to outdistance Clarkstown (427) and earn the team’s first championship since 1996. Neuendorf also won the 100 butterfly, while Wong claimed the 50 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke as well as helping the 200 freestyle relay triumph. Both were also on the 200 medley relay.
Girls basketball: Tough bunch at Candor
Candor's 54-43 victory over Newfield last week was no ordinary affair.
The Indians showed up with just five players but still walked away with their second straight victory with a bare-bones lineup. Kendra Wagstaff scored 13 points in the first half and 15 in the game as Candor improved to 6-6, and was even bold enough to apply a press that created 25 turnovers.
"For the second game in a row, the kids really stepped up," Candor coach Norm Szwec told The Ithaca Journal. "It was just a phenomenal team effort."
The Indians had been playing with seven girls before losing Chelsy Kern to a sprained ankle and Jordan Hollenbeck to a concussion. That left them with Wagstaff, Taylor Szwec, Becca Smith, Courtney Switzer and Amanda Kellogg.
Candor had defeated Spencer-Van Etten 45-39 in its previous outing.
"The girls have just come together so much," Szwec said. "If somebody makes a mistake or makes a turnover, the other girls slap her on the back and say 'Hey, forget it, let's move on.'"
* Speaking of shorthanded, Jamestown will play most of the rest of the season with a limited lineup after dismissing one player and handing down three-game suspensions to nine other girls for unspecified violations of the school's athletic code.
The nine suspensions will be staggered so the team, which is 7-4, can continue to play out its schedule, coach Ken Ricker told The Buffalo News. Junior guard Dashawna Sparks, who led the team in points (15.5) and rebounds (9.0), was dismissed.
Boys basketball: Heroes and highlights
* Gary Acquah registered in a three-point play with 2.9 seconds left to lift Mount St. Michael to an 87-86 win against Fordham Prep in four overtimes. Peter Aguilar played the fourth quarter and the four OTs with four fouls to finish with 28 points for Mount St. Michael.
Tom Whelan had a game-high 29 points for Fordham Prep.
* Horace Mann (4-6) shocked Collegiate, a two-time defending state Federation champion, 58-55 as Jordan Federer scored 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, and Brett Lieberman added 13 points.
* Jeff Tolentino made a 3-pointer as time expired to give All Hallows a 60-59 victory over Mount Vernon, which lost a home boys basketball game for the first time since Feb. 2, 1998. Mount Vernon had won 108 straight games at home since losing to Archbishop Stepinac 91-87.
All Hallows led with 21 seconds left when Mount Vernon’s Adam Melheur hit a 3-pointer for the lead. All Hallows got a rebound off a Mount Vernon missed free throw with eight seconds left and found Tolentino.
* Billy Attridge made two free throws with four seconds remaining to lift C.G. Finney to a 60-58 victory over Maple Grove in a rematch of a 2009 state Class D quarterfinal. Jamel Johnson led Finney, which has moved up to Class B this season, with 19 points.
Maple Grove, which got 20 points from Chris Secky, is 7-5 against an ambitious schedule this winter. Its other losses are to Olean (ranked No. 5 in Class B by the New York State Sportswriters Association), Lancaster St. Mary's, Buffalo McKinley and Newark (No. 9 in Class A).
* Jamesville-DeWitt improved to 13-0 by handing Shenendehowa its first loss, 74-57, in an intersectional game. J-D is ranked No. 1 in state in Class A; Shenendehowa (11-1) is 10th in Class AA.
Sophomore center Dajuan Coleman posted 18 points and 12 rebounds, and guard Lamar Kearse added 17 points. Dan Lee made four 3-pointers and scored 19 points for Shenendehowa.
J-D broke open a 56-49 game by opening the fourth quarter with a 16-2 run.
Next up on J-D’s non-league schedule is a potential preview of a the Federation tournament showdown as Buffalo Nichols and Virginia recruit Will Regan come to town on Friday. The game was a late addition to the schedule after Nichols, which also plays at Albany Academy next Sunday, played one less game than planned last month at the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Odds and ends
* Honeoye Falls-Lima senior Alex Deir and Cornwall junior Aisling Cuffe, each a winner at the NYSPHSAA meet last fall in Plattsburgh, have been selected Gatorade's New York cross country runners of the year.
* The NYSPHSAA's Executive Committee on Thursday awarded the boys soccer final fours in 2010-11 to Middletown High School. All five classes will be contested Nov. 20-21, 2010, at Faller Field (turf), an adjacent grass field and at Twin Towers Middle School.
The last nine championship weekends were held in Oneonta at the National Soccer Hall of Fame facility.
* As expected, the NYSPHSAA approved new football enrollment cutoff numbers that will determine playoff classes for schools next fall. One of the effects will be a return to a six-game regular season for Section V's Class AA schools, which will split into two classes for sectionals.
* The latest requests by the Utica and Rome school districts to move from the Central New York Counties League to the Tri Valley League have been denied by TVL officials.The schools submitted applications in December, and each was notified by the TVL that their requests had been denied primarily because of their size, The Observer-Dispatch reported.
* All-state quarterback Will Fiacchi of Marcellus committed to play at the University of Albany. The first-team Class B all-state selection threw for 2,607 yards last fall to end his career with 6,971 yards through the air.
John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at
