High School Extra /News and notes
Published: May 08, 2009, 12:30 am
Story tools:
Share this story:
Falls’ Archie jumps to UB
Niagara Falls track and field standout Brian Archie, who set the Section VI record in the long jump earlier this season, will sign with the University at Buffalo on Tuesday.
Archie, a 5-foot-4, 156-pound senior, set the section’s outdoor long jump record of 24 feet, 4 inches at the Ken-Ton Invitational on April 25, surpassing the 1986 mark of 23-11z hel 2/3 by Hamburg’s Bob Jones.
Archie won the indoor state championship in the long jump (22- 11v) and won Section VI titles in the 55 meters, long jump and triple jump.
“UB was always my No. 1 school, and once I got accepted I threw away everything from anyone else,” said Archie. “They were interested in me ever since the end of last indoor season.”
St. Francis (Pa.) and Mansfield also recruited Archie and he was contacted by the University of Connecticut after this year’s indoor state championships.
Habeeb to top Iowa JC
Two-time All-Western New York first-team boys basketball player Mansa Habeeb of McKinley has verbally committed to accept a full scholarship to attend Iowa’s Southeastern Community College, one of the top junior college programs in the country.
Southeastern CC is located in Burlington, Iowa. The Blackhawks compete in Division 1 of the National Junior College Athletic Association, winning national titles in 2000, 2003 and 2004.
Mike Mennenga, an assistant at Nichols who has coached Habeeb as part of the Team United summer basketball program based in Buffalo, helped the 6-foot-4 senior connect with the Southeastern coaching staff.
Major match for OP lax
The Orchard Park boys lacrosse team (13-0) has a major matchup Saturday as it plays fellow state superpower Corning East at 1 p. m. at Alfred University.
Corning East is 12-0. In the state sportswriters’ rankings released Wednesday, Corning East tops the Class B poll while OP is No. 3 in Class A—behind two other state powers in Long Island’s West Islip (No. 1) and Syracuse’s West Genesee (No. 2).
In the laxpower.com computer rankings, Corning East is ranked 15th in the country while Orchard Park is 35th. Both teams played Section V (Rochester area) power Canandaigua, with OP winning, 5-4, on April 3 and Corning East winning, 9-6, on April 17.
Amherst wins in OT
The Amherst boys lacrosse team squandered a five-goal halftime lead before pulling out an 8-7 overtime victory over rival Williamsville East to remain unbeaten (7-0) in Class B.
“Every other game we won by at least two. This was our first time in overtime,” said Amherst assistant coach Steve Lachut. “It’s a very big rivalry because we’re minutes away from each other. . . . We haven’t lost in several years, but it’s always a battle.”
Junior attackman Sean Smith scored the game-winner for the visiting Tigers (10-1 overall) 1:39 into sudden death.
“After we called timeout in the defensive end we cleared the ball,” Lachut said. “Sean Smith got the ball in the corner, drove to the goal, put a stick fake on a defender, got by him, then put a stick fake on the goalie and shot it in.”
After trailing, 6-1, at intermission, Williamsville East battled back to within 7-6 before sending the game into overtime on a goal by Austin Weil with 2:40 left in regulation.
Elsewhere in Class B, Brendan Tobolski’s overtime goal gave West Seneca East an 11-10 victory over Lake Shore. Bryan Bader had five goals for the winners.
Peter Aronica scored the winning goal with 9:37 left in Grand Island’s 4-3 win over Iroquois.
In Monsignor Martin Association play, Gage Carrig scored three goals, including the game-winner with 2:57 remaining, to lead Timon-St. Jude (9-2) to a 7-6 win over Nichols. Chris White scored twice for Nichols.
Larson throws shutout
Sean Larson of St. Francis pitched a two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and went 3 for 4 at the plate with three RBIs in a 7-0 win over St. Joe’s in Monsignor Martin baseball.
In CCAA II baseball, Frewsburg (11-3, 7-0) remained unbeaten in league play as Asa Johnson pitched a two-hitter with 13 strikeouts to beat Randolph, 3-0.
Ten spot for Graham
Mount Mercy’s Melissa Graham scored a career-best 10 goals while teammate Kate Purcell added three more in a 15-11 win over Nardin in Monsignor Martin Association girls lacrosse.
Also in the MMA, Buffalo Seminary beat Holy Angels, 12-7, with the help of five goals by Julia Papiernik.
Elsewhere, Caitlin Butler’s three goals sparked Williamsville North to a 9-8 win over Clarence in ECIC I.
Albion clinches track title
Four athletes scored double wins for Albion as the Purple Eagles clinched the Niagara-Orleans boys track title with a 90-51 victory over Newfane. Mike Blank took the shot put and discus, Ken Boyer won the 100-and 200-meter dashes, Scott Knaak topped the long jump and high jump and Dustin Ferguson captured the pole vault and 400 hurdles.
In the girls meet, which Albion won, 92-49, the Purple Eagles’ Chelsea Beecher took the 100 hurdles, long jump and triple jump while teammate Jasmine Simmons set a league record by winning the 100 in 12.1 seconds.
On the Web
See buffalonews.com/highschool and the Prep Talk blog for much more high school sports coverage.
sports@buffnews.com
Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.