Records fell everywhere on the track during the 31st edition of the Empire State Games. And while Chris Stogsdill didn’t join in that parade, his own feat might have been just as impressive.
In a span of less than five hours, Stogsdill, entering his senior year at Marcellus, won two gold medals in scholastic men’s distance events, repeating one crown after seizing another in ideal running conditions at SUNY-Binghamton.
Stogsdill entered the ESG as the defending champion in the 1,500-meter run after winning that title in 2007 in Westchester County. This time around, he added the 5,000-meter run to his agenda, even though both races would be run on the same day.
No problem, though. In the 5,000, run early on Saturday morning, Stogsdill gradually got away from Western’s Dan Serianni in the latter stages and won in a time of 15 minutes, 25.68 seconds, beating Serianni by 2.81 seconds.
Then came the 1,500, run in midday heat. Stogsdill hung back in second place until, with 500 meters to go, he ran into the lead and stayed there, fending off a late charge from Hudson Valley’s Chris Carrington. Stogsdill won in 4:04.85, with Carrington second in 4:05.46.l
As this was going on, Stogsdill’s Marcellus teammate, made the finals in both the scholastic 200 and 100-meter sprints. Quercia was fourth in the 200 (22.44 seconds), sixth in the 100 (11.29 seconds) and helped Central’s 4×400 relay team finish fourth in 3:31.54.
Elsewhere, Skaneateles ice hockey star Keith Buehler played a vital role as Central’s scholastic men’s team won the gold medal with a perfect mark of 5-0 at Broome County Community College’s rink.
Buehler started out with a goal and assist in a 4-2 win over Long Island, then did the same in a 4-0 shutout of Adirodnack before landing the winning goal with 11:17 left in the third period of a 2-1 decision over Hudson Valley.
On Saturday night, Buehler’s pair of goals propelled Central past New York City 4-1 — which, combined with a Western overtime to Long Island, clinched the gold for Central. Still, Central beat Western 3-2 on the final day to complete its perfect run as Buehler assisted on Mike Montagna’s game-winner with 12 seconds left in regulation.
Marcellus native Stephanie O’Rourke played with a Central scholastic women’s ice hockey team that could not manage a win in any of its five outings.
Tim Davis, an ESG fixture that resides in Skaneateles Falls, came away from the ESG canoe/kayak competition at Dorchester Park in Whitney Point with three medals.
The highlight came when Davis teamed with Jon Gilbert, Andrew Smith and Mike Wolfson to win the gold medal in the men’s 500-meter quad event. Central posted a time of 1:51.11 to hold off Long Island (1:51.53) at the wire.
Davis also teamed with Smith for a bronze medal in the 200-meter doubles (47.89 seconds) and combined with Wolfson for another bronze in the 500-meter doubles in (2:11.63).
In scholastic men’s tennis, Skaneateles star Joey Robinson was part of a Central squad that took home the silver medal at SUNY-Binghamton.
Robinson teamed in doubles with Horseheads native Sam Deluccia and went 4-1 during three days of matches, exactly mirroring the 4-1 team mark Central accomplished as it finished second to Long Island.
Joining up on Central’s scholastic women’s lacrosse team, Maddy Morrissey (Skaneateles) and Meghan Connors (Marcellus) both earned bronze medals at Alumni Stadium near Binghamton Middle School.
Both of Central’s defeats in five games of round-robin play were by a single goal — 12-11 to Western in overtime, 8-7 to Long Island. This relegated Central to the third-place game, where it came from behind to beat Hudson Valley 9-6, scoring the game’s last five goals to get on the medal podium.
In open men’s gymnastics at Broome County Arena, Marcellus native Evan Parker helped Central win the team silver medal with a total of 251.10 points, just behind Western (255.80 points), who captured the gold.
After a ninth-place all-around finish, Parker moved on and earned the bronze medal in the individual pommel horse with a score of 8.90. He also tied for fifth in the parallel bars (9.0), got sixth place on the pommel horse (9.10), earned seventh place on the high bar (8.40) and eighth place on the rings (8.50).
Marcellus graduate Vito Argese earned the bronze medal in the open freestyle 119-pound division at SUNY-Binghamton’s West Gym. He beat Jonathan Soto (New York City) 3-0, 3-1 in the third-place match. Anna Cummings went 0-2 in the open Greco-Roman 119-pound division.
Steve Stechyshyn came from Marcellus and tied for seventh in the open men’s weightlifting 169.75-pound division, while Reid Swartz (Skaneateles) swam to 11th place in the scholastic men’s 1,500-meter freestyle.
Keith Vandingstee, Brendan Dickerson (both from Skaneateles), Sarah DeRusha, Caitlin Hickey (both Marcellus) were involved in fencing — Vandinstee on the open side, Dickerson, DeRusha and Hickey on the scholastic side. None of them would medal.
