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Colton Dillon dominated on offense, scoring 30 points, but it wasn't enough to stop a Prattsburg offense that never knew a cold streak throughout 32 minutes of play at Blue Cross Arena on Saturday in the Class D2 Section V championship game.

Prattsburg prevailed 72-64.

Jaykob Belluscio scored 10 points for the Lancers. 

Mason Putnam scored 19 points for Prattsburg, while Kris Johnson scored 16 and James Crowder scored 12.  

Photos below by Kristin Smith. For more photos, click here.

The Elba Lady Lancers added to the legend that is Elba basketball Friday night, winning a fourth-straight Section V title, beating Andover 48-40.

Leah Bezon and Taylor Augello both had double-doubles, with 17 and 15 points, respectively, and 11 and 15 rebounds apiece. Bezon also had four assists.

Brynn Walczak, the tournament MVP for Class D1, scored nine points and had five rebounds.

For Andover, Emily Wahl and Kelsie Niedemaier scored 12 points each.

Walczak, Bezon, and Maddie Muehlig are all juniors and have been on varsity for all four titles. Augello is also a junior and in her third year on varsity. The only senior on the team is Lauryn Engle, third-year varsity. 

Elba and Pavilion, Class D2 champions, will meet at Mount Morris at 6 p.m., Tuesday to decide which team advances to the Class D state tournament.

On Tuesday GO ART! held a ceremony to award funds to recipients of the New York State Council on the Arts' Decentralization Regrant Program.

Below are the Genesee County recipients.

Reach Grants were awarded to:

• Genesee Valley Wind Ensemble (Concert Season 2020 Mr. Mustard Beatles Cover Band Collaboration) -- $4,395
• Genesee Symphony Orchestra ("Destinations") -- $4,650
• Arc of Genesee Orleans (Film Festival and Art Show) -- $4,425
• Holland Purchase Historical Society (Holland Land Office Museum Guest Speaker and Concert Series, Mystery Theater) -- $1,000
• Elba Betterment Committee -- (EBC Music and More) -- $2,265
• Woodward Memorial Library (Summer Arts Camp) -- $1,500
• Genesee Chorale (2020 Series) -- $5,000
• ACORNS (Music in the Park) -- $350
• Gillam Grant Community Center (Cultural Connections) -- $4,993
• Batavia Concert Band (2020 Concert Series) -- $5,000

The lone Spark Grant recipient is:

• Judd Sunshine (Erie Canal Songwriting Project) -- $3,300

Ripple Grants were awarded to:

• David Burke (12 Center St., Batavia, External Mural) -- $2,500
• Bart Dentino ("The Spaces Between the Leaves") -- $2,500
• Mandy Humphrey (Routes 19 & 5 Mural) -- $2,500
• Eric Zwieg ("Slow Moving Grief") -- $2,500

All the awardees were grateful for the funding, which will help provide cultural and artistic programming to benefit the local community. It will also help create new works, and boost arts education for K-12 public school students.

Pauli Miano, a member of the Elba Betterment Committee, is delighted because the grant will allow her community to put on seven concerts in Elba's park this summer. Miano wrote the grant request along with another committee member, Kelly Dudley, who first suggested it.

The Elba concerts will feature area musicians, and there will be food and theme-related activities at each, most of which will be provided by local nonprofits, school groups, and businesses and restaurants.

Miano says all the bands have been booked and some other commitments have been made -- rock paintings ("Rock out with Bobby and the Pedestrians"), wine and cheese with Jimmie Leggs (jazz); and a car cruise. Shows start in June with The Corfu Pembroke Community Band (All- American theme) and run through August.

Top photo, from left: Theresa Kehl, education/decentralization grant coordinator for GO ART!; Jessica Torrey, GO ART! board president; Kelly Dudley and Pauli Miano, both of the Elba Betterment Committee.

Press release:

Projects to revitalize an important downtown corridor in Batavia and to add 22 megawatts of community solar capacity in Genesee County received approval from the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) Board of Directors at the agency’s March 5 board meeting.

The seven projects approved for assistance have pledged more than $45 million of capital investments.

