Leading off today: Iona Prep is picking up steam on the football field, as was evidenced yesterday with a 38-14 rout of Holy Cross, ranked 18th in Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Tim Perley completed 14 of 24 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 73 yards and two touchdowns as the Gaels won their third straight game after a 23-6 loss to Archbishop Stepinac. Sidney Weston chipped in with 16 carries for 138 yards and a TD.
"We're playing some good football right now," Weston told The New York Daily News "It's just about us not dropping our heads and staying positive (after the loss). We always stayed positive."
McQuaid recap: Without a doubt, the McQuaid Invitational is one of my favorite events on the high school sports schedule. While the flat-and-fast course is nothing special, the festive nature at a meet bringing together more than 6,000 competitors for 25 races is always an attraction. And when the weather cooperates, as it did Saturday with comfortably cool temperatures and a mild breeze, the performances really pop.
Canisius senior Cole Townsend put the exclamation point on a successful meet with a time of 14 minutes, 56 seconds -- the day's No. 2 performance -- to win the boys seeded AAA race at the 46th annual event at Genesee Valley Park. Rush-Henrietta won the boys team title in the Royal Comets' final tuneup for the Manhattan Invitational.
Earlier, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake earned a solid team victory against the loaded boys seeded AA field by scoring 113 points to top Walsh Jesuit from Ohio (122), Highland Secondary from Canada (142), Pittsford Sutherland (149), Vestal (172) and McQuaid (175). Otis Ubriaco earned individual honors in a demoralizing 14:49.
Burnt Hills also won the girls seeded AA crown, scoring 58 points to fight off East Aurora (78), Pittsford Mendon (91) and Honeoye Falls-Lima (97). Mendon's Shaylyn Tuite won in 16:54 for the best clocking of the day among girls.
In the large-school race, Fairport prevailed over a quality field and West Genesee freshman Laura Leff added a quality win to her growing body of work by finishing in 17:07 to beat junior Lauren Mullins by nine seconds.
As they exited the scoring chute, Leff could be heard thanking the Johnson City standout for setting the pace and steering her in the right direction in the early stages of the race. Leff admitted she wasn't running with maximum confidence about where she was heading.
"I just followed the (pace) cart," she said. "I was still a little unsure of the course."
With a base of approximately 500 miles piled up over the summer, Leff is eager to see how far she could progress this fall. Coming off a pair of invitational wins on hillier courses at V-V-S and Chittenango, she was ready to ready to let 'er rip in Rochester against her strongest competition so far this season.
"I could handle it because I have a lot under my belt already," she said.
Great job at the Great American: Several big names from New York made huge impressions Saturday in the 11th annual Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, N.C.
The Saratoga girls scored 53 points to blast Midlothian, Va., (114) and the rest of the Race of Champions field en route to the Streaks' seventh win there while Cornwall senior Aisling Cuffe obliterated the course record -- high school and college -- in 16:41 for five kilometers after going out in an intimidating 5:10 for the opening mile.
