Sports

 Yes, the season is very early. But the current Genesee Region League standings are out and the top teams are getting their due.

Oakfield-Alabama already has a big lead in Division I, with a 4-0 record. Pembroke and Attica follow with a 3-2 record.

Notre Dame is 2-0 and lead Division II. Elba is in second at 2-2.

There is a ton of basketball left to be played, but the Hornets and Fighting Irish have impressive leads early on.

Byron-Bergen senior Mary Cocking ended her high school volleyball career with an All-state selection.

The outside hitter is a fourth-team selection in Class C and is the only local girl to receive all-state honors.

 Cocking is a four-time Genesee Region League all-star and ended her high school career with 1,061 kills, 788 digs and 309 aces. She was the MVP when the Bees won a sixth consecutive title in 2007 and was a member of the three state champion squads.

Our team has been working really hard all year so far and are now 3-0. We won the tip-off tournament in Olean, New York, as well as our first league game against Pittsford Mendon. The last couple of days we have been having pretty practices, so we definitely need to limit those so it doesn't affect us in games.

 For the second straight year, the Batavia wrestling team won its own Christmas Tournament.

The Blue Devils scored 186 points to easily down second-place finisher Fulton, which had 164.5 points.

Nick Lazarony (135 pounds), Ryan Darch (160), Anthony D'Aurizio (171) and Dylan Goodsell (285) all had victories for the Blue Devils.

 I just found an interesting story on the Hornell Evening Tribune.

The story primarily deals with Wellsville moving from Livingston Conference Division II to Division I, and renewing a rivalry with Hornell.

But that isn't the most interesting thing I took from the story, which was written by my former college friend Derrick Balinsky, the sports editor.

Pending final approval by the Superintendents of Livingston County, there will be a division realignment for the Livingston County Athletic Association for the 2009 football season, moving Wellsville from Division II to Division I, joining Hornell, Livonia, Wayland-Cohocton, Dansville and Bath-Haverling. Also making the move from Division II to Division I is LeRoy.

Assuming this move gets approved, it probably makes some major changes for the Le Roy football team. The story makes no mention as to how next season's schedules will be made up, but will the Oatkan Knights lose out on playing rival Caledonia-Mumford?

The Red Raiders are going to stay in Division II. Letchworth is always another fun game for Le Roy, and the Indians will stay in D2.

Hornell, Bath, HF-L, Livonia, Dansville and Wayland-Cohocton were in Division I last year with Le Roy, Cal-Mum, Avon, Letchworth, Canisteo-Greenwood and Wellsville making up Division II.

Next season, Le Roy would have six games already on the schedule for Division I opponents, which means that one the non-league games against Batavia or Cal-Mum would have to go.

Le Roy and Batavia have played each other for the last four seasons, renewing a rivalry that was halted in 1959. Le Roy and Cal-Mum have been playing since football was invented.

The Oatkan Knights will probably play Cal-Mum with its non-division game, because if that rivalry game was stopped there would be absolute chaos in Section 5.

So it is safe to assume that Le Roy and Batavia will not be playing next season. The Blue Devils played an independent schedule last year, which was made up of mostly Finger Lakes schools. Batavia will probably end up back in the Monroe County League, and the great Batavia/Le Roy rivalry games are probably coming to an end. 

I was just checking out the first edition of the Democrat & Chronicle polls for winter sports, and I'm very confused by the small school boys basketball one.

This is the poll in question.

Small schools
Rank/team
1. Bishop Kearney
2. Finney
3. Letichworht
4. Wellsviell
5. Oakfield-Alabama
6. Penn Yan
7. Dansville
8. Gananda
9. Dundee
10. Livonia
(tie) Marion

(not typos, this is directly from the D&C Web site)

I think the D&C does a great job with high school sports coverage, but I'm one of the first people to always question the lack of small school athletes that make the All-Greater Rochester teams. There is proof that they focus on the larger schools with these rankings.

First off, Letchworth is 4-1 and has a very good basketball team. I have the utmost respect for coach Tim McMullen. But how do they get a No. 3 ranking?

The Indians have a loss and are one of four Livingston Conference teams to make the top 10. Livingston is a decent basketball league, but the Genesee Region League is probably much stronger this season.

The only GR squad to make the list is Oakfield-Alabama at No. 5. The Hornets are stacked this season and are off to a 4-0 start. Surely the Hornets deserve to be ranked higher than Letchworth.

And I don't see how Notre Dame can be totally left off this top 10 list.

The Fighting Irish have only played two games, but have won both in blowout fashion and are a very talented and deep team. Notre Dame is also one of the best teams in the history of Section 5, so I don't see how they can be left off.

