Gowanda Small Town Times

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).

On Wednesday, January 11, the only Gowanda sports action saw the wrestling team travel to Portville. Gowanda was unable to cover the 160 and 172 weight classes resulting in two forfeits and 12 points in the Portville column. Gowanda did get three forfeit wins as well awarded to Brendin Diebel (102), Owen Offenbach (110) and Nathan Warrior (145). There was a double forfeit at 189.

No pins were registered by Gowanda in the match, but three Gowanda wrestlers did gain wins by decision. They were Greg Reid (118) over Mekhi Muhyee (7-6 decision), Jayson Twoguns (132) over Riley Horsley (9-6 decision) and Michael Horth (152) over Camden Morrison (8-2 decision).

The Gowanda Panthers Varsity boys basketball team was at Frewsburg on January 10 for a game that was never competitive. The game was scoreless for just short of two minutes before Frewsburg landed the first two points in the game. It was all downhill from there. Gowanda was down 6-17 when Frewsburg went on a 12-point streak to close the 1st quarter up 29-6. The 2nd quarter was almost as bad with Frewsburg dominating the scoring 28-9. Down 15-57 going into the 3rd quarter Gowanda had their most competitive period in the game scoring 15 points to 22 for Frewsburg. Gowanda closed out the 99-35 loss with a 5-point final quarter. Frewsburg racked up ten 3-pointers in the game. Gowanda’s Quentin Centner connected on three 3-point shots on the way to lead the Panthers scoring with 15 points. Also scoring in double-digits for Gowanda was John Ondus with 10 points. Tyler Smith, Ben VanNote and Cole Herman combined for the other ten Gowanda points.

On a happier sports note, the Eden swimming team, led by Gowanda’s Hayden Kaus and Christian Merrill, was at Cheektowaga. The meet was an easy win for Eden 119-31. Along with teammate Patrick Schmitz, Kaus an Merrill tied for the individual 1st Place honors with 2 golds for 20 points each. Kaus’ wins came in the 200M Freestyle (2:08.03) and 500M Freestyle (5:55.26). For Merrill it was the 200M Individual Medley (2:31.02) and 100M Backstroke (1:06.72).

The second Gowanda sports week of 2023 got started on a winning note. The Gowanda Varsity girls basketball team and both the boys and girls bowling teams came away with wins on Monday, January 9.

The girls basketball team was at home hosting Cassadaga Valley. The game started out tight through a score of 6-6. A 3-point basket sparked Cassadaga Valley to move into an 11-6 lead. Gao;Wisa:S Stevens then scored for Gowanda to bring the score to 8-11 at the end of the period.

In the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Gowanda scored quickly taking back the lead 12-11. Cassadaga answered with a 3-pointer starting another 5-point run to go ahead 16-12. As the half was nearing the end, Lily Scanlan landed a 3-point shot to bring the score to 15-16 at the intermission.

The 3rd quarter started out with Gowanda in complete control. a 10-0 surge put them out in front at 25-16. Cassadaga Valley finally scored midway through the period. A series of turnovers in the last minute of the quarter allowed Cassadaga Valley to tie things up at 25. That included a 3-pointer with 4 seconds showing on the clock.

Things got very tight in the final quarter, but Gowanda managed to grab a hold a small lead. With 55 seconds left in the game, Cece Rivera scored to move Gowanda’s lead to 36-30. With time running out, Cassadaga Valley was forced to make intentional fouls to save time. Gowanda rose to the occasion making four of four foul shots in the closing seconds giving them a 40-32 win. That put their league record at 1-1 (5-5 overall).

Top scorer for Gowanda was Crissa Scanlan with 14 points. Cece Rivera and Chloe Luther had 8 and 7 points, respectively. Also scoring for Gowanda were Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens (4 points), Aurora Stevens (4 points) and Lily Scanlan (3 points).

It was also a good day for Gowanda bowling team with both the boys and girls getting wins at Cattaraugus-Little Valley. On the boys side, C-LV only had three bowlers participating which allowed Gowanda to grab an easy 4-0 win. Three Gowanda boys rolled series of 400 or better including Gavin Whitcher (144-190-125/459), Nicholas Smuda (125-150-134/409) and Drew Shull (113-108-179/400). Closely grouped in the 340s were Zachary Hojnacki (130-126-92/348), Kory Degenfelder (128-113-102/343) and Drezden Spire (126-117-98/341). This brought the boys season record to 7-2.

The Gowanda girls came close to a 4-0 score, but lost Game 2 by just 10 pins (598-608). Aubrey Smuda (126-120-129/375) was top bowler for the Gowanda girls with Sierra Twoguns (133-104-122/359) and Demetra Spire (109-116-118/343) close behind. Smuda’s three games were all above her average. Strong efforts were also put in by Cameron Clark (92-103-117/312) and Natalia Elliott (93-90-104/287) rolling her season high series. Two other Gowanda girls had only partial series. Makayla Kuras had 174 total pins in Games 1 and 3. Emma Golden bowled in Game 2. The win brought the girls’ record to 5-3.