The Ellicott Station project, a $22 million mixed-use brownfield redevelopment project in Downtown Batavia, plans to construct 55 workforce apartments as part of an adaptive reuse of a former manufacturing facility on a brownfield site that would transform a major gateway to the city, and has applied for support from the New York State Office of Community Renewal.

Ellicott Place is a $3.1 million redevelopment of 45-47 Ellicott St. by V.J. Gautieri Constructors. The project includes the construction of 10 second-floor apartments at the existing facility, along with the development of first-floor storefronts and building-wide façade improvements.

Both projects support Genesee County’s EDGE economic development strategy for housing to support the growth of local businesses and were recognized as strategic projects in the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) announced by Governor Cuomo in 2018.

Five community solar projects proposed by Borrego Solar include capital investments of approximately $21.6 million, and over 15 years are projected to produce more than $2 million to local taxing jurisdictions, including the Elba, Pembroke, and Akron school districts. Each project would also contribute $25,000 toward a community benefit agreement to support STEM education and economic development initiatives.

Borrego’s projects will be located at 3104 W. Main Street Road, 3232 W. Main Street Road and 5230 Batavia-Stafford Townline Road in the Town of Batavia and at 241 Knapp Road East and 241 Knapp Road West in the Town of Pembroke.

Submitted photo and press release:

Luca Zambito, of Elba, (second from left, above) was part of a five-person team from the Canisius College Golden Griffin Fund that secured a first-place win in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge of Western New York, held Feb. 28 at Syracuse University.

Zambito is majoring in Finance at Canisius College and is set to graduate this year.

Canisius College has dominated the CFA Research Challenge in Western New York since its inception in 2010, securing first-place wins for the past 10 consecutive years.

The Canisius team overcame competitors including SUNY Geneseo, University of Rochester and SUNY Oswego to take home the first-place prize. The team now advances to the Americas Regional Challenge, to be held April 20-22 in New York City. 

"The success of our Canisius team gets more incredible every year when you consider the increasing complexity of the research and analysis, and the competition from other colleges and universities," says Richard A. Wall (Class of '78), Ph.D, CFA, professor emeritus of Economics and Finance at Canisius College and faculty advisor to the Golden Griffin Fund team. 

"To be one of only 50 teams advancing to the Americas Regional Challenge is an honor for our students and a testament to their hard work and commitment to the competition, and their futures in the investment management profession," adds Steven Gattuso (Class of '87), MBA '89, CFA, CFP, CMA, director of the Golden Griffin Fund. 

The Golden Griffin Fund team that took home first place in this year's CFA Research Challenge in Western New York was comprised of Justin Begley ('20), Luca Zambito ('20), Cameron Rosenecker ('19), MBA ('20) (team captain), Andrew Sagun ('20) and Nick Stinson ('20).

Batavia's Graham Corp. was subject of 2020 Challenge

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides university-sponsored teams with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis.

The competition tests the analytic, valuation, reporting, writing and presentation skills of students studying Business, Finance and Economics. Teams are challenged to research a publicly traded company and write a written report with a buy, sell or hold recommendation. Teams must then present and defend their analysis to a panel of industry professionals who serve as judges in the competition. 

The subject company for this year's CFA Research Challenge was Graham Corp., headquartered in Batavia. Graham Corp. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of engineered-to-order vacuum and heat-transfer equipment for process industries and energy markets.

Housed within the Richard J. Wehle School of Business and established in 2003, the GGF was one of the region's first real-money, equity investment funds managed by undergraduate and graduate business majors. GGF students select potential companies in which to invest, manage and analyze portfolio holdings, and evaluate and recommend companies to add to the portfolio. 

In 2019, the GGF team was one of only five universities, out of 1,100 worldwide, to advance to the Global Finals of the CFA Institute Research Challenge. It was the second time in five years that the college's team competed on the world stage. 

In 2015, Canisius College advanced through the CFA Institute Research Challenge of Western New York and the Americas Regionals to win the global championship title, earning first place over more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 865 universities in 70 countries.

About CFA Institute

The Chartered Financial Analyst Institute is a global association for investment professionals.