The other glaring exception is Batavia, which is ranked sixth in the small school wrestling poll. If Batavia is considered a small school, then they should be right near the top of this list. As good as the top teams on that list are, if they have to play the Blue Devils, they are probably going to lose. Batavia plays schools like Pittsford Sutherland, Pittsford Mendon and Victor, and just won a tournament with two defending state champions.

D&C does a lot of things well, but these rankings basically forget that Genesee County is on the map.

Stacy Hein hit four critical foul shots in the last two minutes and scored eight points to lead the Batavia girls basketball team to a 42-38 win over host Victor Friday, recovering from its first loss of the season earlier this week.

Brittany Wormley led the squad with 13 points and Brittany Mazurkiewicz followed with 11 points and seven assists.

Jaycee Shirk had six points and eight boards for the Blue Devils (5-1).

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 Anni Lehtola, the foreign exchange student from Finland, had another big game for Alexander, scoring 19 points to lead the Trojans to a 57-47 win over Pembroke.

Katie Kochmanski pitched in 11 points while Anna Dominick and Nicki Laird added eight points apiece.

Kelsey Lewis led the Dragons (2-2) with 14 points, seven rebounds and seven steals. Nicole Sharick scored a team-high 15 points.

Alexander is 3-1.

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Brynn Perfett was the leading scorer for Oakfield-Alabama with 11 points as the Hornets improved to 3-1 with a 46-28 win over Holley.

Dani Sage had seven points and 11 rebounds and Lindsay Chatt pitched in seven points.

Julie Brooks had 11 points for the Hawks (1-3).

 Daily News sportswriter Alanna Stage previews all of the local wrestling tournaments this weekend on the Daily's Web site today.

Batavia will be hosting its 35th Christmas Tournament and is looking to repeat after winning it for the first time in 16 years last season.

Attica hosts the 2nd annual Sgt. Richard Romesser Attica Blue Devils Dual Meet Challenge. Nine teams will compete in a dual-meet, round-robin style tournament.

Holley swept the Holley Team Tournament last year and has won the tournament 13 out of 15 times.

The Democrat & Chronicle reports today that  the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Wrestling Tournament will not be held in Rochester again, until at least 2013.

Last year's tournament was held at the Blue Cross Arena and was a treat for area wrestling fans, that had a much shorter drive than Albany to watch the event.

Section 5 officials were pushing to have the state rotate the tournament each year with Albany, but the NYSPHSAA just accepted a bid by the Times Union Center in Albany to host the event until 2013.

I can guess that money was a huge reason why, but the NYSPHSAA might have had some other reasons why Rochester won't get another shot to host the tournament for a while.

The Blue Cross Arena is a great place to host large events, but there were a couple of major issues that upset a lot of people last year. 

The biggest was the parking and traffic.

The most common complaint people that attended the tournament had was that there was simply no place to park. In order to get a decent parking spot (which I believe cost $15 per day), you had to arrive well before the opening round matches and leave your vehicle where it was. If you showed up even an hour after the first match of the day, you were looking at a 20 minute walk in freezing cold conditions.

Rochester vastly underestimated the amount of people that are high school wrestling fans and did not prepare for the amount of vehicles that were in the city. There weren't enough police officers to direct traffic and people often had to sit and wait for traffic problems to be resolved by officers, which were understaffed and were doing all they could in order to try to maintain order.

Another issue that was not a problem for fans, but was for state officials and the media was the wireless Internet was down on both days. The state site was supposed to be updating results as each match ended and because of an unexplained lack of Internet access were not able to do that.

Media members from all over the state that were reporting the event could not get updates and stories out in a timely manner. We were told that our options were to go find a coffee house with free Internet or go over to the hotel across the street and pay for wireless access. I drove back to Batavia to submit my stories, but wound up pushing deadline for some stringer work I was doing for Varsity 845.

It is a shame that a great tournament will not be in Rochester for a long time, or possibly ever again. Money and mismanagement are the reasons.

 The Democrat & Chronicle released its Monroe County League girls basketball previews this morning, and took a little shot at the Batavia girls basketball team.

Wade will try to build a winner not far from his last head coaching job at Batavia Notre Dame, which he guided to the 1999 state title. He has some pieces to the puzzle, as evidenced by a 4-1 start, but the Blue Devils still aren't good enough to challenge the elite, such as Pittsford Mendon, which beat them 77-49.

The previews are quick and to the point, but gives you the basic information you need if you are interested in learning about the teams the Blue Devils will play during the regular season.

