Good Week For Tigers

By Bill Mullaly

It was a very good week for Hudson High School winter sports team but it was even a greater day on Saturday. The Tigers had quite a super Saturday as both the girls and boys varsity basketball teams beat Pittsford and the wrestling team won the prestigious JAWS meet in Jackson. Toss in two wins by the boys and girls junior varsity teams over Pittsford and then add in a win by the boys freshman hoop team and Hudson was six for six on Saturday. How is that for one day of action? And you just know Tiger athletic director Jeremy Beal had to be smiling as he had a lot to be happy about. Also, all of the hoop wins were at home and all in succession as it was a busy but productive day on the hardwood at Hudson. The highlight of the day was the win over Addison by the wrestling team to take the championship of the JAWS meet. Here is a look at the great week of sports for the Tiger winter athletic teams.

Wrestlers Romp at JAWS

It’s called the Jackson Area Wrestling Showdown and to many teams it's the big showcase event each December. Hudson has been in the JAWS meet for 22 years; this was their seventh title and one of its sweetest. The Tigers had last won the crown in 2002 and had lost to Addison three straight years but not this time. The Tigers captured the Division I crown for the sixth time and they also own one Division II championship. For many teams this meet that featured 17 Jackson-area teams is a measuring stick for where your team is at and how much it needs to improve. Tiger head coach Scott “Scooter” Marry will be the first to tell folks that this meet is held in December and that the big ones are in February and March. Nonetheless, the Tigers sent a message to the wrestling world that they will be heard from two months from now. “We wrestled very hard against some real good teams at a quality meet,” said Marry, who always publicly downplays the accomplishments of his team but privately you know he knows this team is something special. “We found out where we are and what we need to work on. I was real pleased with our effort and conditioning and we wrestled with a lot of heart. We need to grow from this meet and stay hungry. We may also need to re-evaluate our goals as the season moves on.”

Hudson was dominating at this meet, which is considered one of the big ones on the schedule. Teams know that if you win at JAWS you have done something special. Hudson had nine kids go 5-0 for perfect records on the day. It began at 103 with freshman Dakota Kelley, sophomore Zeb Hilyard at 112, junior Kevin Vanderpool at 119, sophomore Derrik Marry at 125, senior Eric Wolf at 140, senior Caleb Ely at 152, senior Kyle Hillard at 171, junior Gabe Elliott at 189 and junior Joey Beaubien at 215. Hudson is now 11-1 and they are ranked number two in the state in division II early in the season. Going into the meet the Panthers were ranked number three and they suffered their first loss after winning 11 straight matches. "It was nice to see the kids show some fight and nastiness in them," said Marry. "We got things rolling right now and I've got four coaches working with me that are super coaches and that makes our whole program stronger." These two teams will meet again later in the year in February and you won’t want to miss the exciting action when they get together in about two months.

Hudson beat East Jackson 58-18, defeated Manchester another ranked team 51-9, pounded Parma Western 55-15 and then whipped Brooklyn Columbia Central 60-12 setting up the showdown with Addison. In the championship match the Tigers won 43-22 but expect the match in February to be closer.

Girls Win Big Again

Get used to this folks as the Hudson Lady Tiger hoop team is for real and they are going to pummel a lot of teams this winter. Hudson pounded Pittsford 83-46 on Saturday at the home gym to win its second game of the year and it came without one of its best players. Senior standout Sheila Komarynski didn't play due to a knee injury, the extent of her injury is not known yet. Hopefully, she will be able to return soon or at the worst after the holiday break. The Lady Tigers will need her back if they are going to win all of their games. Janet Verdon and Ashley Boies stepped in and replaced Komarynski the best they could and did a fine job according to head coach Tom Romanowski. The leading scorer was junior Aubrey Laughlin with 23 points all in the first half and she had eight rebounds and seven assists. Senior Kellee Wonders scored 15 points and had a game-high 17 rebounds. Junior Rachel Pawson had nine assists and Boies added nine rebounds. Hudson led 16-11 after one period and it was 30-15 at halftime. The key to the game was an 18-0 run by Hudson to start the second half as they jumped ahead 61-33 and never looked back. Mykahla Frayer drilled a three-pointer to start the third quarter and Hudson was on its way to its second easy win of the season.

Boys Win One of Three

The Tigers had a busy week with three games to get the boy's portion of the basketball season started. The last game of the week was Saturday night at home and they beat Pittsford 58-47. The night before on Friday at Hillsdale things didn't go well with Hudson falling 75-44 and on Tuesday of last week the Tigers fell in the season opener at  Adrian-Madison 68-61. In the win over Pittsford the Tigers were led by Garrett Schoonover with 12 points and Zach Warner scored 11. Luke Milligan added eight points and Taylor Milligan had six. Nate Burlew and Nick Hart both had five points. It was Hudson on top 11-9 after one quarter and they led 35-15 at halftime thanks to a huge 24-point second quarter. It was 45-28 after three periods. "It was nice to get that first win," said Tiger head coach Wayne Perry.

In the game against Hillsdale the Tigers were down 35-26 at halftime but the third quarter saw the Hornets race ahead 59-35 and they went on to the win. Brandon Hephner and Schoonover both scored nine points for Hudson. Blake Woodward added eight. Hephner scored all nine of his points at the foul line.

The game against the Trojans of Madison saw Hudson battle hard trailing 21-20 after one quarter and they were down 42-27 at halftime. Madison led 53-33 entering the last quarter and then Hudson roared back to trail by just three points with 30 seconds left.

Tiger senior Matt Aguirre scored 19 points but 13 came in the fourth quarter to make things interesting in the season opening loss. Woodward scored 16 points and had eight rebounds, while Schoonover scored 12 points. "We fought back very well and I was happy with that as we had a chance late to win the game," said Perry. Check the schedules for all the action this week.

                                   To Index