Gowanda Small Town Times

On January 17, the Gowanda Varsity boys basketball team hosted 1st Place Randolph. Despite a valiant effort, Gowanda fell short in the game while John Ondus crossed the 1,000-point milestone.

The 1st quarter started out close with the teams tied at 5 and Gowanda taking a 1-point lead at 16-15 and 18-17. From there, Randolph closed out the period with a 7-point burst taking the score to 18-24. After scoring four points early in the 2nd period, the Gowanda offense went dormant. The biggest factor in that was a string of turnovers. It was not until the very end of the period that John Ondus scored Gowanda’s 6th point of the quarter. Meanwhile, Randolph had built up a 39-24 advantage.

Gowanda came out in the 3rd quarter with their best effort of the game scoring twenty points. They still lost ground with Randolph adding twenty-four to their score at the same time. With the score standing at 63-46 and Randolph in control, things slowed down for both teams in the final quarter. Randolph still won the period, but only by a 13-11 margin.

Still, there was one major Gowanda highlight in that last quarter. With 7:22 left in the game, John Ondus was at the foul line. He hit both of a pair of foul shots taking him to the 1,000-point mark in his career. The game was briefly stopped while he was given a banner indicating that accomplishment and a few photos were taken. Gowanda coach, Lucas Brawdy, was quoted as saying “It’s a big accomplishment” noting that Ondus was “one of three people at Gowanda to get 1,000 points” in their career.

Ondus landed a trio of 3-point baskets on the night on the way to lead Gowanda scoring with 19 points. Two players also reached double-digits for Gowanda. They were Quentin Centner (12 points) and Blake Herman (10 points). Herman had two 3-pointers in the game while Centner had one. All of those came in the 1st quarter. Also scoring for Gowanda, with eight points each, were Tyler Smith and Alex Pachucinski.

In other sports news, the Eden boys swimming team was at Iroquois on the 17th. While the team lost the meet 35-63, the Gowanda members of the team, Christian Merrill and Hayden Kaus, did well.

Merrill and Patrick Schmitz were the top two Eden swimmers coming in tied for 6th overall individually with a pair of silver finishes each. For Christian Merrill, those came in the 200M Individual Medley (2:32.96) and the 100M Backstroke (1:06.12) In the backstroke event the 1st Place time was 1:04.82, just 1.30 seconds better than Merrill’s time.

Right behind in the individual results was Hayden Kaus. He finished in 8th Place with a silver and a bronze. The 2nd Place finish came in the 200M Freestyle (2:11.64) and 3rd Place came in the 100M Butterfly (1:16.05).

The Eden team only had one relay team come in with a win at the meet, but both Merrill and Kaus were on that team. Along with Brayden Timblin and Patrick Schmitz, Eden took gold in the 400M Freestyle Relay in 3:55.88.

Gowanda was represented at the 54th Annual Franklinville Invitational Wrestling Tournament on January 13 and 14. The event was held at the Ten Broeck Academy in Franklinville, New York. While not competing above the 145 weight class, Gowanda still managed to finish 4th as a team with a score of 140. That was just behind Springville (143). Portville claimed 1st Place with 173.

Gowanda’s Nakotah Jackson (102) and Michael Horth (145) both came away with 1st Place in their weight class. After a Quarterfinal bye, Jackson pinned Jonathan Tidd (Olean-Allegany Limestone, 1:45) and Maxwell Yount (East Aurora-Holland, 4:00). In the Quarterfinal, Horth pinned Alex Kuhn (East Aurora-Holland) in 1:36. He went on to pin Dakota Miller (Franklinville, 5:45) in the semifinal. In the 1st Place match, Horth faced Gowanda teammate, Nathan Warrior, and took a 24-1 Major Decision.

Before finishing in 2nd Place at 145, Warrior had won by pin in both the Quarterfinals and Semifinals. Those victories came against Hamza Allami (Charter School for Applied Technologies, 0:39) and Caine DeGrolier (Olean-Alleghany Limestone, 1:02).

Gowanda’s Kaleb Smith (138) earned a 3rd Place finish. He won a 9-5 decision in the Quarterfinal over Abdelraheem Ahmed (Lackawanna) before losing a 12-1 Major Decision to Griffin McKinsey (Springville) in the Semifinal. In the Consolation round, Smith won a 15-7 Major decision over Zack Hughes (Springville) before pinning Mohamed Mohamed (Lackawanna, 0:15) to take 3rd Place

Earning individual 4th Place finishes for Gowanda were Greg Reid (118) and Jayson Twoguns (126). Darrin Sherlock (118) and Brayden Lee (132) both ended up in 6th Place while adding 6 points and 7 points, respectively, to Gowanda’s team total. Also wrestling for Gowanda was Faolon Quinn (126) who earned 5 points for the team.

