Many of Baldwinsville’s finest athletes returned home from the 31st edition of the Empire Stage Games with medals in tow.
Thousands of competitors from six geographic regions (Central, Western, Adirondack, Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island) spread through Binghamton and the Southern Tier in search of medals. Here is how B’ville’s best fared.
Wrestling
In Saturday’s scholastic Greco-Roman tournament at SUNY-Binghamton’s West Gym, Anthony Finocchiaro earned a gold medal at 115 pounds.
Undefeated in preliminary matches, Finocchiaro squared off with Tim McCann (New York City) in the championship match and dominated, beating McCann without surrendering a point in 5-0 and 7-0 periods.
Nearly matching Finocchiaro’s effort, Sean Henngian reached the Greco-Roman 192-pound scholastic final, only to run into Central teammate Alex Meyers (Morrisville-Eaton) and lose in a 2-2, 6-0 decision. Still, Hennigan earned the silver medal. Hennigan’s teammate, Andrew Giromini, finished sixth at Greco-Roman 178 pounds.
Canoe/Kayak
Mike Wolfson, new to the Empire State Games, got three medals on Saturday at Whitney Point’s Dorchester Park.
This included a gold medal in the 500-meter quads, where Wolfson, Tim Davis, Andrew Smith and John Gilbert helped Central win with a time of 1:51.11, just ahead of Long Island (1:11.53) at the line. Wolfson and Gilbert teamed for a silver in the 200-meter doubles (46.99 seconds), and Davis joined Wolfson for a bronze medal in the 500-meter doubles in 2:11.63.
Gymnastics
With Kevin Corp, Sean Hohm and Adam Struppler all present to help out, Central’s open men’s team earned a silver medal at Broome County Arena, earning 251.10 points, not far from Western, who won with 255.80 points. Individually, Hohm was eighth in the parallel bars and floor exercise.
Volleyball
B’ville standouts Erin Carrino, Lauren McVey and Laura Galvin all were present as Central earned a 5-4 record and nearly reached the championship match before settling for a bronze medal in a solid ESG effort at SUNY-Cortland. Lauren Hartman and her Central open squad finished fourth, while Rob Hennessey and Pete Cuppernull watched the Central scholastic men go winless.
Soccer
By going 3-1, Central’s scholastic women, which included B’ville star Ali Coughlin, got to the third-place game and won it, taking out Long Island 1-0. Courtney Paddock had a bit less success with an 0-3 scholastic team.
B’ville’s Ryan Evans had one goal and one assist in the Central scholastic men’s team’s 2-0 Friday win over Adirondack, then assisted again on a goal as Central topped Western by that same 2-0 margin before losing the bronze-medal game to New York City 2-1. Three of Evans’s B’ville teammates — P.J. Goodwin, Austin Buckley and Kyle Rogers — also played for Central.
Swimming
Chris Cadwell claimed two relay medals in the open (age 16 and up) division. He was part of a Central 4×100 freestyle relay team that won the silver medal with a time of 3:45.41. He also got a bronze in the 4×200 men’s relay in 8:46.43, while taking 11th place in the 200 freestyle.
Dan Burke, on his own, won a bronze medal in the scholastic (15 and under) men’s 200-meter backstroke, recording a time of 2:27.08 as William Middleton (New York City) won with a clocking of 2:23.91.
Also, Burke teamed with Carson Elias, Ben Seketa and Drake Becksted (all ESG winners at this meet) for a bronze medal in the scholastic (15 and under) 4×100 relay in 4:19.44, not far from New York City’s winning time of 4:17.08.
Track and Field
In a busy ESG meet at SUNY-Binghamton, Brian Kane tied for fifth in the scholastic men’s high jump, clearing 1.80 meters, while Adam Pacheck had his own fifth-place effort in the 10,000-meter run in 34:55.10. Danae Polsin ran to sixth in the scholastic women’s 5,000-meter run in 20:06.87.
Up in the open division, Tom Cuppernull just missed the podium, taking fourth in the long jump by going 22 feet 3 inches. Cory Greczyn took fifth in the men’s 800-meter run in 1:59.40, while Anthony Carapella landed in seventh in the 400-meter dash in 50.73 seconds.
Diving
In her lone event at SUNY-Binghamton’s West Gym, Jennifer Gregory finished fifth in the open women’s one-meter springboard, accumulating 267.15 points. Teresa MacInnes (Western) won with 377.85 points.
Rowing
Greg Bell helped Central out and finished fifth in the men’s quads at Dorchester Park, teaming with Josh Silverman, Jacob Morrisknower and Gilbert White for a time of 6:45. He also was in the doubles final with Josh Silverman, taking eighth place there.
Tennis
Playing together in doubles, Amari and Bri Pollard worked for the Central scholastic women’s team that went 1-4 at SUNY-Binghamton. Central’s lone win came over Adirondack, 3-2, as the Pollards, in three sets, beat Christine Cary and Emily Magee 6-4, 2-6, 9-7.
Fencing
Amanda Kearney represented B’ville on Central’s scholastic women’s team in the epee at Davis College in Vestal, as the team was unable to notch a team victory.
