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Midlakes Sports
by Ginny Konz
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Midlakes hosted the Finger Lakes league tournament on Saturday, February 4. With a total of 19 squads along with parents and other supporters it was quite a crowd.
The energy level itself was enough to tire me out.
The Midlakes squad was defending its 2005 Central division championship, and with a score of 296 (out of 300) we won again!! I'm glad I did not have to judge because all the squads in that division looked great to me. Penn Yan scored 279 for 2nd, and Marcus Whitman scored 272 for 3rd. Only Geneva, who with a 299 score repeated their East division championship, scored higher than we did. Honeoye finished first in the West division, upsetting Red Jacket, who looked terrific until the final mount.
The varsity wrestling team was at a league tournament of central and west teams that same day. As a team Midlakes finished 5th; as individuals Morgan Hoven and Chris Teed emerged champions at 140 lbs. and 275 lbs., respectively. Morgan kept his undefeated dream intact when the team visited Marion for a non-league match last Tuesday, and while the team took a beating (41-22) he pinned his opponent quickly. The next hurdle was to be the Sectional meet last weekend in which both Morgan and Chris were seeded 1st in their weight classes.
Six jv wrestlers attended a jv league tournament that Saturday also (it was a busy day). Most of the 8 teams there had pretty sketchy rosters, as we did. Nonetheless, some individuals came home with trophies. Jeff Parsons captured 1st place at 171 lbs.; Ryan Teed at 135 lbs. and Travis Bevins at 152 lbs. finished second, and Steve Kemp was third at 152 lbs. Kaleb DeVoll and Dan Jones each won one match but did not place.
The modified wrestlers have been at meets "away," and I wasn't there, but Coach Langdon keeps me informed of their progress. On Monday John Rau had two wins, one a decision and the other a technical fall (he was 15 points ahead so the match was stopped). Sean Peck, Evan Jones, Erik Baker, Tyler Jansen, and Chris Swart each put one decision in the book. Aaron Tornow had one pin and one decision. Kam Austin had two pins. Dillion Hudson, Austin Cummings, and Josh Miller each earned one pin. Max Peters had two wins, both by decision. Travis Landschoot worked to get one decision and one tie.
On Wednesday the same squad was up against squads from Marion, Red Creek, and Palma. Kam Austin, Dan King, Sean Peck, John Rau, Cody Cooper, and Max Peters each earned one pin. Erik Baker and Mike Adams earned two pins apiece. Billy Podolak earned one decision and one pin. Chris Swart worked for one tie. Tyler Landschoot and Jesse Festa had one decision each.
Last Wednesday was the last home game of the regular season for the girls' jv and varsity teams. Waterloo was the visitor; they're always tough, any time in the season.
In the jv game, Waterloo played at a very deliberate pace and made their shots more often than we did. They rebounded consistently; we didn't. They took care of the ball with accurate passes and good spacing; we didn't. In spite of that, we were down by only 5 points when the first period ended, 14-9. They outscored us in each period but the last and by then it didn't matter; the final was 55-36. Marki Michaels scored 18 points, including 5 treys, in the loss. Shannon Sweeney was next with 8; she struggled for much of the game because shots just wouldn't drop for her.
Before the varsity game the seniors were introduced, along with their parents. Whitney Dixon has been on the varsity squad for 4 years and plans a career in sports administration. Katie Litts is a two year varsity player and plans a career in engineering. Natalie Balazs is our exchange student from Switzerland and a first year basketball player. She plans to attend college back home for crime psychology. Good luck to them.
We also recognized Waterloo's two seniors, Kim Loucks and Elaina Braun. Perhaps that was a mistake, as the two of them had great nights and led the scoring for their team in a 55-47 win over Midlakes.
Waterloo started the game with a 6-0 run. We had opportunities, but they didn't drop. Alex Oaks particularly seemed to be just a bit "off." Their tight man-to-man defense forced us into a number of turnovers; strangely it did not get them whistled for many fouls. With a 16-8 lead Waterloo came out for the second period and ran off 7 unanswered points. This time we recovered and managed to keep pace but didn't make up any ground. A full court press in the second half caused turnovers and gave Waterloo the opportunity to build an even greater cushion (45-32) at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter Waterloo began stalling to kill the clock and continued to press, but we made a dent and cut their lead to 8 with a minute to go. However, we could get no closer; the final score was 55-47. Liz Donk was the reason we kept pace in the second quarter; she had 7 of her 11 points in that period but fouled out in the final period. Whitney had the sort of game we all knew she was capable of; 21 points including a perfect 6-6 at the free throw line, and it was great for her to have that sort of night on Senior Night. As Athletic Director Mr. Dixon announced the girls' team has been named a Scholar-Athlete Team again this year (8 times in the past nine years). Natalie, Whitney, Katie, Alex, Liz, Jane Petzoldt, and Aerica Maslyn contributed their averages to achieve this award.
The boys' jv and varsity teams hosted Penn Yan last Friday night. As I arrived the 8th grade girls were just finishing their win over Penn Yan, 23-21. The jv boys seemed to be having trouble with shots not dropping (is there a germ in the gym that causes that?), and point guard Sean Sweeney was limping from the outset. Penn Yan held a 12-9 lead after one period; 8 of those points were on 8/10 shooting at the charity stripe; we had reached the bonus very quickly.
Penn Yan turnovers gave us more chances in the 2nd but we still struggled to connect. We finally tied the game at 19 on a basket by Josh DeBoover, then went ahead on a free throw by Zack Hicks and held a slim, 24-22, halftime lead.
The Mustangs struggled in the 3rd, hitting only 2 threes and 2 free throws, and they had a lot of turnovers, giving us the chance to extend our lead to 36-30. We had a 16 point lead with 3 minutes to go and cleared our bench. The final score was 51-40, Midlakes. Josh led the way with 23 points, including 11/14 from the free throw line. Kyle Tillman did most of his damage from beyond the arc with three 3's and added two free throws. Zack added 9 points, including one trey. Erin Kelly's shot blocking really helped also.
The varsity game took on special significance for two reasons. We had beaten them in Penn Yan earlier in the season, and we went into the game with identical league records, tied for second behind Waterloo. Someone was going to slip in the rankings and neither team wanted it to be them.
"In and out" plagued us from the beginning in this game whereas Penn Yan, with two tall rebounders, took a 6-0 early lead. We got moving and had cut it to 6-5 with 2:30 left in the first period, but it ended with a 12-9 Penn Yan lead. Both teams were playing a very close zone defense, and the Mustangs also caught the "bug," hence a 19-15 halftime score.
Midlakes took the lead, 21-20, on a lay-up by Ben Sheppard "under" a guy at least ahead taller. Greg VanderBrook gave us a bit of a cushion at 24-22 with two free throws. Caleb Frederick and Randy Kuhlman gave us invaluable support with blocks and rebounds but remained stone cold in shooting, with only 2 points apiece for the game.
Midlakes flubbed some chances with turnovers but hung on. Greg, whose aforementioned free throws were only his 3rd and 4th points, gave us four more critical free throws in the final 40 seconds to finish with 12 points, 6/6 from the foul line.
Zack Maslyn gave us a lot of rebounds and 5 points. The final was 37-29; Midlakes took over sole possession of second place.
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