Archive: Sports

After a weather delay of four days, the Interscholastic Athletic Conference Championship Tennis Tournament finally took place on Tuesday, May 12 at the SUNY Cortland facility.  With changeable skies and temperatures, and often chilling winds, the Lansing team gathered for a day of competition, camaraderie, and cheering.

The atmosphere was festive as many teams took advantage of the twelve hour event to mingle with players from other teams, snack on the endless quantity of ‘nutritious’ food that just kept appearing (some teams even brought grills!), juggle soccer balls between matches, and watch fierce foes face off at the net.  In spite of all the distractions, the Bobcats were present and ready to play tennis, and they provided spectators with many thrilling matches throughout the long day.

Lansing’s most impressive performance came from Keenan Hughes and Jonathan Sun who teamed up to win the second doubles title with a tough match against Elmira Notre Dame’s Porter Weeks and Ben Dawson, 7-5, 6-3.  Hughes and Sun defeated the Trumansburg second doubles team to earn their place in the finals match.  This young duo (Hughes is a ninth grader, Sun is in eight) were the only players able to penetrate the Elmira Notre Dame armor, as the Crusaders won every other position except second singles to take the team championship with a total of 64 points.

The singles squads fared well, earning two third places and a forth as they provided some exciting matches against excellent competition from other area schools. Tyler Engels had a tough draw at first singles.  After defeating his Southern Cayuga opponent, 9-2 in a preliminary play off round, he found himself across the net from Dan Freeman, the eventual overall singles champion from Elmira Notre Dame.  Engels was eliminated from the competition in a 6-1, 6-0 match.


In second singles, Dan Zarate placed third overall.  Zarate won a berth in the semi final round by defeating his Thomas A Edison opponent, and was then defeated by Phillip Kellogg of Watkins Glenn, the number two singles champion. In the consolation round, Zarate took out Newark Valley’s Mitch Kromer in a decisive 6-4, 6-4 match. 

Jesse Ingall, at third singles, also had a third place finish.   After winning his first match against his Waverly opponent, Ingall fell to his long-time nemesis, Mary Orth of Newark Valley, 6-4, 6-1.  Ingall captured third by defeating Trumansburg’s Seth Lutter in the consolation round. 

At fourth singles, Lydia Warkentin started her day of competition rather late since several players warmed up for the day by taking AP exams in the morning.  Warkentin eventually finished in forth place after winning her match against Trumansburg’s Jake Seifert, 6-2, 6-4, and then falling to Derek Giblin of Newark Valley in the semi-finals and Odessa Montour’s Derek Giblin in the consolation match.

In the other doubles competitions, Mary Bacorn and Nicolo Gentile, were taken out in the first round of play by the Thomas A Edison team of George Peseky and Sam Pine. At third doubles, Ashley Fleming and Ashley Schuster beat Trumansburg to progress to the semi-final match where they gave Newark Valley a strong fight before dropping the match, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.  In the consolation match for third place, the “two Ashley’s” were defeated by the Thomas A Edison team to take forth in one of the last matches of a very long day.

At the end of the Championship, the Bobcats placed third overall in the IAC’s with a total of 30 points.

 Six Bobcats will regroup to compete in Friday’s Sectional Championship at Southern Cayuga.  Representing Lansing for Section Four play will be Engels, Ingall, Zarate, Warkentin, Gentile, and Sun.

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