On Thursday afternoon at the Massena Central Track the Canton Golden Bears Boys and Girls squads were each able to defeat the host Red Raiders. With the win the boys (6-0) team finished undefeated in league meets on the 2021 season and the girls (1-5) were able to secure their first team win. The boys outscored the Raiders 73.66 to 58.33 and the girls 74 to 47.
The boys team had their hands full as the Advanced Placement Exam removed two key senior members for their line-up. Both Sam Pfotenhauer and Chris Schuckers, who are two of the top point scorers for the Bears were unable to compete due to the test conflict. Needless to say, Coach Greg Kiah was forced to do some creative adjusting to his lineup in order to maximize his chances to defeat the talented Massena team. After several days of revising and editing the line-up with help from assistant coach Deb Lyndaker, the entires were settled and on paper the Bears looked as if they could win the meet. Of course what is on paper and the real event are two different things. As the bus pulled into Massena Coach Kiah made some poignant remarks to his team and the boys responded with their effort! Kiah was able to find points from a variety of guys who have been working and improving over the course of the season.
A sweep of all three relays, the 800 meter dash, the 1600 meter run and the shot put proved to be the difference for the Bears. Top finishes for the Bears included Chris Downs in the High Jump (5’6″), Freshman Ayomi Odetoyinbo in the discuss with a personal best (86’11.50″), Zach VanBrocklin in the shot put (34’8″), Max Finley in the 1600 (4:42.0) and double individual medalist Nick Lyndaker in the 800 meter dash (2:10) and the 3000 meter run (13:44.5) were keys to the win for the Bears.
Relay members included:
4 x 400 Relay: Hayden Bregg, Miles Gendebein, Chris Downs, and Max Finley in a season and leaguie best time of 3:47.8.
4 x 100 Relay: Vincent Nelson-Fuse, Zach VanBrocklin, Nick Estabrooks, and James Bailey in 49.6.
4 x 800 Relay: Sam Thacher, Hayden Bregg, Max Finley and Nick Lyndaker in a time of 10:09.0.
One of the more memorable moments in the meet was the effort by Nathan Lyndaker in the 200 meter race. Lyndaker was competing against teammates Matt Tupper and Truman Gendebein. Nathan was leading the race the entire way, looking to beat both of the other boys for the first time this season when his aggressiveness took ahold of him and with about 10 meters left in the race his forward lean for the finish was a little too forward and he came crashing to the track. His teammates rushed in to scoop him up to make sure he was okay. Other than a few scrapes and track rash, Nathan was fine. He made not have won the race, but he won the respect of his teammates as high fives were a plenty after that!
On the girls side the young, small team showed their tenacity as each of the girls competed in the maximum number of events which they could in order to fill all of the spots they could. This meant some very long and difficult running for many of them. Coach Porter commented, “I couldn’t have been more happy with the way in which the girls approached the meet today, we didn’t bring an lot of athletes but those we did bring, showed a lot of determination and made sacrifices to maximize the number of points we could score. Some of our girls are going to be tired after this one.”
Top individual performers included; Claire Craig winning the 100 meter hurdles in 18.0 seconds, long jump 13’8″, as well as the 4 x 100 relay. Grace McDonough ran on the wining 4 x 800 relay, won the 3000 meter run in 13:44 and took second place in the 400 and 800 meter runs. Julia Bessette showed her continued improvement winning the 1500 (5:53) , 800 (2:43) , 4 x 800 relay and taking second in the 3000 meter run. Maddie Bascom added second place points in the shot put (22’02”) and discus (66’4″) and Grace Magurk took third with a personal best 60’7″.
Caroline Hines won the triple jump with a jump of 27’11” and a big surprise on the day was Josie Gabriel winning the high jump with a 4’8″ effort which places her among the top jumpers in the section in only her first time competing in the event.
Winning relays for the Bears included;
4 x 800, Emily Ames, Grace McDonough, Julia Bessette and Allie Shorette.
4 x 100, Caroline Hines, Maddie Bascom, Claire Craig and Grace Magurk.
The boys and girls teams will be back in action this Friday afternoon in Gouverneur as they compete in Section X Qualifier as each attempt to make to the Section X Championships in two weeks.
Complete meet results are below:
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