ITHACA, N.Y. - Former sports information director and television commentator Beano Cook was always quick with a quip. When the Iranian hostages were freed in 1981 after 15 months in captivity and were presented lifetime passes by baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Cook wondered out loud, ‘Haven’t they suffered enough?’”
Cook may have been on the mark with that zinger, but he probably misfired when he claimed that the only sport more boring to watch than "track" was "field."
Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Cornell University’s Barton Hall were full of compelling performances and big personalities. LSU-bound Hempstead senior Charlene Lipsey survived a harrowing final in the 600-meter run and then regaled reporters with a play-by-play that was as hilarious as she was fast.
And Lancaster junior Melissa Kurzdorfer put up another stellar performance, obliterating the state record with a winning throw of 48-2½ to tack nearly four feet onto her winning efforts the previous two seasons and move to No. 2 on the 2009 U.S. indoor list. There's a round number in her immediate future, which will make her one of the most watched scholastic throwers in the country this spring.
"Fifty feet is there, it's definitely there," she said. "It's just a matter of doing it in a meet now. I've done it in practice before. I have confidence. It's there."
Kurzdorfer threw 47-9 early this season at Dartmouth to break the New York junior class mark and continue her impressive assault on state records. She began with 37-3.75 as a seventh-grader, 40-2 in eighth grade and 45-5.5 in ninth grade, then capped her sophomore season with a 46-6.75 effort last March at Section 6's state qualifier.
Kurzdorfer threw 46-4½ last spring to win the outdoor title by almost two feet over North Babylon's Vanessa Stewart, who was second again Saturday, but the end of the season couldn't arrive quickly enough to suit her.
"Sophomore year was so bad," she said. "I got to a point where I didn't even want to throw anymore. I needed a break, so that summer I took one, and it really helped. It was the best thing for me. It helped me realize I still loved to throw. I needed a break. I had been throwing since seventh grade."
Kurzdorfer took a roundabout path to the sport. She had planned to play softball as a seventh-grader and was going to use workouts as an indoor sprinter to help prepare. But she pulled a quad muscle and needed to back off.
"My coach said, 'Why don't you go over and work with the throwers, and I never left."
She accepts the fact that field events, particularly the throws aren't real attention-getters, especially in a state like New York where so many schools churn out distance runners who regularly post high finishes at national-caliber meets.
She is, however, trying to overcome the perception that the throws just aren't sexy enough to catch on with fans.
"You gotta bring the 'sexy' to it," she said. "A lot of people think, 'Oh, shot-putters are big and burly' and that they're men. You get that a lot - that they're big and strong and can kick any guy's (butt). But that's not true. You get us away from the track and dress us up a bit and we don't look so bad."
Other highlights of the meet:
Saratoga junior Madalayne Smith swept the 55 dash and the hurdles. Her 55 hurdles time of 7.96 seconds moved Smith to No. 2 on the U.S. season leaderboard. Fellow Section II star Kyle Plante of Colonie eclipsed the U.S. freshman record by winning the 300 meters in :38.53.
In the distances, four-time Foot Locker cross country national qualifier Shelby Greany of Suffern earned her first indoor championship with a 9:53.99 effort in the 3,000 and also took a second place in the metric mile.
Both 1,000-meter finals were wire jobs. Emily Menges of Garden City went 2:54.12 in the girls race, and Alex Hatz of Fayettevile-Manlius clocked 2:27.86 to top the boys field.
In other noteworthy boys finals, Miles Lewis of Middle Country won a photo finish over Berfrantz Charles (North Babylon) in :06.40 in the 55, and Sam Ludgood of Webster Schroeder took the triple jump in 47-4.
Boys Basketball: Top teams work overtime in sectional finals
Greg Thomson's layup with 2.2 seconds remaining in overtime gave Syracuse CBA a 76-75 win over Henninger in the Section III Class AA final at Syracuse University’s Manley Field House.
Senior guard Stefan Thompson scored 40 points, including 21 in the fourth quarter that led the Brothers' comeback from 14 points down.
"Stefan simply took the game over in that final quarter," 25th-year CBA coach Buddy Wleklinski told The Post-Standard. "That's as big a comeback win as we've had at CBA in all my years of coaching."
