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BB varsity athletes achieve 100-percent Scholar-Athlete Team awards

By Billie Owens

Submitted photos and press release:

The Byron-Bergen Senior High School proudly announces that every fall varsity Byron-Bergen sport team achieved the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Scholar-Athlete Team award.

The fall sports teams are cheerleading, boys cross-country, girls cross-country, football, gymnastics, boys soccer, girls soccer and girls volleyball.

“Here at Byron-Bergen we are always proud of our student athletes and their accomplishments,” said Byron-Bergen Athletic Director Rich Hannan. “This fall we are especially proud that all of our fall teams made the NYS Scholar-Athlete Team award.

"As Athletic Director, I am extremely blessed to work with such great student athletes and coaches. This particular recognition is a great testament to the student athletes and what it takes to perform at a high level. In and out of the classroom, our kids are getting it done!”

The Scholar-Athlete program recognizes athletes for their academic success. NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete Team awards go to teams whose average GPA of 75 percent of the athletic team equals 90 or above.

Scholar-Athlete Team award recipients, with Byron-Bergen HS students named below photos:

Cheerleading (a multi-school team)

  • Sarah Sue Streeter

Cross-country -- Boys

  • Joshua Fleming
  • Zachary Hannan
  • Travis Lambert
  • Colby Leggo
  • John Mercovich
  • Caleb Sharpe
  • Corden Zimmerman

Cross-country -- Girls

  • Rachel Best
  • Camryn Brookhart
  • Dayanara Caballero
  • Siomara Caballero
  • Emma Goodman
  • Sara Goodman
  • Annaliese Hersom
  • Cambria Kinkelaar
  • Alaura Rehwaldt
  • Grace Shepard
  • Emma Smith

Football (a multi-school team)

  • Alexander Dean
  • Anthony DiQuattro
  • Andrew Parnapy

Gymnastics (a multi-school team)

  • Victoria Rogoyski
  • Emily Salmonds

Soccer – Boys

  • Nicholas Baubie
  • Ryan Cooper
  • Adam Drake
  • Kyle Foeller
  • Rick Hubbard
  • William Johnson
  • Hunter Leach
  • Sabastian Pawlukewicz
  • Wade Thompson
  • Nathan Zwerka

Soccer -- Girls

  • Julianna Amesbury
  • Lydia Campbell
  • Zoey Chambry
  • Elizabeth Donnelly
  • Veronica Duell
  • Kelsey Fuller
  • Eden Goff
  • Hope Hersom
  • Melissa MacCowan
  • Jillian Menzie
  • Chloe Shuskey

Volleyball -- Girls

  • Justine Bloom
  • Hannah Catalino
  • Madison Farnsworth
  • Sara Fraser
  • Amaya Gunther
  • Janae Meister
  • Alexandra Vurraro
  • Annabella Vurraro

Pembroke student, blind since birth, joins cross-country team

By Virginia Kropf

Anneka Pray’s story is one which gives her school principal Nathan Work goosebumps.

Anneka, 12, is a seventh-grade student at Pembroke Junior-Senior High School. What makes her stand out is she has been blind since birth with a condition called microcornea, yet wanted to participate in school sports.

“We’ve never had a student like this in the past,” Work said. “She’s led the pack in transitioning to seventh grade.”

“Anneka advocates well for herself,” said Chelsea Hale, the vision teacher at Pembroke. “She wants to be as independent as possible.”

When Anneka announced she wanted to participate in sports, she initially thought she would like to do soccer. When her mom told her she probably couldn’t do that, Anneka said she thought she’d like cross-country.

The school reached out to Camp Abilities at Brockport State College to learn how they could help Anneka.

It turned out Anneka’s math teacher Peggy Haney is blind in her right eye, but also enjoys running. She agreed to be Anneka’s guide runner.

Before this year, Anneka said math was her least favorite subject, but now it is her favorite.

Haney said her blindness means her perception is off. It took her a week to adjust to running with another person. She had started running two years ago, but had never done cross-country.

“Our common thread is we were both born with our condition and neither is fixable,” Haney said.

Anneka runs a modified cross-country and is coached by Toby Beahan.

“I received word over the summer Anneka was coming to high school,” Beahan said. “I was told she was interested in cross-country and I wanted to set things up to accommodate her. The trails can be a challenge, but once everything was in place, the most exciting things happened. It was awesome. The best part for me is shouting when Anneka is nearing the finish line. All the other kids and coaches are yelling and cheering her on, too.”

Anneka and Haney were among the competitors in Pembroke’s Home Invitational a week ago.

“She does fantastic,” Haney said. “She sprints and she passes people. She is going faster and faster.”

Anneka has a sister in eighth grade and a brother who is a senior. She would like to go to college and find a way to help people like her be able to see.

“Anneka is inspiring to everybody with all the ideas she wants to do,” Hale said. “One thing about Anneka, once she sets her mind to something, she sees it through.”

Her teachers said Anneka is a good student who works hard.

“I’ve been in education going on 16 years and I’ve never encountered anyone like Anneka,” Work said. “She is a very special little girl. I don’t think it gets any better than this.”

