We'll be providing live updates throughout the day from the Binghamton area during the third of four days of the the 31st Empire State Games.
The Games provides results at its Web site. (Note: the speed of results being posted has improved markedly since the beginning of the Games.)
8:32 a.m. -- I'm headed to the Binghamton University track for the start of what is the longest -- and busiest -- day of the Games. There will be plenty of Western athletes on the track, so I won't have another update until somewhere around midday. -KM
11:55 a.m. -- Word has come in that Western open softball beat Long Island, 7-3, this morning to advance to the gold medal game at 3 p.m. Williamsville South's Chelsea Plimpton tossed a complete game, so look for Christine Keleher to start later today. We'll be headed out to Nimmonsburg in a couple hours and we'll have an update later. -DB
12:09 p.m. -- Just got back from the Binghamton University Events Center, where the scholastic men's basketball team rolled into Sunday's gold medal game. Kelvin Agee, a second-team All-Western New York selection as a junior last season at Niagara Falls, nailed four straight threes late in the first half as Western pulled away and won, 102-77, over Adirondack.
Adirondack tried a 2-3 zone and a box-and-one defense in an effort to slow Agee, but for a four minute stretch there, he could not be stopped. "No," Agee said, smiling. "I was feeling it."
Coach Buddy Brasky's message to his team? Feed Agee.
"You've got to know who’s feeling it," Brasky said. "Everybody’s got to be aware of that. And if somebody’s feeling it like Kelvin was, you look to him. A lot of times on all-star teams, everybody is usually the go to guy on their team, so they don’t always understand that concept. But they did it today."
The box-and-one slowed Agee's outside game in the second half. But running off staggered screens, he still got to the basket, finishing his day with a dunk down the lane.
Agee finished with 27 points, Falls' Davon Marshall and North Tonawanda's Aaron Davis each added 11 and Frontier's Jason Norsen played well inside. Norsen's Frontier teammate Grant Wrap went down in the first half with what initially appeared to be a serious knee injury. But Brasky said tests showed Wrap's knee to be structurally sound and Wrap could give it a go in Sunday's gold medal game against Central. -DB
2:20 p.m. Despite some suntan lotion, we have our traditional Saturday Empire State Games sunburn after spending the morning at the premier ESG event -- track and field.
Western won several medals including women's golds by Williamsville East's Kala Allen (scholastic 400), Williamsville South's Allie Van Buren (scholastic 400 hurdles), Cleveland Hill's Taylor Eldridge (scholastic discus), Shannon O'Keefe of Boston and Springville High and now Brockport State (open triple jump) and UB senior-to-be and Rochester native Caitlin Godin (open heptathlon).
In the men's competition, Western winners included recent Albion grad Morris Taylor (open 400) and Andrew Hart (open 5,000), an Ithaca native and Cornell student who is spending his summer in Buffalo. And, in news broken in the comments section by a proud Canisius alum, Crusaders assistant track coach Paul Riley won the men's open 800.
Saturday at the ESG track meet is always has great moments and Saturday had plenty -- hopefully I'll have time to report on not only Western's performance but on the other highlights. There were an announced seven records set at these 31st Games, a testament to the caliber of the ESG participants. -KM.
2:38 p.m. -- Photographer Mark Mulville went to the weightlifting venue at Binghamton University and captured Tony Kalisz of Hamburg setting an Empire State Games record. We'll have more on that either on the blog later or at the least in tomorrow's paper. -KM
5:39 p.m. -- All right, we're back from the softball championship, which Western lost, 7-4, to Adirondack. No shame there. Adirondack had a strong team, and the Western gals made a nice run, taking silver a year after winning the bronze. Check out tomorrow's paper for complete softball coverage. -DB
6:19 p.m. -- Greetings from Cortland, home of Empire Games swimming and volleyball -- even though its 40 miles north of host city Binghamton. Why? Swimming has to be here because there is not a suitable pool in the Binghamton area to host ESG competition -- I believe it's because ESG races are measured by meters (like the Olympics) rather than yards.
We're in the site of the Cortland State ice rink, which is the site for the scholastic volleyball championships. Right now the Long Island men have a 2-1 advantage over Western in the championship match. But it's not that simple. Because Western was the top seed (determined after Thursday and Friday's pool play) and hasn't lost in today's double-elimination tournament, if Long Island wins the best-of-five match, there will be a one-game playoff to determine the gold medal. If memory serves, Long Island did exactly that last year to knock off Western and end its 11-year gold medal streak (the second-longest streak in Games history). The women's scholastic championship, also between Western and Long Island, will follow the men's scholastic match. -KM
7:36 p.m. Western survived the battle with Long Island, coming back from a 2-0 deficit in games to win the match, 3-2. Western rolled in the final game, 15-4. The women's scholastic team is now taking on Long Island and are off to an early lead, 17-6, in the first game. Volleyball teams have a lot of theatrics. The men's scholastic team wore pink and purple socks pulled off of a women's $1 shelf in Wal-Mart this morning. The women's team sings, to the sped-up tune of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," but instead it sings, "Western gold, take me home; to the place, I belong; Western Region; mountain mama, take me home." -KM
8:09 p.m. The Western girls volleyball team works a little quicker than the boys -- Western has a 2-0 lead in its gold medal match after winning the first two games, 25-13, 25-21. -KM
8:30 p.m. -- Western makes it a scholastic sweep of gold in volleyball. Western came from behind to win the third game, 25-23. The team celebration included a bouncing huddle as the team sung its "Take me home, Western gold" song. -KM
10:34 p.m. -- The Western scholastic men's ice hockey team's gold medal streak is over. If the worker at the Broome Community College Ice Rink I kept bothering is right, Western just fell, 4-3, to Long Island. This means even medaling might be a long shot, with Western now needing a victory over unbeaten Central tomorrow to win the bronze.
Kind of a stunner when you put all this in perspective. Western came into these Games with a 36-game unbeaten streak and eight straight gold medals. And even after losing the opener, the boys came back to win their next two games and the gold still appeared within reach. Had Western beaten Long Island, it would have been 3-1 heading into tomorrow's game against 4-0 Central. A win over Central, traditionally the Games' second strongest squad, would have given Western another Gold. Will be interesting to see how the team responds. -DB
11:12 p.m. -- Whoa. That is a stunner about men's hockey. Here at Cortland State, the men's open volleyball team just made it three golds out of four divisions for Western. Western beat New York City in a one-game playoff, 25-22. I'm heading down I-81 back to Binghamton. And Tully's. Time to figure out where we're headed Sunday. -KM
11:14 p.m. -- We won't fault the phone-answering wizard at the Broome Community College Ice Rink, but he was a goal off on the score. Western ice hockey fell, 5-3, as all can now see on the ESG's official site. We'll have the right score in tomorrow's paper. That is, unless the fine volunteers entering the box scores into the computer have erred. Then, we all will owe our friend back at BCC an apology. - DB
---Keith McShea and David Briggs