Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016: Corning seniors post top times in state meet preview

   Leading off today: Corning seniors Jessica Lawson and Kevin Moshier produced the fastest overall times Saturday at the McDaniel-Baxter Invitational at Chenango Valley State Park, which will host the NYSPHSAA Championships later this season.

   Lawson, the 2015 Federation champion, won her five-kilometer race in 17:26.4. The day's next fastest girls times belonged to North Rockland's Katelyn Tuohy (17:45.9), Webster Thomas' Amanda Vestri (18:15.0) and Fayetteville-Manlius' Claire Walters (18:15.1), the Class A champion in last fall's NYSPHSAA Class A race.

   Moshier won his race in 15:41.6, solidly ahead of the times put up by Liverpool seniors Ty Brownlow (15:52.1) and Stephen Schulz (15:55.3).

   A look at the merge shows Corning's boys winning with 104 points and a five-man average of 16:19.6. Saratoga (167) and Fayetteville-Manlius (206) rounded out the top three.

   In girls team merge results, F-M dominated with 58 points and an 18:44.2 average. North Rockland and Corning were next with 128 and 201 points, respectively.

   Remember him? Noah Affolder ran Pennsylvania's fastest high school cross country 5K in at least a decade when he won his school's invitational in 14:47.0.

   Affolder, is running for Carlisle (Pa.) this fall after moving from Upstate New York over the summer. As a Carthage junior last fall, he won his second NYSPHSAA individual title.

   Boys soccer: Theo Cowett cashed in an overtime rebound to lead Ithaca to a 2-1 win over Vestal in a Southern Tier Athletic Conference showdown between unbeatens.

   Ithaca is ranked ninth in the state in Class AA and Vestal is seventh in Class A.

   Cowett converted with 6:34 left in OT after Mason Todhunter's direct kick. Todhunter's goal off of a direct kick midway through the second half had tied the score at 1.

   A resolution in North Tonawanda: A tense, awkward situation in Section 6 appears to have been resolved, wnyathletics.com reported.

   The website had reported Thursday on allegations that one or more members of the North Tonawanda boys varsity soccer team had been bullying teammate Kyle Toth. Actions against the destruction of personal property.

   The player's mother staged a sit-in on the field during warmups Thursday as North Tonawanda prepared to take on Grand Island.

   With multiple getting involved over the next 48 hours, the Toth family has come away feeling its concerns were heard and properly addressed, the website reported. Teammates expressed support for Toth, another player admitted his role in at least one of the misdeeds and school officials communicated with the family and the media.

   "Any incident of bullying that we hear of we take very seriously," North Tonawanda Superintendent Greg Woytila said. "In this case I think that maybe the people involved didn't think that we were acting fast enough. In this case it took us a little bit longer. We got to the bottom of it and we're happy that it's resolved."

   Following up: Cato-Meridian suspensions that resulted in a forfeited football game over the weekend allegedly stemming from athletes making younger players run while naked, the district superintendent confirmed to Syracuse.com.

   Superintendent Noel Patterson said the district has contacted police.

   Florida ruling: File this one away, because you'll probably be hearing more about it in the near future, possibly in New York

   A ruling on the eligibility of Puerto Rican baseball players in Florida could have unintended consequences for other athletes across the state. The Florida High School Athletic Association ruled that 11 Lake Worth baseball players never should have been allowed to suit up because of their living situation.

   The boys live in Florida while their parents, who granted power of attorney to Rafael Paris, remain in Puerto Rico. That's sufficient for the boys to enroll in school, but not to participate in sports because the FHSAA requires guardians to be biologically related or have a court-appointed guardianship.

   (New York State Public High School Athletic Association rules are even stricter; with some very narrow exceptions, simply assigning guardianship does not pave the way to immediate eligibility at a new school.)

   Though at least 500 students seemingly do not meet the FHSAA's standard, the organization announced it has no intention of delving into registration records to search for others who might be in violation. The investigation into Lake Worth's baseball team was conducted after an inquiry by a rival coach.

   Extra points: Earnest Edwards,the Aquinas receiver/defensive back who shared NYSSWA Class AA football player of the year honors last season, scored his first college TD over the weekend on a nifty 23-yard reverse, but Maine fell to James Madison 31-20.