The 2006-07 season was good to Lancers

by Eric Keppeler
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, June 30, 2007

The end of the 2006-07 school year marks the close of another successful campaign for the Lewiston-Porter athletic department.

In the fall, winter and spring, the Lancers had some outstanding individual and team performances.

Here is a look at some of the best.

•A dramatic turnaround in the standings for the Lew-Port football team was the highlight of the fall season. Just one year removed from the team that suffered through a winless campaign in 2005, the Lancers posted the greatest single-season improvement in school history by rolling up a 5-4 record a year later.

•The Lew-Port girls cross country team had a solid season.

Freshman Kelsey McGill caught a lot of attention by winning the Niagara Frontier League championship at Reservoir Park in an ice storm. She also had a solid outing at the Section VI Championship that was conducted in six inches of snow.

McGill wound up 14th at sectionals, missing out on a trip to states by two places.

•The Lew-Port girls tennis team might not have finished with a great record, but there was a definite bright spot in the play of the Lancers’ first doubles tandem as senior Lindsay VanHarssel and junior Katherine Petrozzi won their first five matches of the year and were Lew-Port’s most consistent performers all season.

•The Lancers varsity club hockey team wound up second in the state after bowing 3-1 to the Cheektowaga Warriors in March in the New York State Small School Championship. Lew-Port was practically unbeatable after the first of the year, losing just two games after Christmas. They then went on to finish in the top four at the sectional tournament, punching their ticket for the state tournament.

•The boys and girls bowling teams each placed third among Class B teams at the Section VI Championship.

•In the spring, the baseball team’s overall record of 8-10 was two wins better than its 2006 mark. Likewise, Lew-Port went 5-9 in the Niagara Frontier League, which also was a two-game improvement, although the team slipped in the standings from sixth to seventh.

But the most fun came in the Section VI playoffs, when the Lancers won two games – including a gigantic upset of the No. 1 seed – before the ride came to an end in the Class A quarterfinals.

•The top Lancer track athlete at sectionals was senior Lauren Schmidt, who finished tied for third in the high jump.

Senior Deanna Favero added a pair of fourth-place finishes, regaining her school record in the pole vault in the process. She lost the record a week earlier at the Niagara Frontier League Championship when senior Jenna Van Dusen hit the 9-feet, 6-inch mark, but Favero bounced back with a 9-9 at sectionals to reclaim the record. Favero also finished fourth in the long jump with a personal best distance of 16-5.

Van Dusen finished sixth in the pole vault with 9-3.

•The Lew-Port boys tennis team snapped a seven-year losing streak with a pair of victories over NFL rival Kenmore East.