Lanzi wins gold
By MIKE ZUMMO, The Leader-HeraldArticle Photos
VESTAL - One gold and one silver medal will make their way home to Amsterdam from Saturday's scholastic men's wrestling finale Friday at Binghamton University.
Giuseppi Lanzi overcame a loss in his opening match to claim a gold medal at 143 pounds. John Paris, won all four of his preliminary matches, but fell in the 178-pound gold medal match to claim a silver.
"It's a pretty good accomplishment and it shows how much our guys work in the offseason," Paris said. "That's why we've been so good the last couple of years."
Lanzi completed his comeback from a first-match defeat to Brian Guilfoyle and earned his gold with a three-period win over Western's Jonathan Roberts.
"I had to work that much harder to come back and win this tournament," Lanzi said. "You just have to go even harder than you normally would go."
After his tournament-opening loss, Lanzi won his next two matches to finish Thursday with a 2-1 record. Then, he won his final preliminary match Friday morning to finish first in his pool giving him a chance at the gold.
He took full advantage early in the first period as Lanzi pushed Roberts outside the circle to take a 1-0 lead and then scored two more points on a takedown. He added two more points to finish the first with a 5-0 win, giving him a 1-0 lead in the match.
"I had to wrestle my match and not his match," Lanzi said. "You have to take him out of his game and wrestle how you want to wrestle."
Lanzi got away from "his match" in the second period as he and Roberts each earned a point by pushing the other out of bounds and finished the second period tied 1-1 before Lanzi got things going again in the third.
Lanzi pushed Roberts out of bounds for his first point of the third period and scored another two points on a takedown.
"I was just controlling his head and controlling his hands," Lanzi said. "He can't make a shot if he doesn't have his hands."
Lanzi scored his final points on a takedown at the boundary and shed some tears of excitement and victory as the final seconds on the clock ticked away.
"This feels awesome," Lanzi said. "I've been working hard and training hard this summer. I've only had, tops, a week break so far. I've been training every day, getting better, getting stronger and getting faster. It's an awesome feeling to win this."
Paris had a much more difficult time in his 178-pound gold medal bout as he matched up with Long Island's Josue Mendez and neither one was able to get any kind of advantage for both periods.
Each scored a point by getting the other out of bounds in the first period and after spending most of the second stalemated, Mendez scored his only point when he worked Paris near the boundary and pushed him out for the score.
"It was a different style," Paris said. "Usually in folkstyle, you have to be more aggressive and that's what happened. I was a little too aggressive in the first period and he ended up scoring a point on me and that helped him win the period and set the tone for the rest of the match."
Unlike Lanzi, who lost his first match of the tournament before coming back to win, Paris won all four of his preliminary matches before running into Mendez in the finals.
He went 3-0 Thursday and defeated Western's Nicholas Baxter 8-3, 6-0 in his morning match.
"I feel pretty good, but I would rather have the gold," Paris said. "This kid is pretty experienced at freestyling and he's a pretty tough wrestler. He took fourth at states in high school and at freestyle."
TRACK AND FIELD
VESTAL Shane Smith (Fonda) picked up the area's first track and field medal of the Empire State Games Friday morning when he earned the bronze medal in the scholastic men's discus with a throw of 45.79 meters.
Dustin Conrad took seventh in the scholastic men's decathlon with 4,086 points as the event concluded with the last five events Friday.
He finished sixth in the 110-meter hurdles and fourth in the discus throw before finishing in a first-place tie with Western's Jordan Traina reaching 3.39 meters. He was third in the javelin throw and took fourth in the 1,500-meter run.
Will Johnson (Johnstown) took eighth in the scholastic men's triple jump reaching 12.68 meters.
SOCCER
VESTAL Kris Toscano (Mayfield) and the Adirondack scholastic men's soccer team outshot Central 10-4 Friday, but couldn't find the back of the net in a 2-0 loss.
Matthew Shutter and Ryan Evans each had a goal and assist for Western. Nicholas Vogel made one save and Patrick Goodwin had six.
Lee Fenner made two saves for Adirondack, which will face Long Island at 1 p.m. today.
FIELD HOCKEY
VESTAL Karly Vdoviak (Johnstown) and the Adirondack scholastic women's field hockey team suffered two losses Friday.
Adirondack opened the day with a 3-1 loss to Long Island behind two goals and an assist from Georgia Holland. Amanda Danzinger scored a goal and Emily Norell had an assist.
Alex Pomato scored the lone goal for Adirondack with an assist from Melyssa Woods.
Adirondack was outshot 29-5 Friday and suffered a 3-0 loss to Hudson Valley.
Megan Bozek scored a goal and had an assist to pace Hudson Valley's offense. Charlotte Gardiner and Cathleen Smith each added a goal. Torie Stearns had an assist.
Amanda Didomizio made three saves for Hudson Valley and Bethany Meyers stopped 16 shots for Adirondack, which will face Central at 9 a.m. today.
VOLLEYBALL
CORTLAND Gillian Holland (Johnstown) and the Adirondack scholastic women's volleyball team suffered another two losses during Friday's competition at the State University of New York at Cortland.
Adirondack opened the day with a 2-1 loss to New York City. After Adirondack took the first game by a score of 25-20, New York posted wins of 25-18 and 15-9 to take the match.
Adirondack finished out pool play with a 3-0 loss to Long Island by scores of 25-10, 25-11 and 15-9.
Adirondack concluded Thursday's competition with a 3-0 loss to Hudson Valley by scores of 25-16, 25-17, 15-11.
FENCING
BINGHAMTON Laura Brincat (Amsterdam) competed with sabre and Marie Thomas (Amsterdam) used the epee as the scholastic women's team went 3-4 during Thursday's competition at Davis College.
Adirondack posted a 15-6 win over Central, and wins of 15-11 and 15-14 over Western. Adirondack lost two matches each to New York City, which earned the bronze and two to Hudson Valley, which won the gold medal with a 14-10 win over Long Island.
BASKETBALL
BINGHAMTON Brittany Stahura (Amsterdam) scored two points helping the Adirondack open women's basketball team to a 61-59 win over Hudson Valley Friday night.
Melissa Manzer led Adirondack with a game-high 21 points and Shondaya Burrell added 16.
Julianne Vianni scored 20 points for Hudson Valley and Emma Markley added 13. Tara Flaherty contributed 10 points.
Adirondack will face New York City at 4 p.m. today.
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Spongebob
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07-27-08 10:08 AM
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awesome giseppe and johnny...
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