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Red Dragons Reign

Maple Grove Named Top Class C School In New York

Top-two finishes in boys cross country, girls cross country and football helped Maple Grove claim the Class C championship and finish ninth overall in the ninth annual Kerr Cup All-Sport Championship conducted by the New York State Sportswriters Association. P-J file photos

Success across multiple sports helped Maple Grove finish No. 9 overall and No. 1 in Class C with 40 points in the annual Kerr Cup All-Sport Championship conducted by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

For the third straight year, Section II’s Shenendehowa was the overall champion with 59.17 points. Second place went to Section I’s North Rockland (52.33) followed by Section III’s Jamesville-DeWitt (51.83), Section II’s Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (49.50), Section I’s Somers (45), Section VIII’s Garden City (43.50), Section V’s Pittsford Mendon (42.33), Section IV’s Vestal (42), Maple Grove and Section V’s Fairport (38.33).

The fall season jump-started the Red Dragons to a strong 2016-17 school year. Maple Grove’s boys cross country team won the Class D championship at Chenango Valley State Park behind a second-place finish by junior Michael Peppy, 10th-place finish by sophomore Frank Colburn, 11th-place finish by freshman Peter Auer, 17th-place finish by senior Colin Colburn and 18th-place finish by junior Shane Hetrick. The Maple Grove girls cross country team finished second in Class D paced by third-place eighth-grader Ava Crist, eighth-place eighth-grader Christina Peppy, 13th-place junior Gracie Auer, 14th-place eighth-grader Carling Lockwood and 19th-place sophomore Bryn Mozzi.

On the gridiron, the Red Dragons were tied with Cambridge Springs at halftime of the state championship game and took a 21-14 lead in overtime on Nick Fabrizio’s 2-yard touchdown run, but Cambridge Springs scored and caught a 2-point conversion pass on its overtime possession to end Maple Grove’s perfect season. On the baseball diamond, Maple Grove won the overall Section VI Class C championship before losing to Avon, 14-5, in the Far West Regional. On the softball diamond, the Red Dragons were nearly as successful, losing in the Section VI Class C2 final to Portville.

Panama finished tied for second in Class D, based on the success of two of its girls teams. In the fall, the Panthers ran the table in pool play semifinals at the Class D championships in Glens Falls before winning a dramatic five-set affair from Argyle with a 25-14 win in the fifth-and-deciding set for the first girls team championship in school history.

The Panthers followed that up in the winter by reaching their third straight Class D Final Four on the basketball court before running into old nemesis Heuvelton and star Paige McCormick, losing the state championship game, 78-54. Heuvelton, out of Section X, actually finished tied with Panama for second in the Class D Kerr Cup Championship.

Shenendehowa was the Class AA champion while Jamesville-DeWitt won the Class A crown. In Class B, Section III’s Westhill was the top school with 36.50 points while Section II’s Fort Ann led Class D with 32 points.

Points are assigned based upon results from NYSPHSAA championships, scored on a 15-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 basis. Sports in which team championships were not awarded, but meaningful team scoring could be compiled (for example, track) were assigned one-third the points value. The rationale is that in most cases coaches would have substantially changed strategy had true team championships been at stake. In track, for instance, many athletes could have been entered in multiple individual events or relays rather than the pentathlon in order to maximize their results. Tennis, golf and gymnastics, where the fortunes of a school typically rise and fall with a single state-meet entrant, were not included in the process.

A state championship on the volleyball court and a second-place finish in girls basketball helped Panama finish in a tie for second place in Class D.

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