THE YEAR'S TOP MOMENTS/STORYLINES - PART 4 (2024-07-19)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
The list enters the top 10 with athletes on the course, diamond, and mats featured here.

10. NEB cross-country continues their dominance: For the better part of his decade Maroon and Gray has led the way on the cross-country course, and that didn’t change in 2023. Both boys and girls teams breezed to undefeated dual meet seasons to recapture their NTL Division-II titles. At the league meet the boys scored 41 points, well ahead of second place (72) with five runners in the top 16. The girls were short handed but still held on to win by six points, led by Gracelyn Laudermilch’s individual win. Both teams also claimed District IV, Class A titles, the boys nearly doubling up second place (47-82) as Creed Dewing took home the individual title. The girls left no doubt, either, out scoring second place by 27 points Laudermilch won the individual title. Both Dewing and Laudermilch went on to earn state medals.

9. Back and forth baseball season: Not much was a given on the baseball diamond this season, except maybe seeing a good game. Of the 98 games played this season by the five area teams 51 were decided by five runs or less, led by Canton’s 15 close games this year including six by one run. Wyalusing had 12 close games, Towanda 10, NEB nine, and Troy five. The parity was evident in the postseason as Wyalusing was the fifth seed in the District IV, Class AA playoffs but came away with the title, while Troy and Canton were league champs. Canton was the closet team to beat Wyalusing in the playoffs until the state semifinals, falling by a run even though they had bases loaded with no outs in the final inning. That was emblematic of what time of regular season it was for area team.

8. Towanda’s Sawyer Robinson, Canton’s Hudson Ward take home state medals: The NTL was shutout of the medals last year at the PIAA Wrestling Championships, but two big blood round wins by Towanda’s Sawyer Robinson and Canton’s Hudson Ward made sure that didn’t happen again. Ward won his blood round match 6-5, riding out Frazier’s Ryan Celaschi for a full minute to protect the lead. Set back by injuries in previous seasons, Ward was able to overcome a couple this year to take eighth at 160 pounds as a senior. Robinson ended up seventh as the lightest heavyweight in the state of Pennsylvania, getting an overtime win to start the Friday morning session, then ended it thanks to one of his best takedowns in the season. He finished seventh at 285, and will be back next year to work his way up the podium.

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