* Senior Chad Dillard made two free throws with 23 seconds remaining in OT to give unranked Gates Chili a 56-53 upset of Rush-Henrietta, rated fifth by the New York State Sportswriters Association, in the Section V Class AA final. Dillard (nine points, 12 rebounds) had missed two free throws with 3.6 seconds left in regulation, sending the game to OT against a Royal Comets team that had not lost to a Section V opponent all season.
* Senior Mansa Habeeb carried Buffalo McKinley to its third straight championship in Section VI by scoring 30 of his career-high 40 points after halftime -- to go along with 12 rebounds and six steals -- as the Macks, No. 25 in Class A, defeated Williamsville South in two OTs, 78-74. Habeeb had scored 31 points during last year’s Class A-1 final win over Grover Cleveland.
* Ryan Carney’s three-pointer with eight seconds left carried No. 11 Olean over East Aurora, 46-45, in the Section VI Class B-1 final. The verdict set up a state qualifier vs. Akron, which scored a 66-50 win against Allegany-Limestone to become the first boys basketball champion from the Niagara-Orleans League since Newfane in 1980.
* North Babylon rallied from 12 points down in the second half and pressed Longwood into submission, 67-65, in the Section XI Class AA final. The Bulldogs will play Uniondale next weekend for a sport in the NYSPHSAA semifinals in Glens Falls.
* In Section V Class DD action, No. 3 C.G. Finney beat Prattsburgh, 67-58, to send Vikings coach Jim Burke into retirement after 33 seasons and 694 victories - 517 with the boys team and 177 with the girls. Burke won six boys and four girls championships in the sectional tournament and a state boys crown in 1991.
"The other day at practice I called a kid Frank. There is no Frank on the team,” Burke jokingly told The Evening Tribune. "I was calling kids Tom, Dick and Harry and there is no Tom, Dick and Harry. I don’t think practices have been as good as they could be and I think that’s because of me."
* Don Baker's retirement after 32 seasons will have to wait. His Genesee Valley club beat Alfred-Almond in the Section V Class D game, 43-36. Ed Linnecke made five three-pointers en route to a game-high 18 points. Alfred-Almond had been 0-20 last season.
* Burke Catholic rallied from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit, then went on to a 61-60 win in overtime over Spackenkill in Section IX Class B action. Brian Clarke's 18-footer with 1.3 seconds left forced overtime, and the winners survived 13-for-39 free-throw shooting (2-for-14 in the fourth quarter) to advance to the state tournament.
Girls Basketball: Success has been a long time coming
* Germantown won its first Section II championship since a run of six straight titles ended in 1988 and will climb to No. 1 in the state in Class D this week after downing Argyle, 50-45, to improve to 23-0. Junior forward Taylor Race paced Germantown with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Caitlin Briggs scored 16 points.
* In Section III Class AA, Cicero-North Syracuse ended a 24-year wait by beating Fayetteville-Manlius, 44-30, for the championship and there may be more success to come over the next few seasons. Breanna Stewart, a 6-foot-3 freshman, led C-NS with 14 points - 10 in the fourth quarter to pull away - and was named the most valuable player.
* Newark's Shakista Woolfolk banked in an acrobatic jumper in the lane with 1.6 seconds left to help the No. 4 Reds a 47-45 victory over No. 7 Pittsford Mendon in OT in Section V Class A action.
"She made one of her typical Shakista drives – a double-pump, in-the-air, with-her-legs-up shot," coach Diane Kirnie told the Democrat and Chronicle.
Mendon staged a huge rally, outscoring Newark by 12-1 in the fourth quarter, and forced OT on Carly Napier's two free throws with 12.6 seconds left.
* Senior forward Cassie McMullen scored 21 points as No. 12 South Kortright polished off No. 19 Schenevus in Section IV Class D. McMullen had four putbacks and scored South Kortright's first 10 points during a 14-6 run to open the game.
Ice Hockey: A flurry from Flory carries Pelham
Marc Flory scored five goals as third-ranked Pelham swept to a 6-2 victory over No. 2 Queensbury in the state Division II quarterfinals at Glens Falls Recreation Center.
"He’s one of those guys you can ride,’’ Pelham coach Ed Witz told The Post-Star.