Polish Falcon Mens 12/10/2008

Vin Bucciferro    246--235-----689

Jerry Waite      267--213------682

Jim Ireland       236--243------681

Dan Chrzanowski 245--212-----659

Bob Chmielowiec  237--219-----647

John Schwalenstocker  232-----634

John Roche         253------------619

Pete Arras         244------------616

Nick Carter       214--224------606

Curt Haight       214--219------601

Jeff Freeman    254-----------601

Dick Kosciolek  223

Jr. Donahue  225

Dave Bromsted  225

Jim Dommer  225

Steve Barber  221

Ed Foley  220

Fred McVay  215

Mark Masse  215

FRan O'Geen  218

Joe Burnett  211

Rick Kosciolek  211

Billy Fryer  228

Ed Fryer  224

Dave Fryer  212

Juliano Allstate Agency Ladies 12/10/2008

Barb Kosciolek  194--200--196--590

Darleen Weber 210--181--193--584

Nicole Eddy       221-204--------578

Kathy Pacino      191--227--------567

Junamae Qutermous 181--207--560

Carlene Cadieux  202

Val Falco  193

Daphne Cross  192

Wednesday night Firemen 12/10/2008

Jeffery Plaisted  215-----------622

Gary Kuchler  222

Bob Morris  213

 Holley's Ken Ryan and Kendall's Cody Lansberry were both stud wrestlers in the Genesee Region League for two of the more storied programs in the area.

Ryan, a freshman at Niagara County Community College, won a 16-4 major decision over Lansberry, a freshman at Alfred State, Thursday night  to help his team to a 42-3 victory.

NCCC coach Eric Knuutila earned his 356th career win, passing Iowa's Dan Gable on the all-time wins list by a college coach, at any level. He is the second all-time leader in wins at the NJCAA level. Dale Thomas of Oregon State is the all-time wins leader with 616 victories.

Ryan had a 168-50 career record for the Hawks and Lansberry went 112-48 for the Eagles.

Wow.

The Notre Dame boys basketball team has only played two games so far this season, but they are looking like a major force in the Genesee Region League.

The Fighting Irish opened the season on Tuesday with a 92-36 romp over Lyndonville, and then followed it up with an 80-42 blasting of host Kendall Thursday night.

Senior Kevin Francis went off for 28 points and Matt Thompson added 19 points. 

Josh Laureano led the Eagles (1-2) with 21 points and eight assists.

The Fighting Irish improve to 2-0.

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Oakfield-Alabama is still perfect, improving to 4-0 with a 70-39 thrashing of Holley.

Noah Seward dropped in 13 points, pulled down eight rebounds and had five blocks and Brad Riner added four points and five dimes. Tyler Tamblin had 13 points and Chris Bucceri added 12.

Brian Mitchell had 12 points and Jeff Lutes added 11 for the Hawks.

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Pembroke rebounded from its crushing 52-48 loss to Attica earlier in the week with a 56-52 win over Alexander.

Ken Babcock scored 16 points and Steve Mosier added 15.

Troy Shelnut scored 18 points and Kyle Woodruff added 13 for the Trojans.

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Attica had a 20-6 advantage in the fourth quarter and came from behind to beat host Byron-Bergen 54-47.

Tate Westermeier, who sealed Tuesday's thrilling 52-48 win over Pembroke with a pair of free throws, poured in a game-high 19 points to pace the Blue Devils (3-2).

Brad Clark had 16 points and Bryan Thompson added eight.

Tyler Sass scored 20 points with Dan Madziarz adding eight rebounds and six points for the Bees (1-2).

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Sonny Guiliano scored a game-high 18 points and Phil Ostroski added nine as Elba evened up at 2-2 with a 46-38 win over Wheatland-Chili.

Garhett Varin had 12 points and Andy Lund added six points and 12 boards for the Wildcats (1-4).

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The Brighton/East Rochester/Honeoye Falls-Lima hockey team eased past Notre Dame's hockey team 5-1 as Trevor Hills scored twice and handed out an assist.

Jason Boike had three helpers and Kyle Van Thof added a goal with two assists.

Dylan Versage scored the only goal for the Fighting Irish, who fall to 2-2.

Brighton/ER/HF-L improves to 2-3.

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Jake Kuhn had a pin at 152 and Jon Casper had one at 215, but the Le Roy wrestling team lost to Albion 42-30.

Joe Blair (160 pounds), Mike Blank (189), Ryan Wells (96) and Colton Beecher (119) had pins for the Purple Eagles.

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The Notre Dame boys and girls swim team both suffered a loss to Harley-Allendale-Columbia.

The H-A-C boys won 100-70 as Henry Weaver won the 200 IM (2:18.05) and 100 backstroke (1:02.73).

The H-A-C girls won 90-77 as Megan Dens won the 500 freestyle (6:23.71) and the 200 freestyle (2:21.41).