It administers to the CFA and Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement (CIPM) curriculum and exam programs worldwide; publishes research; conducts professional development programs; and sets voluntary ethics-based professional and performance reporting standards for the investment industry. The institute has approximately 150,000 members in 165-plus countries and regions.

About Canisius College

One of 27 Jesuit universities in the nation, Canisius is the premier private university in Western New York. Canisius celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary during the 2019-20 academic year, marking 150 years of Jesuit education and leadership in the city of Buffalo and Western New York.

Visit www.canisius.edu/150 for more information about Canisius' milestones and celebratory events.

Top photo, from left, the Golden Griffin Fund team at Canisius College: Justin Begley, Luca Zambito, Cameron Rosenecker (team captain), Andrew Sagun, and Nick Stinson.

Of five boys basketball teams from Genesee County that played a semifinal Section V tournament game, only one remains in the hunt for a championship trophy: the Elba Lancers.

The Lancers beat Bradford in Mount Morris on Tuesday night, 79-72.

For Elba, Colton Dillon scored 19 points, Zach Marseill scored 16, Collin O'Halloran, 15, and Caleb Scouten, 12.

The Class D2 championship will be played at Blue Cross Arena (a return to the venue for Section V after two or three years of playing the championship games elsewhere) at 1 p.m., against Prattsburg.

Photos by Kristin Smith. For more photos click here.

Elba's full-court press proved to be too much for Hinsdale to handle Monday night in a Class D2 Section V semifinal game at Wayland-Cohocton. The Lady Lancers won 60-25 sending them to a championship match at 6 p.m. Friday at Letchworth against Andover.

The victory was the Lady Lancers' 20th of the season against two defeats.

Brynn Walczak scored 17 points. Maddie Muehlig scored 15. Taylor Augello scored nine. Muehlig was 5-8 from beyond the arc. Leah Bezon, who scored six points, had 10 rebounds. The team combined for 16 steals.

Hinsdale was held to seven points in the first half. No Hinsdale player reached double-digits in scoring in the game.

There were no other girls' basketball games played Monday night.

In boys' basketball:

• Notre Dame lost to Genesee Valley 59-54. 
• Alexander lost to Perry 63-54.
• Byron-Bergen lost to Red Jacket 83-63.
• Oakfield-Alabama lost to York 61-58.

Tonight's girls' games:

• Pavilion plays Arkport at 6 p.m. at Dansville.
• Notre Dame plays Fillmore at 7:45 p.m. at Dansville.

Tomorrow, Byron-Bergen plays Letchworth at 6 p.m. and Pembroke plays Red Jacket at 7:45 p.m. Both games are at HFL.

In boys' basketball tonight, Elba plays Bradford at 7 p.m. at Mount Morris.

Elba's Colton Dillion scored a career-best 47 points in route to setting a new school record for career points, beating the old record of 1,244 points and raising his own record to 1,252 points.

Elba beat Kendall 76-46.

Photos by Kristin Smith. For more photos, click here.

Here's a birthday present that paid off in a big way -- a lottery scratcher purchased at a convenience store in Elba for Nichole Williams turned out to be worth $1 million.

Williams, a mother of three, and a cancer survivor, and resident of Knowlesville, said the money will help pay off her medical bills and she will start a college fund for her children.

“It’s definitely a blessing,” Williams said. “It’s definitely a huge weight lifted off my shoulders that I can provide college for my kids or if they don’t want to go to college we can put it towards a tech school or whatever else they want to do.”

Photo and information courtesy OrleansHub. For more on this story, click here.

A  two-vehicle accident with injuries is reported at Route 98 and Batavia Elba Townline Road. A vehicle is blocking the southbound lane of Route 98. Elba Fire Department is responding. A deputy at the scene calls for traffic control and two flatbed tow trucks to respond.

Press release:

The Forum Players, Genesee Community College's theater arts students, and members of the local theater community are excited to open the 2020 spring season with "Doubt: A Parable," written by John Patrick Shanley, which won both a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award in 2005.

This performance is a brilliant and powerful drama which tells the story of Sister Aloysius, a Bronx school principal who takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of improper relations with a male student.