Car wash at Empire Tractor

By Steve Ognibene

Batavia Cross-country team is having a car wash fundraiser today from 10 a.m - 2 p.m. at Empire Tractor, 5072 E. Main Street Road, Batavia.

All proceeds help toward their New York City trip this fall.

Batavia resident and state gold medalist makes national leaderboard, looks ahead to more of same

By Zachary Lee

(Photo of Frank Gioia by Zachary Lee.)

Local runner and Empire State Games Gold Medal winner Frank Gioia (1983, 1984; plus a Bronze medal in '82) is proof that age is just a number.

After an injury-induced hiatus of more than a decade, the 63-year-old Batavia resident renewed his enthusiam for racing after retiring 2013.

He raced in the third annual GLOW Corporate Cup 5K last August, placing 10th out of 744 participants with a time of 19:46.

Earlier this year, on April 24 in Dedham, Mass., he placed eighth in the United States Track & Field Masters 10K Championship for his age group (ages 61-64) with a time of 41:58.

Being in the top 10 in the nation for his age group is quite an accomplishment, especially after suffering a severe injury to his Achilles tendon while running Rochester's Cobbs Hill 17 years ago.

"I was reaching the mile mark and I felt it; it caused me to jump in the air in pain and I knew I was done," Gioia said.

That, coupled with work and family and the everyday demands of life, steered him clear of running for 14 years. But that's mostly in his rearview mirror now. These days, this Dad is focused forward.

His next race will be Oct. 2 at Syracuse's Festival of Races National 5K starting in the morning at 8:50.

Repeat sweet for Antolos

By Eric Geitner

It was a sweet repeat for Notre Dame Senior Jeffrey Antolos at the New York State Cross-country Championships at Elma Meadows. Jeffrey won the Class C race to become only the 5th Section V cross-country runner in history to ever win more than one XC State Title.

Jeff's time of 15:41 beat out second place by 26 seconds and was the 7th fastest time of the day. Jeff will next compete at the NXN Northeast National Qualifier on November 24 at Bowdoin Park in Wappinger Falls.

The girls' team made ND history by placing 4th in Class D to become the best placing XC state team in ND's history. The Irish were led by 9th-place finisher Laurie Call who covered the course at Elma Meadows in 19:42. Anna Warner's third state meet garnered her a 20th place finish with her time of 20:09. Emily McCracken wasn't too far behind in taking 29th place with her time of 20:35.

Shelby McGinnis rose up to run her best race of the year with her time of 21:38, good for 54th place. Rose Flumerfeldt was again ND's 5th girl, running 24:33 and placing 93rd, with Madison Gluck closing out her high school cross-country career with a time of 25:28 and a 99th-place finish, while Emily Sherman took advantage of the day to run 26:16 good for 105th place.

Congratulations to all the runners and their parents on a great 2012 cross-country season, one of the best in NDXC history!

Photos by Bare Antolos.

Two runners from Genesee County capture state titles in cross-country

By Howard B. Owens

Updated Sunday, 11:02 a.m.

Liz Valento, Pavilion, and Jeffrey Antolos, Notre Dame, were given a big welcome home tonight at Route 20 and Route 19, Pavilion, as they returned from the state cross-country championship.

Liz and Jeffrey won their respective races to claim state titles in Verona on Saturday.

Friends, family and volunteer firefighters turned out to greet them and the Pavilion Volunteer Fire Department escorted them down the remainder of Route 19 to Pavilion.

Prints of these three photos can be purchased by clicking here.

Andrew Fisher, left, Notre Dame; Liz Valento, Pavilion; Jeffery Antolos, Notre Dame; Ethan Richardson, Pavilion.

Photos and captions below submitted by Bare Antolos.

ND's Jeffrey Antolos entered the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill HS football stadium for the final 150 yards of the Class D State Championship race about a half step behind Eldred HS's Alex Campenalla. But as they sprinted to the finish, Jeffrey was able to pass and hold off his opponent to win the first-ever Individual State Championship for Notre Dame HS! Jeffrey's 1.5-second victory was the narrowest margin of the four Boys' State Championship races of the day.

After battling with many runners who pushed her to stay in the lead over the first two miles of the championship race, Liz was able to pull away and win by a 24-second margin to win Pavilion's first-ever individual state championship.

Rain and snow on Friday, combined with seven earlier races, turned many sections of the course into a muddy mess that challenged the girls to maintain their footing and keep up their speed to finish a memorable day in Verona.

More pictures and information after the jump (click on the headline above to see the others).

Notre Dame ninth-grader Anna Warner finishes at the Class D State Championship in 22:13 good for a 13th-place finish.

Notre Dame senior Andrew Fischer leads Pavilion's Ethan Richardson during the Class D State Championship race in Verona. Fischer finished 29th with a time of 19:07; Richardson finished 36th in 19:25.

Batavia's Colin Mulcahy competes in the Class B State Championship race. He finished 75th in 18:44.

Notre Dame junior Jeffrey Antolos and Pavilion senior Elizabeth Valento show they're number one after both became the first athletes at their respective high schools to ever win individual state championships.

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