EA wins Southern Tier meet

The East Aurora and Gowanda boys brought home team titles at the Southern Tier Cross Country Classic at St. Bonaventure. EA’s Kevin O’Connor, Thomas Neu and Sean Phillips placed in the top 10. Nick Orlowski of third-place Alden won the race in 17:17.

Gowanda edged runner-up Maple Grove by two points to claim the varsity medium race. Kevin Brown of Gowanda crossed first in 17:31 followed by Maple Grove’s Corey Wefing.

Lancaster’s fourth-place finish in the varsity large school boys race was the best finish among local teams. Justin Kelly of the Redskins ran an 18:05.

Team titles among the girls went to East Aurora in the varsity large race and Maple Grove in the varsity medium. EA finished 1-2-3-4 thanks to Sarah Anstett (20:21), Paige Anderson, Sarah Mars and Allyssa McLaughlin.

EA didn’t run its top three girls and still ran away with the race. “We’re doing some creative things to prepare the top kids to stay in top form and allow the JV kids to do some workouts. We have the luxury of having a very strong second team,” said coach Walt McLaughlin.

Maple Grove had four runners in the top 10 with Caroline Benson placing placing third in 20:53. Alden’s Jaime Wallace won the race in 20:18 followed by Liz Budzinski of Depew.

Sherman was runner-up in the varsity small school race behind Arkport. Holly Eliason of the Wildcats was second in 20:58.

Canisius had all seven runners finish among the top 20 and won the Pembroke Invitational. The 3.2-mile race was held over a muddy, hilly course at Pembroke Town Park. Cole Townsend of the Crusaders was runner- up in 19:48. In the girls race, North Tonawanda had four runners in the top 20, led by April Maziarz.

The Grand Island girls placed second among 27 teams at the Wickam Park Invitational in Manchester, Conn. Maritina Tsembelis was runner-up covering the 5K course in 19:06. The Viking boys were sixth out of 33 teams. Nick Masiello placed 13th in 17:23.

Falcons win in volleyball

Niagara-Wheatfield came back from a 27-25 loss in the first game of the finals and beat Lockport in the next two games to win the 13th Lockport Boys Volleyball Tournament.

Outside hitter Clifford Jacobs of the Falcons and Michael Kojsza of Lockport shared tournament MVP honors. “We just ran out of gas,” said Lockport coach Chris Niver. “We couldn’t execute and we weren’t able to move our feet enough to make the plays and they were shutting us down at the net and blocking us very well.”

Niagara-Wheatfield beat North Tonawanda to reach the final while Lockport eliminated St. Francis. The tournament format was a five-team round-robin.

Setter Pat Drexinger was named MVP leading host Williamsville South to the title of its own boys volleyball tournament. It’s the first time in the 17-year history of the event that the Billies have won. Drexinger’s teammate, Nick Schuh, joined him on the all-tournament team.

“Pat was very consistent in his setting and his serving and he is a really good hitter for us as well. He serves a lot of roles,” said South coach Tom Knab.

South beat Cheektowaga in the final despite dropping the first game in the best-of-three. They also dropped their first two pool-play matches. “We have this tendency to dig ourselves into holes, but they do dig themselves out,” said Knab.

St. Joe’s bows in soccer

St. Joe’s lost a heartbreaker in soccer, but coach Mike Thoin didn’t sound heartbroken.

Aquinas beat the visiting Marauders, 1-0, on a goal with two seconds left in the game. “Our keeper got hit by a defender and the ref decided there was no foul,” said Thoin. “After the goalie got whacked, the ball popped up and someone put it into the back side.”

Aquinas entered the game ranked No. 11 in the state in Class A.

St. Joe’s lost an early meeting with Aquinas by one goal. They were playing without four starters, who were all injured. St. Joe’s was outshot, 16-7.

Thoin said his team’s best chance to score came early in the game. “Their goalie had a save on Zack Schmidt—I have no idea how he got his hand on it,” he said.