Leading off today: Start times for Sunday's NYSPHSAA girls soccer championship games at SUNY Cortland have been moved up due to a scheduling conflict, the organization announced Tuesday.
The biggest change comes in Class D, which has been moved to a 9:30 a.m. start.
We have updated our brackets with the five new starting times.
The changes stem from selected to host a four-team NCAA Division III men's soccer regional Saturday and Sunday. There will be a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m., with the winners returning the next day to face off at 5 p.m.
Do you remember this? I'm kicking myself for not noticing, but Pittsford swimmer Lindsay Stone, scheduled to sign a letter of intent with the University of Notre Dame this week, broke a state record over the weekend and conjured up memories of quite a controversy from a couple of decades ago.
Competing at the Section 5 girls championships, where the Panthers won their 15th straight team title, Stone won the 500-yard freestyle in 4:46.80. Her time bested the 4:46.97 in 1995 by Friends Academy's Jessica Foschi, who went on to become a 15-time all-American at Stanford.
If the mention of Foschi's record-setting time lights the figurative light bulb over your head, it's because of the circumstances surrounding it.
As SwimSwam.com notes, Foschi tested positive for a banned substance the summer before setting he state mark. Foschi denied ever taking the substance and blamed the positive test on a saboteur. United States Swimming handed down a two-year probation that eventually was commuted so that she could compete at the 1996 Olympic Trials.
The significance is that her fate was being batted back and forth at the same time that U.S. Swimming was slamming China and demanding severe penalties for that country's competitors caught doping.
U.S. Swimming, stung by criticism from politicians and from stars in the sport including Janet Evans, eventually revisited her status and decided that she likely was the victim of sabotage but nevertheless would have to serve the two-year suspension.
The Foschi case was batted around extensively at the high school level before the NYSPHSAA decided that she would be eligible to compete for Friends Academy, setting the table for her state mark.
More swim records: Further evidence that I deserve 20 lashes with a wet pool noodle for missing newsworthy accomplishments: Pelham sophomore Kate Douglass broke an absolutely ancient national age group record and set a state high school mark in the 50 freestyle at the Section 1 championships last week.
Douglass, 14, finished in :22.32 to break the age-group mark of :22.44 by Dara Torres in 1982.
And because her split came as the leadoff leg in the 400 freestyle relay, Douglass also gets credit for a state record in the 100 freestyle by clocking :48.99 at sectionals.
Impressive streak ends: The Livingston County Athletic Association may have fewer members and consist of smaller schools than those found in the neighboring Monroe County League in Section 5, but they have nothing to apologize for when it come to performance each year in a number of sports.