Morrison's Garage Tuesday co-ed 12/9/2008

Chuck Bobo      277--257------736

Frank Stumpf  268--255------711

Mike Barone    257------------673

Justin Burdick 246------------649

Bryan Conley   217--215--211--643

Dave Barone    214--215-------622

Dan Tuerk  241

Scott Bliss  237

Curt Haight 229

Nick Grasso 223

Terry Czworka  222

Ian Lawliss  215

Pauly Berardini  214

Rob Paine  213

Chase Cone  213

Mel Robinson  212

 Andrew Hoy showed the maturity that a scoring leader needs to have, and Dakota Irvin continued his hot play as the Batavia boys basketball team came back from one of the biggest deficits the team has had in years to beat host Pittsford Mendon 51-50 Wednesday night.

"This is a group that had never really been behind like that, ever," Batavia coach Buddy Brasky said. "We were down 18 points and (assistant coach) Gene Cairo said that he's been with us for five years and he can't remember a game when we were down double figures before the half. To fall behind 18 points and believe we can win; that's why we are champions. We have the heart of champions."

Mendon had actually opened up a 28-10 lead in the first half before Hoy overcame a rough first half shooting the ball and hit a 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left in the half to get Batavia to within 15.

Batavia only scored 13 points in the first half and went just 5-of-26 from the field. The Blue Devils only hit 3-of-18 3-point attempts.

"We knew we had to live or die by the jump shot and we were dying by it today," Brasky said. "We had wide open shots and couldn't knock them down. Our defense kept us in the game."

Hoy hit two 3-pointers early in the third quarter and Batavia wound up cutting the deficit to two points with four minutes left.

But Mendon opened it back up to a 10-point edge seconds later.

Brasky had went away from the full court press, but went back to it, and it paid off as Batavia had three straight turnovers that led to six points.

Irvin scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and is a big reason why the Blue Devils won the game.

"He's been a pleasant surprise," Brasky said. "He had a good offseason. He was playing well in the fall, but I didn't know if he'd be a starter. He earned it in the scrimmages. For him to come up so big early in the season has been a pleasent surprise."

 After Keiffer Phillips pinned Batavia's Brandon Shea in 1:11 at 152 pounds at 152 pounds, Greece Arcadia had a 24-3 lead and looked to have the Monroe County League match in hand.

But Troy Ireland turned the momentum with a decision win, then there were three forfeits, and the lightweights came through as the Blue Devils downed the visiting team 29-24 Wednesday.

Ireland's match only got three points for Batavia, but after 24-straight points for the Titans, it was three points that changed the way the Blue Devil grapplers looked at the situation.

The biggest moment of Ireland's 3-2 win came late in the second period, when he slammed opponent Alex O'Brien to the mat with some serious force. Ireland was not rewarded with any points, but that single move might have been the reason Arcadia never scored another point.

Ryan Darch, Anthony D'Aurizio and Dylan Goodsell each received a forfeit, and the score was tied at 24 when Josh Mase was ready to take on Nick Baker at 103 pounds.

Mase, who took fourth at SuperSectionals last season as a sophomore, made very quick work of Baker, pinning him in just 58 seconds.

Vin Klimjack received a forfeit at 112 and Nick Lazarony wrapped up the match with a 7-5 victory over Matt Ellis at 119 pounds, which was the final match of the night.

The Blue Devils downed Victor 35-28 in the opener and after Wednesday's home opening win over Arcadia, are 2-0 in the league and 7-0 overall.

Here are some more photos from the Batavia/Arcadia match.

Sorry for the delay with the video. My new laptop has imovie08 on it and I couldn't figure out how to use it. But the problems are solved and there won't be a delay like this again.

Attica's Dylan Dabolt made it to the quarterfinals at the University at Buffalo Open to start the season.

The UB sophomore lost to Joe Langel of Rutgers in the quarters, but has not had any results posted on the UB Web site since.

He had a 3-4 dual meet record and an 8-10 overall record as a freshman according to Dabolt's UB profile. 

He won the B bracket at the NYS Collegiate Championships at 125 pounds with a win over Army's Lance Penhale.

Dabolt - a pharmacy major - was a three-year captain for the Blue Devils and had a 40-6 record as a senior. He had 172 victories while wrestling for Attica. The three-time sectional champion earned All-American honors in high school twice.

Former Attica star Derek Wolfley's only two points in a loss to Fairfield 78-76 on Sunday was nice enough to be called "nifty" on the Iona basketball Web site.

Here is what was written in the story:

Iona jumped out to an 12-8 lead a little more than five minutes into the game on a nifty layup by freshman Derek Wolfley off a feed from teammate Devon Clarke at the 14:58 mark. 

Wolfley is averaging 7.8 minutes per game with one point and one rebound per game for the 2-5 Gaels, who wraps up a three-game road trip against Long Island tonight. The game can be heard by clicking the link on this page.