Shanley not only wrote the play, but he also wrote the screenplay and directed it as a film starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

GCC's talented Forum Players bring this parable to life with four live performances, directed by Maryanne Arena and Jaime Arena, which are intended for mature audiences (age 16 and up). Performances are in the Stuart Steiner Theatre, 1 College Road, Batavia.

• Thursday, Feb. 20, at 12:30 p.m.
• Friday, Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22, both at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Feb. 23, at 2 p.m.

The cast includes:

• Lucine Kauffman, of Elba, as Sister Aloysius
• Sam Rigerman, of Batavia, as Father Flynn
• Nevaeh Vindigni-Kretchmer, of Rochester, as Sister James (alternating the role)
• Alyssa Young, of Holley, as Sister James (alternating the role)
• Francesca Pieter, of Willemstad, Curacao as Mrs. Muller (alternating the role)
• Caitlynne Tape, of Syracuse, as Mrs. Muller (alternating the role)

The crew includes:

• Brodie McPherson, of Rochester, as technical director and production designer
• Emily Grierson, of Perry, as stage manager
• Tiago Ortega, of Sao Paulo, Brazil as a backstage assistant
• Leah Plummer, of Bradford, Pa., as a backstage assistant

Tickets for these shows are available online here. The cost is $8 for adults, and $5 for seniors (55+) and students (16+) and GCC faculty/ staff. GCC students with ID are $3, and GCC alumni with ID will receive a $2 discount on an adult ticket.

To reserve seats, you may also contact the GCC box office at boxoffice@genesee.edu or (585) 345-6814. 

A water main break occurred on Lockport Road in Elba and the road is closed to all traffic for repairs between Route 98 and Snyder Road, according to an announcement by the Genesee County Emergency Dispatch Center.

Submitted photo and press release:

Fanny Venegas is a junior at Elba Central School who designed the cover of the Rochester Automobile Dealers Association’s (RADA) Rochester Auto Show Program and her design was selected as the winner.

Fanny is also a first-year student in the Graphic Arts Program at the Batavia Career and Technical Education Center.

She was recently recognized by Juan Canto, director of Training, Compliance, Recruitment and Placement for the RADA, and she was presented with a monetary award.

The RADA show will be held March 5-8 at the Floreano Convention Center in Rochester. The event draws tens of thousands of attendees and features current and future new vehicles in the market.

“Each year, the RADA invites students to design the program cover because it provides an excellent learning opportunity allowing them to display their knowledge and skills that they learn in the Graphic Design classroom,” Canto said.

“The student whose cover design is chosen, gets to have their bio and picture included in the Auto Show book which thousands of people look at. This prestigious selection can be included in the students’ resume as they look to attend college or, find gainful employment.”

“Fanny is a student who consistently goes above and beyond in all that she does," said Gretchen Rosales, principal of Elba Junior/Senior High School. "Not only does she participate in the Graphic Arts program at the Batavia CTE Center, but she takes AP courses back at the Elba campus.

"She is a three-sport athlete, participating in cross country and indoor/outdoor track. Fanny strives to always give more than 100 percent and she exemplifies what it means to be an Elba Lancer.”

Doug Russo is Fanny’s Graphic Arts instructor. He described how Fanny’s skill set has grown immensely since she first began in September.

“Fanny has gained a vast amount of experience in the graphic arts field," Russo said. "She is proficient in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, which are highly sought out skills in the graphics industry. She is detail orientated, gets along well with others and has great leadership skills.”

Fanny was surprised when she was informed that she is the winner for RADA's cover design competition.

“I was shocked because so many of my classmates entered this contest," Fanny said. "I’m so happy."

Fanny’s mom, Sandra Salcido, was present as Canto gave Fanny the award check.

“I am so proud,” Salcido said with a big smile.

Fanny plans to pursue her education and become a photographer/videographer.

Photo, from left: Gretchen Rosales, principal of Elba Junior/Senior High School; Sandra Salcido, Fanny’s mother; the artist herself -- Fanny Venegas; Juan Canto, director of Training, Compliance, Recruitment and Placement for the RADA; Doug Russo, Batavia CTE Center Graphic Arts instructor; and Maggie Poray, Batavia CTE Center Student Services coordinator.