Monday, June 10, 2013: Sec. 5 golfer Schmitt wins NYSPHSAA title

   Leading off today: Junior Christine Schmitt of Rochester's Mercy High shot a final-round 1-under par 71 to win the New York Public High School Athletic Association girls golf championship Sunday on SUNY Delhi’s College Course.

   Schmitt’s two-day total of 143, which included nine birdies over 36 holes, set a tournament record and beat the rest of the field by six strokes. She was the first-round leader a year ago only to balloon to an 86 on Day 2, settling for sixth place.

   “I got a little nervous and everything got to me last year,” Schmitt told the Democrat and Chronicle. “I tried not to think about it. The first few holes yesterday I didn’t start out great, but I chipped in for birdie on the seventh hole and made more birdies from there and after that it wasn’t in my mind."

   Alexis Hios (76-73--149) was second and Larissa Carter (77-74--151) of Auburn third.

   St. Raymond prevails: Senior Steven Figueroa went the distance Sunday as St. Raymond won the deciding game of the CHSAA 'AA' baseball championship series with a 7-0 victory over Monsignor Farrell.

   It gave the Ravens their first championship since 1989.

   Figueroa finished with a two-hitter, hitting three batters but walking none.

   A day after taking a loss on the mound in Game 2, junior third baseman Adam DeLaCruz went 2-for-4 at the plate, including a RBI triple in the third inning to drive in the game’s first run. He also hit a two-run single in the seventh as the Ravens tallied five times.

   Draft summary: New York ended up with 11 high school players selected late last week in Major League Baseball's annual First-Year Player Draft.

   I noted the first four in an earlier blog: Clarence pitcher Mark Armstrong (104th pick, Cincinnati), Amherst catcher Jonah Heim (129th, Baltimore), Half Hollow Hills East pitcher Stephen Woods (188th, Tampa Bay) and Horseheads third baseman Dylan Manwaring (283th, Atlanta).

   The following were selected Saturday on the final day of the 40-round draft: Benjamin Cardozo outfielder Adrian Castano (786th, Detroit), Maine-Endwell first baseman Carter Austin (855th, Toronto), Ward Melville pitcher Anthony Kay (866th, New York Mets), St. John The Baptist pitcher Joe Palumbo (910th, Texas), Fairport first baseman Conner Simonetti (1,065th, Cincinnati), Patchogue-Medford pitcher Matthew Vogel (1,080th, Arizona) and Susan Wagner shortstop Zachary Levinson (1,165th, Toronto).

   Awards season: Cicero-North Syracuse pitcher Sydney O'Hara was selected last week as Gatorade's New York player of the year in softball. O'Hara led the Northstars to the NYSPHSAA Class AA championship over the weekend in Queensbury.

   O'Hara finished 19-0 with 283 strikeouts in 128.2 innings and also hit over .500 at the plate with nine home runs. O’Hara has signed to play at Syracuse University next season.

   End of an era: Bill Meylan, who operates the immensely popular and informative TullyRunners.com, said over the weekend that he's taking his website back to its roots effective immediately. Consequently, sole focus will be on cross country, with indoor track and outdoor track no

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longer in the mix.

   Meylan began the site in 2000 (this was the first outdoor NYSPHSAA championships meet he's missed since launching) with a focus on his "speed ratings," which have become valuable in comparing athletes' performances in different courses throughout the season. In order to do so, Meylan had to become a bit of a clearinghouse for large quantities of results each week.

   "The scientist in me wanted as much data as possible (in a usable form), so I began transcribing results from faxes, hard-copy and newspapers for Internet posting," Meylan wrote. "I began posting track & field results because I wanted the data myself and I knew many Internet viewers would be interested in seeing results ... Content in the form of Results is a staple in providing XC and track information that people want."

   Even with Dyestat.com having become a shell of itself in the post-ESPN era, there are sources such as LeoneTiming.com, Milesplit.com and ArmoryTrack.com aggregating plenty of information during the track seasons. Several New York newspapers have even begun figuring out how to port meet results from their newspaper agate pages to their websites. (For the uninitiated, that's called "sarcasm.")

   Said Meylan: "Much of what I do in track is duplicated by MileSplit, so there is really no need for me to do it anymore."

   Redundancy, though, isn't the sole reason behind the decision. Meylan cites a lack of time -- something I can sympathize over -- and takes issue with the length of meets. Some are just poorly run; others are allowed to drag out in part to accommodate athletes competing in multiple events.

   "The multi-event athlete and coach chose to do extra events knowing the schedule, and I have always thought it should be their responsibility to hustle back-and-forth and not slow the meet down," he writes.

   Softball's future: Section 2 softball chair Cathy Allen told The Post-Star the plan for 2014 (the first year of a new three-year contract) is to move the NYSPHSAA tournament to four fields at the Moreau Recreational Park, which is used for numerous regular-season and sectional contests.

   With 15 games to be played in one day, that all but assures five sets of starting times throughout the day -- which sounds a little risky.

   "It makes the day a little longer, but we've used four in other places, like Waterloo and Binghamton," Allen said. "We only went to six when we were at Clifton Common a few years ago."