Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Medina’s Lincoln Pace and his Mustang teammates will host the annual Gary Gross Memorial Wrestling Tournament Saturday.

The Medina wrestling team ail close out the regular season by hosting a special event on Saturday, the annual Gary Gross Memorial Tournament.

The tournament is dedicated to the memory of Medina Coach Eric Gross’s father, Gary Gross, who was a long-time supporter and booster of the Mustangs wrestling program.

Joining the host Mustangs in the tourney field will be wrestlers from Albion, Holley-Kendall, Lyndonville, Lew-Port and Wilson.

Unlike past year’s when it was a team tournament this time will be an individual championship event.

Competition is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Four pins helped Lyndonville trim visiting Wilson 33-30 this evening in a non league wrestling match.

Chase Stinson, Jeff Gress Jr., Dustin Joy and Alex Doran all registered pins for the Tigers which also got a decision win from Reese Ledford.

Lyndonville next hosts Akron at 6 p.m. Thursday in a non league Senior Night match.

Snapping a three league game losing streak, Lyndonville downed host Wheatland-Chili 53-43 this evening in a Genesee Region contest.

Eric Neace and Jacob Hoffee both scored 15 to lead the way for Lyndonville as Corey Hydock and Zach Johnson both added 7, Josh Tombari 5 and Nathan Poler 4.

Adam Lund led W-C with 14.

Lyndonville jumped out to a 14-8 first period lead as Hoffee tallied 6 and Neace 4.

The Tigers went on to hold leads of 27-13 at the half and 39-29 at the three-quarter mark.

Hoffee scored 7 in the second period and then Neace netted 10 in the final stanza to help the Tigers lock up the win.

Lyndonville is now 2-6 in the league an 6-8 overall.

Pavilion 55, Kendall 49
Racing out to an 18-0 first quarter lead, Pavilion went on to defeat Kendall 55-49 in a non league contest.

Rylie Elliott and Caleb Milligan 17 to set the pace for Pavilion which led 27-8 at the half and 37-26 at the three-quarter mark.

Brandon Miller had 27 points, all in the second half, and 14 rebounds for Kendall as Mickey Gardner added 16 rebounds, John Rath 8 points and Collin Lewis 7.

Girls Basketball

The Rochester Academy Charter at Lyndonville game was postponed until February 6.

Staying within a game of first place, Newfane edged past host Roy-Hart 66-61 in overtime this evening in a key Niagara-Orleans League game.

Roy-Hart jumped out to a 4 point lead at the outset of the overtime period on a three by Jacob Bruning and a free throw by Matt Borel but Newfane closed with a 9-0 run on 5 points by Max Weber, including a 3, and 4 by Kyle DeVoogel to claim the win.

Newfane improves to 6-1 with the win to stay within a game of front-running (7-0) Medina while Roy-Hart slips to 3-4.

DeVoogel and Weber both finished with 14, Brandon Gross 11 and Caleb Russell 10 to lead the Panthers.

DJ Davis netted 18, Bruning 17 and Borel 13 for the Panthers.

Borel sent the contest into overtime deadlocked at 57-57 by scoring on a layup in the final 10 seconds.

Wilson 59, Akron 32
Wilson built up leads of 17-9 after one quarter and 35-16 at the half in route to posting a 59-32 N-O victory over Akron.

Jonah Miller scored 21, including 6 threes, and Connor Seeley 12 on 4 threes to spark Wilson.

Seeley and Miller both hit a pair of threes in the opening quarter to ignite the Lakemen.

Wilson improves to 4-3 in the league and Akron slips to 1-7.

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Medina’s Izaiah Rhim puts up a shot over Albion defenders Chase Hall (2) and Lamar Chambers (3) durign the Mustangs home court win over the rival Purple Eagles this evening.

Moving on top to stay with a big scoring burst to close the first quarter, front-running Medina went on to defeat visiting rival Albion 77-52 this evening to improve to 7-0 in Niagara-Orleans League competition.

Alex Allis poured in a career high 24 points and Jalin Cooper tallied 22 to lead the Medina attack as Johnny Salone and Izaiah Rhim both added 11, Tyrellis Atkins 6, Jorge Phillips 2 and Vincent Montague 1.

Medina’s duo of Brendan Luthart (21) and Johnny Salone (20) go up for a rebound against Albion’s Demetrius Gardner.