Flory pushed his season total to 55 goals as he scored twice on power plays, one goal on a breakaway, one on a turnover and the last into an empty net.
Queensbury scored the game’s first goal, Pelham answered with three power-play goals in the second period to build a 4-1 lead.
* Also in Division II, No. 4 Kenmore East rallied from two goals down with 5:52 left in regulation and defeated unranked Saranac, 4-3, on Eric Gardner’s goal -- his second of the night -- at 6:04 of overtime in Amherst.
* In Division I, No. 2 Mamaroneck avenged an OT loss in the 2008 quarterfinals by downing No. 3 Massena, 5-4, on Rob Fine's goal with 1:59 left in the second sudden-death period.
All of the regulation scoring took place in a 13-minute sequence beginning midway through the second period.
Boys Swimming: Johnson, Luchsinger double down
Junior Jake Johnson of Shenendehowa defended his 50- and 100-yard freestyle state titles with All-America times in the NYSPHSAA meet in East Meadow. He clocked :20.91 and :45.72, respectively, and also anchored the Plainsmen's winning 400 freestyle relay.
Michigan recruit Ryan Feeley of Rye turned in an ordinary 4:35.82 in qualifying and then tore up his state record in the 500 freestyle by dominating the final in 4:24.06 to retain his state and Federation titles.
Thomas Luchsinger of Mount Sinai won the 200 freestyle (1:37.12) and 100 butterfly (:48.37).
Bowling: West Seneca East rallies
West Seneca East’s boys overtook Colonie in the final game to win the NYSPHSAA championship at Gates Bowl outside Rochester. Union-Endicott topped Frontier for the girls title.
Brandon Simone (1,272) and Nick Morrissey (1,265) led the way for West Seneca East. The Trojans made up a 40-pin deficit in the final game with a 1,059 effort and 6,117 total, 72 pins better than Colonie.
The U-E girls opened with a 1,114 game and never looked back en route to a 5,669 pinfall. Vicki Peters paced the victory with a 1,216 total for six games.
Boxing: Tradition continues at Aquinas
Only a handful of schools offer the sport, but one of the country’s longest-running scholastic boxing programs resides in upstate New York. The University of Notre Dame is the only school in the country with a longer continuous program than Aquinas Institute in Rochester.
Sixty-seven boys and girls in grades 8 through 12 participated this year, culminating in 20 matches Friday at the 77th annual Mission Bouts before a raucous crowd of about 1,500 fans paying $10 to $15 to attend. Scalpers in past years have been known to get $40 for a ticket on fight night.
Long-time coach Dom Arioli, a 1973 graduate of the school, began training this year's group in early December, putting the participants through four to six workouts a week. There were elimination bouts to pare down the card for the Mission Bouts and part of the team also traveled last month for an annual competition against boxers from several Cincinnati-area schools training at Moeller High.
There's a premium placed on safety and teaching proper technique, but boxing ranks up there with wrestling and football when it comes to grueling sports. Exhibits A and B would be sophomore Zack Trovato and junior James Donofrio, both middleweights on Friday's card.
Trovato, a defensive tackle and offensive guard in the football program, ripped up the ACL and MCL in his right knee last year shortly before the Mission Bouts but still fought. Donofrio, a soccer and baseball player, broke a hand two-thirds of the way through the workouts last year when he landed a punch at an awkward angle.
Both competitors are continuing family traditions. Several of Donofrio's uncles and cousins boxed at Aquinas. Trovato's grandfather was a Little Irish boxer.
“No other schools offer boxing so I thought I'd take advantage of it," Trovato said. "It teaches you that you're going to be out there by yourself sometimes in life. You're not always going to have a team behind you."
Donofrio remembers watching his older cousins compete and was fascinated by the demanding training and the never-quit mentality.
"You've been working for this one day the whole time," he said. "Your arms and legs are giving out on you by the end of the third round but you don't want to stop -- you can't stop. The whole process teaches you responsibility and to feel good about what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.”
Both fighters were winners on Friday. Trovato finished his match a bit bloodied, but his orthodontist will be relieved to know that the 10th-grader’s braces made it through the season undamaged.
"He told me to be sure to wear a special mouth guard and try not to get hit," he said, smiling. "I told him, 'It's OK, I won't be getting hit.'"
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
johnschianosports@gmail.com
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