SPORTS

Area swimmers, wrestlers seek state glory this weekend

Staff report
  • Ithaca High and Lansing will both be well-represented at the state swim meet at Ithaca College
  • Ithaca's Richie Burke and Julian Korfine are among a handful of local wrestlers in Albany for states

Ithaca junior Kevin Miller will represent Section 4's best hope for a state title when the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's boys swimming and diving championships commence Friday at Ithaca College's Aquatics Pavilion.

The meet begins at noon on Friday with preliminary heats. The championship finals are scheduled to start at noon Saturday. Tickets are $8 per day and can be purchased online at nysphsaa.org.

Miller is the third seed in the 500-yard freestyle race, the highest-seeded competitor from Section 4 in any event. His seed time of 4 minutes, 36.02 seconds is just shy of All-America Consideration status (4:35.06). Miller is also the ninth seed in the 200 freestyle, and is part of Ithaca's 18th-seeded 200 free relay team, along with teammates Robert Mangan, Andrew Mikhailichenko and Francis Schickel.

Several other Section 4 individuals have a reasonable chance of advancing to Saturday's championship finals; the top 10 finishers in each event during Friday's preliminaries advance to the championship finals. They include Lansing junior Joe Koch, who's seeded seventh in the 500 free and 24th in the 200 free, and Corning's Reid Cagir, seeded ninth in the 50 free and 12th in the 100 free.

Ithaca's Schickel is also entered in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and Mikhailichenko is entered in the 100 breaststroke. Other local swimmers slated to compete include Lansing sophomore John Koch (200 individual medley, 100 butterfly), Ithaca's Jamie Lovett (500 free), and Ithaca's 400 freestyle relay team of David Korb, Mangan, Miller and Schickel.

At last year's state championships in suburban Rochester, Ithaca's Ryan Nicholson won the 50 free and 100 butterfly and was part of the Little Red's winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays. He set a state record in the 50 free, which was eclipsed later in the meet, and the 200 medley relay set a state record of 1:33.83, breaking its own record set in prelims by .01 seconds.

Ithaca College's state-of-the-art facility, which opened in 2011, has hosted the girls' state championships the past three seasons. And last weekend — despite there not being a competing school within 200 miles of IC — the pool was the site of the Big East swimming and diving championships.

Wrestling

Ithaca seniors Richie Burke (138 pounds) and Julian Korfine (145) are among 44 wrestlers representing Section 4 at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, set for Friday and Saturday at the Times Union Center in Albany.

State champions will be crowned in 30 weight classes, 15 apiece in the divisions I and II. Friday's wrestling will feature preliminary and quarterfinal matches as well as a round of consolation matches. On Saturday, wrestling resumes at 10 a.m. with semifinal matches. Consolation finals will take place beginning at 2 p.m., with the championship finals slated for 6.

Burke, who missed a month of the season after injuring a knee in a dual match on Jan. 13, is looking to improve upon his fourth-place finish of a year ago, when he wrestled at 126 pounds. As a sophomore in 2013, he placed fifth at 132. Burke is 27-4 this year and rolled through the sectional tournament, winning three matches by bonus points en route to his fifth title, a first in Ithaca wrestling history.

A winner of 208 career matches, Burke will open states against senior Jesse Patraw of Section 10's Massena. Last year, Burke opened against another Massena wrestler, Michael Brown, and scored a 12-0 victory.

Korfine, making his first trip to states, is 29-4 this season and is coming off a 4-3 win over top-seeded Zack Bendick of Union-Endicott in the sectional final. Korfine opens against sophomore Ryan Ferro of Section 9's Warwick Valley.

The Section 4 contingent features a pair of returning state champions in Norwich's Tristan Rifanburg (138, Div. II) and Frank Garcia (152, Div. II). They were among a group of six state champs last year from Section 4, a group that included Lansing's William Koll (132, Div. II).

Of the 44 Section 4 wrestlers competing this weekend, half are appearing at the state championships for the first time. In addition to Korfine, first-timers in Division I are Union-Endicott's Rick Chastine (106), Elmira's Noah Carpenter (113) and Tommy Mackay (170), Vestal's Robert Mastronardi (152), Newark Valley's David Crow (182), Chenango Forks' Caleb Gould (195) and Johnson City's Nikola Cejic (285).

Division II newcomers include Chenango Valley's Caleb Wiggins, Waverly's A.J. Burkhart (99), Susquehanna Valley's Ian Lupole (126), Norwich's Cole Rifanburg (132), Groton's Darren Ostrander (138), Whitney Point's Nate Grubham (145), Lansing's Greg Lee (145), Bainbridge-Guilford/Afton/Harpursville's Madison Hoover (152), Spencer-Van Etten's Joe Judge (160), Watkins Glen's Josh Burge (170), Sidney's Nick Jump (170), Unatego's Riley Hanrahan (195), Oxford's Garyn Huntley (220) and Deposit/Hancock's Zach Gifford (220).