Kory Reynolds scored 18 and Lamar Chambers 13 to pace Albion, which slips to 1-7. Chase Hall chipped in with 9, Jaquess Harrison 5, Jacob Buzard 4 and Demetrius Gardner 3.

Trailing 4-2, Medina regained the lead for good by closing the first quarter with a 15-2 run highlighted by two slam dunks off turnovers by Cooper. Allis added a 3 and a layup, Rhim two layups and Cooper a jumper during that stretch as the Mustangs grabbed a 17-6 lead.

Another dunk by Cooper upped the Medina lead to 15, 23-8, three minutes into the second quarter but Albion came battling back.

The Purple Eagles closed the period with a 12-5 run to slice the deficit to 8, 28-20, at the half. A three by Hall capped off that burst which also included buckets by Gardner, Buzard and Chambers.

However, the Purple Eagles could get no closer.

Medina quickly upped the lead back to 15, 35-20, at the outset of the third period after a layup and a dunk by Cooper and a three by Allis.

Albion did close to within 11, 43-32, after back-to-back baskets off turnovers by Chambers and Buzard but Medina regained a 14 point, 48-34, advantage at the three-quarter mark on a late three by Allis.

The Mustangs then opened up as much as a 29 point, 66-37, lead midway through the fourth quarter after a quick burst of three threes by Allis.

Albiion’s Lamar Chambers goes in for a layup against Medina defender Vincent Montague.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman: Dylan Hillabush has been strong on the mound for Holley.

Holley High senior Dylan Hillabush has signed with Niagara University to play Division I baseball for the Purple Eagles next fall. He will receive a full scholarship. A left-handed pitcher,with a great pickoff move to first, and he throws in the mid- to upper-80s. He had 78 strikeouts last year and a .855 ERA as a junior for the Hawks.

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Contributed Photo – Collin Papaj

Holley High senior Collin Papaj was recently honored with a Silver Award Scholarship from the National Football Foundation.

Out of the 30 senior football players that were invited to the National Football Foundation Scholarship Awards Banquet at Burgundy Basin he was one of eight to receive the scholarship.

He also received a plaque and shirt. His name will be put in the College Football Hall of Fame as a National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete. Collin was awarded the scholarship based on performance in the classroom and on the field.

Collin played football for three years for Holley and had 117 carries for 850 yards, 7.2 yards per carry, and 7 touchdowns, with his longest touchdown run recorded at 83 yards. He was also selected to the Genesee Region League All-Star First Team.

“Collin deserves all the recognition he can get,” said Varsity Football Coach Wil Prince. “He is a great kid and very hardworking.”

Front-running Sacred Heart combined a narrow 36-34 win over JR Wilson with Vets Club’s 37-33 victory over runner-up Legion Monday to extend its Medina Euchre League lead a bit to 8 points.
Sacred Heart is now 583-537, Legion 575-545, JR Wilson 561-559 and Vets Club 521-599 on the season.

League action continues on January 30 with Sacred Heart at JR Wilson and Legion at Vets Club.

Snapping a season long six league game losing streak, Akron downed visiting Albion 33-25 this evening in a Niagara-Orleans boys basketball game.

The Tigers jumped out to a 13-4 first quarter advantage and went on to hold a 22-14 lead at the half over the cold shooting (9 of 54) Purple Eagles.

Derek Holtz scored 10 and Owen Hill 8 to lead Akron.

Lamar Chambers scored 8 and Kory Reynolds and Jaquess Harrison both had 5 for Albion.

Both teams are now 1-6 in N-O competition.

Albion next visits front-running (6-0) Medina at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Contributed Photos – Medina’s trio of Pfeiffer University lacrosse players include, from left, Ben Austin, Kyle Barna and Blade Garlow.

When the Pfeiffer University lacrosse team takes to the field this season Medina High will be well represented as three Mustang graduates are on the Falcons squad.

The Mustangs are represented on the North Carolina lax squad by senior midfielder Ben Austin, senior attackman Blade Garlow and sophomore midfielder Kyle Barna.

Austin, who has a career total of 23 goals and 18 assists, is majoring in Forensic Accounty, Garlow in Business and Barna in Sports Management.

The three are all in the top five among Medina’s career goal scoring leaders.