Gowanda Small Town Times

On Friday, December 15, the Gowanda Varsity boys and girls bowling teams were home hosting Hinsdale. The boys had a dominant showing rolling over Hinsdale 4-0 with game scores of 980-565, 1005-545 and 818-489 for a total pins advantage of 2803-1599. Gowanda boys with series totals in the 500s were Nicholas Smuda (223-190-152/565), and Gavin Whitcher (192-195-132/519). Morgan Ruff fell just short of 500 (156-195-143/494). Also bowling solid games for the Gowanda boys were Drezden Spire (170-143-148/461), Zachary Hojnacki (119-148-141/408) and Kory Degenfelder (120-134-102/356). On the girls side, Gowanda fell victim to a very strong Hinsdale team 0-4. The game scores were 782-911, 763-787 and 771-838 making the total pins score 2316-2536. Only three girls bowled full sets for Gowanda. They were Aubrie Smuda (187-152-146/485), Bailey Shields (125-168-136/429) and Sierra Twoguns (142-1232-1589/424). Bowling two games in the match were Tayleigh Williams (116 and 120), Lila Offenbach (123 and 111), Emma Golden 96 and 112) and Makayla Kuras (109 and 93). Gowanda’s Natalia Elliott rolled a single game for a score of 98.

December 15 was also the first day of the 2-day Linda C. Knuutila Memorial Wrestling Tournament. A total of 57 schools were represented. Gowanda was only partially represented and only Michael Horth and Nathan Warrior figured into Gowanda’s score of 20. In the championship rounds Horth (160) earned a pin (0:23) over Hunter Szymkowiak (Alexander) before being pinned by Cameron Catrabone (Williamsville North-Williamsville East ). Horth went on to the consolation rounds taking a 6-0 decision over Brandon Doyle (Pioneer) before losing a 3-2 decision to Brandon Drummond (St Francis) . Gowanda’s Nathan Warrior had similar results. In the championship rounds, he pinned Matthew Taylor (Tonawanda) in 1:06 only to lose by technical fall (17-0, 4:36) to Aidan Gillings (Newfane). In the consolation rounds, Warrior, eventually, lost a 6-4 decision to Trevor Mueller (Clarence) after pinning Caleb Gagliardi (Lancaster, 1:48) and Reese Corbeil (Charter School for Applied Technologies, 1:30).

The Gowanda wrestling team’s primary weekend attention was on the Saturday, December 16th, 48th Annual Portville Invitational Wrestling Tournament. Gowanda came in 4th with a score of 132. First Place went to Portville (252 with the team from Cameron County (PA) in 11th Place. The best performance for Gowanda came from Brody Mescall (190) over Nathaniel Hahn (Randolph) by pin in 1:51 during the Championship Round for 2nd Place. Maddox Hudson (160) earned a 3rd Place finish over Devin Herman (Franklinville) by a 10-5 decision. Gowanda’s Jayson Twoguns finished 6th at 138 losing a 10-1 major decision to Drake Beckstrom (Frewsburg).