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Odd team achievements of the year
When Maine-Endwell beat Union-Endicott 50-45, it gave the Spartans
four overtime wins in a stretch of four girls basketball contests in late January.
Kyesha Talerico (23 points) went 3-for-4 from the free-throw line in overtime to cap the fourth win.
M-E previously edged Corning 52-44, Binghamton 64-51 and Vestal 72-64 in a game that went to a second extra period.
• Staten Island Academy went the distance with a roster of just seven players and a rookie coach in Nicole Sarcone, earning the Federation girls Class A basketball crown with a 47-43 win over Jamesville-DeWitt at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
"We all shared this together and we fed off each other," senior forward Clare Mitchell said.
Top sportsmanship moment
North Salem/John Jay sophomore
John Emerson gave back his fifth-place medal in the boys downhill at the NYSPHSAA alpine skiing championships after watching a video replay of his performance.
As he looked at the tape, Emerson realized he'd straddled a gate during one of his runs. It should have been enough to disqualify him, but the neither the gate judge nor anyone else had noticed.
Emerson found a coach before the awards banquet to explain what he'd seen, and they sought out meet supervisor Dennis O'Brien to request that he be disqualified -- something O'Brien said was unprecedented in his 23 years at the state meet.
"As a coach, I was proud of him. It was phenomenal," coach Tom Adamec said. "It was an act that was selfless, honest, compelled by integrity and most of all loyalty to oneself."
Rather than waiting to decide recipients following the meet's conclusion, officials awarded Emerson one of two Section 1 sportsmanship sweatshirts on the spot. Competitors and spectators gave Emerson a standing ovation.
Overcoming adversity
"Playing was a victory in itself," Holy Trinity junior lineman Tom Thayer said after his football team
overcame a devastating fire a day earlier to play its Section 2 Class C quarterfinal, a 46-12 loss to Hoosic Valley.
Holy Trinity lost all of its equipment in an early-morning arson fire destroyed the football field house at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons. Offers of aid poured in almost immediately, with the University at Albany among the programs promising to donate equipment.
"I have tons of respect for how they rallied together and gave it everything," Hoosic Valley running back Isaac Sanchez said.