Gowanda Small Town Times

The Gowanda Varsity Girls Basketball team returned after the holiday break on January 5, This first game in 2023 was also the first league competition of the season after going 3-3 in non-league competition before Christmas. The game, played in Gowanda, saw the team play host to Falconer who arrived with a 5-3 non-league record.

The game featured very physical, scrappy defense on both sides for most of the game. Falconer quickly scored the first four points in the game. Gowanda countered by rallying back to go up 6-4. The game was tied at eight with 1:25 left in the 1st quarter before Falconer went on a 10-point blitz. That brought the score at the end of the period to 8-18. Most of the Falconer scoring came from DanI Krenzer who was a thorn in Gowanda’s side all night. She scored the first four Falconer points and seven of the last ten in the quarter.

After the 1st quarter, things slowed down for the next two quarters as Gowanda kept pace with Falconer. The teams each scored just 10 points in the 2nd quarter. Falconer increased their lead by two on the 3rd edging Gowanda 10-8 in that period. The final quarter saw Gowanda’s strongest effort. Falconer opened the quarter moving into a 14-point, 40-26 lead before Gowanda surged back to narrow the gap to eight at 40-32. The 10-point advantage that Falconer had built in the opening quarter proved impossible to overcome. With 1:11 left in the game, Gowanda was still behind 50-41. The game ended in a 54-41 Falconer as they piled on several last minute free throws. Gowanda JVs won the opener 37-24.

Crissa Scanlan led Gowanda scoring with 12 points. Chloe Luther was right behind with 11 points, including Gowanda’s only 3-pointer. With six points each for Gowanda were Gao:Wisa:S Stevens and Aurora Stevens. As For Falconer, it was all Dani Krenzer. She had a career high 33-point night including four 3-point baskets. Krenzer also accounted for 13 of Falconer’s 18 1st quarter points.

With Christmas and New Years behind us, the Gowanda bowling and wrestling teams led the return of sports competition in 2023 on January 4.

The Gowanda boys team continued their strong showing this season with a 4-0 win over Hinsdale at home. That raised their season record to 6-2 putting them in 3rd Place in their division.

Leading Gowanda were Drew Shull (131-188-203/522) and Nicholas Smuda (189-172-156/517). Also with a strong showing was Gavin Whitcher (128-133-169/430). Rounding out the Gowanda Top 5 bowlers were Kory Degenfelder (126-122-144/392) and Drezden Spire (121-130-11/362).

The Gowanda girl fell to 4-3 overall with a 0-4 loss. A very strong effort in game 3 saw them fall just three pins short of a win 808-810. Two Gowanda girls had series in the 400s. They were Aubrey Smuda (129-133-158/420) and Sierra Twoguns (121-131-162/414). Both girls had their person best game in that effort with Smuda also recording her personal best series. There were a three Gowanda girl with series in the 300s. They were Demetra Spire (115-112-166/393), Makayla Kuras (146-130-106/382) and Cameron Clark (120-79-143/342).

Also in action on January 4 was the Gowanda wrestling team at home against a Frewsburg team that is undefeated in league competition. Despite a strong effort, Gowanda came up short 29-37 with two Gowanda forfeits at 160 and 172 figuring prominently in the result. Three Gowanda wrestlers took wins by pin. They were Greg Reid (126) over Riley Hawley in 2:00, Kaleb Smith (138) over Tyler Covell in 1:50 and Benjamin Krajewski (189) over Hunter Winters in 0:29. Earning wins by Major Decision were Nathan Warrior (145) over Josh Burch 12-2 and Michael Horth (152) over Russell Steward 12-1. Just missing a Major Decision win was Jayden Fish (118) over Drake Beckstrom 8-2. Finally, while Faolon Quinn (132) did eventually lose to Kane Logan, the match took a single overtime period to reach the 8-10 final score.

The last week in 2022 was a short one for Gowanda sports with only the wrestling team seeing action. They were at Grand Island on December 29 for the Holiday Viking Tournament. In addition to Gowanda, participating teams included Grand Island, Penfield, Randolph, Sheffield (PA), Wilson and Pittsford. While Pittsford was the overall winner, going 5-0, Gowanda did reasonably well getting team wins over Penfield (31-24), Pittsford (30-24) and Sheffield (42-24). Gowanda also had a close loss (24-28) to Grand Island and fell to Randolph 20-45.

Gowanda standout of the day was Benjamin Krajewski (189) who went undefeated 5-0 in his matches. He picked up pins against George Wolozyn (Grand Island), Jaxon Bernas (Pittsford) and Matt Lobdell (Sheffield). The two other wins (Penfield and Randolph) were by forfeit.

Three other Gowanda wrestlers, Nathan Warrior (145), Michael Horth (152) and Jayden John (215), went 4-1. Warrior pinned Zachary Bridenbaker (Grand Island), Will Ciavarri (Pittsford) and Zack Barnes (Sheffield). He also took an 8-4 decision over Braydon Albro (Penfield). Warrior’s only loss was a 7-6 decision to Domanik Clark (Randolph).

After losing his first mach against Grand Island, Michael Horth went on to pin Ryan Finnell (Pittsford) and Alex Marfink (Sheffield). Horth also won a 9-2 decision over Daniel Cramer (Penfield) and a 17-1 Major Decision against Clayton Frantze (Randolph).

Finally, Gowanda’s Jayden John picked up two wins by pin and two by forfeit while losing only to Randolph. The pins came against Alejandro Perez (Grand Island) and Justin Feck (Pittsford) and the forfeits came from Penfield and Sheffield.

As a final note, the GCS Athletics Department shared that the New York Wrestling News has ranked Michael Horth as 14th in the state at 145 lbs for the week.