Monday, Jan. 22, 2018: Seeds announced for dual-meet wrestling

   Leading off today: Section 8 powerhouses Wantagh and Locust Valley have been named top seeds in Saturday's inaugural NYSPHSAA dual-meet wrestling championships in Syracuse.

   The 12-team fields for Divisions I and II at SRC Arena and Events Center on the campus of Onondaga Community College were announced Sunday. The squads will are divided into three-team pools for the preliminaries, with winners advancing to the semifinals at 2:30 p.m. and title matches at 6 o'clock.

   If the seeds hold up, Wantagh and Minisink Valley will meet for the large-school title and Locust Valley will take in Mount Sinai for the small-school championship.

   The Division I pools:

   Mat No. 1 -- Wantagh (No. 1 seed), Elmira, Fox Lane.

   Mat No. 2 -- Fulton (No. 4 seed), Hilton, Shenendehowa.

   Mat No. 3 -- Spencerport (No. 3 seed), Jamesville-DeWitt, Rocky Point.

   Mat No. 4 -- Minisink Valley (No. 2 seed), Lancaster, Horseheads.

   The Division II pools:

   Mat No. 5 -- Locust Valley (No. 1 seed), Warrensburg, Peru.

   Mat No. 6 -- Norwich (No. 4 seed), Canisteo-Greenwood, Pearl River.

   Mat No. 7 -- Central Valley (No. 3 seed), Tioga, Port Jervis.

   Mat No. 8 -- Mount Sinai (No. 2 seed), Falconer, Gouverneur.

   Sunday basketball: Savion Lewis scored a school-record 50 points for Half Hollow Hills East in a 90-68 win over Chaminade. HHH East is ranked 16th in Class AA and Chaminade fifth in Class A.

   Tyson Etienne and Tykei Greene scored 21 apiece for Long Island Lutheran in an 87-37 rout of South Shore. LuHi is ranked fifth and South Shore 24th in Class AA.

   Coming up: Mount Vernon boys basketball coach Bob Cimmino goes for his 500th victory Tuesday when the Knights play Scarsdale. Cimmino is 499-93 with 16 Section 1, seven NYSPHSAA and four Federation titles.

   Epic journey ahead: Cara Nelson, a teacher and coach at East Hampton Middle School, is going to try tackling the World Marathon Challenge at the end of the month.

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   The event has competitors running seven marathons in seven days -- one on each continent of the world.

   "This is taking marathon running to the extreme," said Nelson, a seventh-grade social studies teacher.

   Nelson, 31, has four marathons to her credit thus far. If she pulls off the 183-mile trek beginning Jan. 30 she'll nearly

triple that figure. Day 1 begins in Novolazarev- skaya Station, Antarc- tica. Day 7 is in Miami.

   The task has turned into a teaching moment at the school, where social studies classes are studying the cultures of each of the seven race locations and math and science students are charting various aspects.

   "They've eaten it up," Principal Charles Soriano told Newsday. "It's so important for kids to have hands-on, mind-on activities."

   Nelson sees a life lesson here for students.

   "You don't have to be the strongest or fastest or smartest to do great things," she said. "As long as you work hard and believe in yourself, you can do anything."

   Nelson is part of a team of 16 runners seeking to raise $2 million for various causes, including fighting cancer, Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. The $35,000 cost to compete is being covered by an anonymous sponsor so that all the money raised will go to charities.

   Extra points: Bob Gardner, executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations since 2010, announced this month that he will retire Aug. 1.

   Gardner's entire 48-year career was spent in Indiana, first as a teacher and coach at three schools, then as an AD, principal and district superintendent. After serving on the Indiana High School Athletic Association's board of directors, he joined the IHSAA staff in 1985 and the NFHS staff in 2000.

   The NFHS will take applications through March 1 and interview finalists April 17-18 in Indianapolis.