GCS Scoreboard w/e Jan. 15

Boys Basketball 6-6

Tuesday, January 10

Gowanda at Frewsburg
Gowanda 35, Frewsburg 99

Girls Basketball 5-5, 1-1

Monday, January 9

Cassadaga Valley at Gowanda
Gowanda 40, Cassadaga Valley 32

Thursday, January 12

Gowanda at salamanca
Gowanda 42, Salamanca 49

Wrestling 1-3

Wednesday, January 11

Gowanda at Portville
Gowanda 27, Portville 36

Friday/Saturday, January 13/14

Franklinville Invitational Wrestling Tournament
1st Portville
4th Gowanda 140
10th Lackawanna 99

Bowling boys 7-2; girls 5-3

Monday, January

Gowanda at Cattaraugus-L.V.
boys
4-0 766-442 804-346 730-348
girls
3-1 637-591/598-608/680-641

Thursday, January 12

Franklinville at Gowanda
- boys only -
Gowanda 4, Franklinville 0

Swimmimg 6-3

Tuesday, January 10

Eden/Gowanda at Chektowaga
Eden 119, Cheektowaga 31

Friday, January 13

Lakeshore at Eden/Gowanda
Eden 59, Lake Shore 30

Friday, January 13, was the first day of the 2-day 22nd Annual Patrick J. Morales Memorial Wrestling Tournament at Falconer. The Gowanda wrestling team was in attendance along with Bradford [PA], Chautauqua Lake, Cheektowaga, Clarion [PA], Corry [PA], Coventry [OH], Dunkirk, Eisenhower [PA], Erie [PA], Falconer, Frewsburg, Hamburg, Iroquois, Jamestown, Kane [PA], Lake Shore, Maple Grove, Pioneer, Randolph, Seneca [PA], Southwestern, St. Joseph’s and Sweet Home. As of the end of the Friday session no results have been posted. Those will be passed along when available.

One other wrestling note- On Saturday, January 21, Gowanda will be hosting their own wrestling tournament. In addition to Gowanda, the following schools are expected to participate: Dunkirk, Falconer, Franklinville, Fredonia, Frewsburg, Lockport, Maple Grove, North Tonawanda, Olean, Randolph, Salamanca and St. Francis.

The Eden boys swimming team was also active on Friday the 13th hosting Lake Shore. Again, Gowanda swimmers, Hayden Kaus and Christian Merrill, were prominent in securing a 59-30 win for Eden.

Merrill was 3rd as an individual including a 1st Place finish in the 200M Freestyle (2:11.55). Kaus was 6th as an individual with 1st Place finishes on both the 100M Butterfly (1:09.94) and 100M Backstroke (1:17.63). The Gowanda swimmers were also busy swimming in relay events Kaus and Merrill teamed up with Brayden Timblin and Patrick Schmitz to take gold in the 200M Medley Relay (1:58.05) and the 200M Freestyle Relay (1:43.18). Additionally, Christian Merrill swam on the Eden 400M Freestyle Relay team for another 1st Place finish (4:20.36). This time he was teamed up with Logan Gemza, Will Depan and Jacob Zittel.

On Thursday, January 12, the Gowanda Varsity girls basketball team was at Salamanca. Right off the opening tip-off, Gowanda’s Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens hit from long range to put the team up 3-0. That was quickly matched with Salamanca landing a 3-pointer of their own. From a 5-5 tie, Gowanda stalled allowing Salamanca to grab a 13-5 advantage. With a late 1st quarter rally. Gowanda managed to narrow the gap to 15-17 by the end of the period. In the 2nd period both teams slowed down after Gowanda moved into a quick 22-19 lead. Gowanda stalled again and Salamanca was able to pull back into a 28-22 advantage at halftime with a trio of questionable 3-pointers.

Things got a lot tighter in the 2nd half. Salamanca won the period 11-9 with a pair of 3rd quarter-ending free throws. In the hard fought 4th quarter, Gowanda was only able outscore Salamanca 11-10. That gave Salamanca a 49-42 win.

Wassy Stevens led Gowanda with four 3-pointers and a total of 15 points. Chloe Luther also had a three pointer and contributed 11 points. As has been the case for several games now, Lily Scanlan had a lone 3-pointer in the game.

In other sports news, on January 12 the Gowanda boys bowling team hosted Franklinville at K&L Lanes. Franklinville does not have a girls team.

With just five Franklinville bowlers, as opposed to six per game for Gowanda, the margin of victory was greater than it might have otherwise been. The 4-0 victory, 888-606, 853-513 and 886-539 plus total pins, move the Gowanda boy’s record to 8-2. Top bowlers for Gowanda were Drew Shull (129-224-223/576) and Nicholas Smuda (182-183-210/575). Also bowling in all three games were Aiden Gray (144-125-120/389) and Gavin Whitcher (117-99-101/317). Three Gowanda boys bowled in two of three games making the equivalent of two sets in a mix-and-match fashion. Those bowlers and their 2-game totals are Kory Degenfelder (313), Zachary Hojnacki (232) and Drezden Spire (225).