North Tonawanda’s state title affirms its place at the top of the top-10 girls teams of the year mountain
· Yahoo Sports
The 2025-26 school year was a stellar one for girls teams around the greater Niagara region. The teams made deep postseason runs while making history along the way.
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It was a season in which there were records broken and in the case of North Tonawanda basketball, one state title was won. It is a season that will not soon be forgotten by those that were a part of it.
1. North Tonawanda basketball, 22-3, Class AA state champions
The top spot on the list is a no-brainer. This season, North Tonawanda rolled to the Class AA state championship by beating opponents by an average of 23.9 points per game during the postseason.
The moment the clock hit zero and the North Tonawanda Lumberjacks spilled onto the floor after winning the state title, 57-37 over Bethlehem Central. It was the greater Niagara region’s first state championship in any team sports since Lewiston-Porter competitive cheerleading in 2019 and the first girls basketball state title since Lockport in 1994.
The 20-point win over Bethlehem gave the team its 18th double-digit win of the season, including all seven postseason games. The team was led by the NYSSWA Class AA Player of the Year Annabelle Day (20.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists per game), forward Jakayla Brown (10.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game), and guard Lilly Day (15.3 points, 10 rebounds, 4.3 assists per game).
2. North Tonawanda softball, 19-1, Class AA regional finalists
The North Tonawanda softball team was a power in the 1980s and it had a brief resurgence in the late 1990s, but then the program fell on dark times. The team finished under .500 every year from 2010-2021. When Emily Grampp took over in 2021-22, the team finished above .500, but there was still work to be done.
Now the project is almost complete after the team won its first Niagara Frontier League title since 2004 and its first Section VI title since 1998. This year’s Section VI Class AA title came in an 8-3 win over Orchard Park.
Two games later and the two squads matched up once again and this time Orchard Park got the better of North Tonawanda, who ended its season with a 19-1 record.
North Tonawanda scored 15 or more runs in five games this year and double-digit runs in 10 games. The Lumberjacks went 14-0 in the NFL, winning by an average of 9.2 runs per game.
3. Starpoint soccer, 19-1, Class AA regional finalists
During the 2024 season, Starpoint went 7-8-1 and lost in the first round of the Section VI Class AA tournament. This year’s team was different, though. This year’s team more than doubled its win total and finished the year with a 19-1 overall record.
This year’s Starpoint team made program history by setting a new program win record while winning its first ECIC title since 2007 and winning its first-ever Section VI Class AA title. The squad held opponents to one goal or less in 16 games and had 13 shutouts. The team’s leading goal scorer was Grace Crissman, who scored 43 goals and added 25 assists for 111 points.
4. Wilson soccer, 17-2, Class C Far West Regional
When Wilson hosted Portville in the Section VI Class C semifinals, it appeared that the season was coming to an end. The team was down 2-1 with two seconds left in the game, that is, until a ball bounced off Colbie Elia’s chest and into the net to tie the game up before Wilson won it in overtime.
The team carried that momentum on to a sectional championship win over Frewsburg and its first sectional title since 2023. Before that though, Wilson won the Niagara-Orleans League with a perfect 12-0 league record, punctuated by 11 shutouts in league play. The team’s largest win of the season came on Oct. 7, when they beat Medina 15-0.
While the Wilson season ended in the Far West Regional, it did have a 17-2 overall record. The Lakewomen had two players finish with double-digit goals, Addison Elia (38) and Lilly Gurski (11).
5. Niagara Wheatfield cross country, Class B state top-10
This year’s Niagara Wheatfield cross country team did something that no team before it had done. It won the Section VI Class B title with 60 points.
During the Class B cross country race, Niagara Wheatfield had two top-five finishers Teaghan Brady in third with a time of 20:10.33 and Emily Desiderio in fourth with a time of 20:18.6 finished.
The Falcons also won their fifth consecutive Niagara Frontier League title by four points as Brady (second) and Desiderio (third) were two of the team’s four top-10, along with Ava Thuman (sixth) and Sarah Palermo (seventh)
At the state meet, Niagara Wheatfield finished in 10th with 217 points, with the team’s highest finisher being Desiderio, who finished in 44th with a time of 19.40.6.
6. Lewiston-Porter soccer, 14-5-1, Section VI Class A finalists
Heading into the Section VI Class A tournament as the No. 3 seed, Lewiston-Porter had a long road ahead if it wanted to make it to the sectional title game and win its seventh title in eight seasons. The road started with a win over Maryvale before another home game against No. 6 Williamsville South.
That is when the road got difficult and Lewiston-Porter had to face a team that was seeded higher than them, Second-seeded Iroquois, whom the Lancers dispatched 3-2. That set up a date against the top-seeded Starpoint for a trip to the Far West Regional game on the line. Unfortunately for the Lancers, they were unable to get over the line but the season was still a success.
The Lancers finished the season with a 14-5-1 record while collecting eight shutouts. The squad’s most lopsided win of the season came Sept. 25, when it beat Kenmore West 10-0. This season the Lancers' scoring leader was seventh-grader Lauren Toohey, who had a breakout campaign, scoring 16 goals while adding 13 assists for 45 points.
7. Wilson basketball, 18-6, Section VI Class C finalists
The Wilson basketball team came into the season with big expectations. The team always does and it always wants to win the Niagara-Orleans League. That’s what happens when winning becomes the norm.
The Lakewomen won their eighth consecutive Niagara-Orleans League with an 18-6 overall record and a 10-2 record in league play. Wilson finished the year with a plus-323 point differential, which saw them win 15 games by double-digits.
The season came to an end in the Section VI Class C title game when the Lakewomen lost to Frewsburg 53-33. The experienced Lakewomen team had three Niagara Orleans League first team selections, Bella Thrush, Rowan Simpson and Abbie Faery.
8. North Tonawanda volleyball, 16-3, Section VI Class A1 semifinalists
Heading into this season, having won last year’s Niagara Frontier League title, North Tonawanda was trying to do something that had not been done since 2019, win back-to-back league titles. The Lumberjacks did just that by finishing the season with a 16-3 overall record and a 15-1 record in NFL play.
While North Tonawanda’s season did come to an end in the Section VI semifinals in a sweep at the hands of Williamsville South, the team did accomplish many noteworthy things. This year’s Lumberjacks squad won 13 matches in a sweep and only dropped 11 sets all year. The team’s play led it to having two players named to the All-Niagara Frontier League first-team: libero Logan Baranich and middle blocker JaKayla Brown.
9. Lewiston-Porter basketball, 17-5, Section VI Class A1 semifinalists
For the first time since the 2021-22 season, Lewiston-Porter won a share of the Niagara Frontier League title. This year’s team did it by having an identical 11-3 record alongside Niagara Falls, while beating the Wolverines in both matchups the teams played against each other.
The league title is the program’s third all-time. After being crowned co-champions, Lewiston-Porter made it all the way to the sectional semifinals where it lost to Lake Shore 52-46.
This year’s Lewiston-Porter team went 17-5 overall, good for its most wins in a season since it went 18-5 in 2022-23. The team was led by breakout campaigns from the Jacobs sisters, Amya and Jianna, who combined to score 522 of the team’s 1,157 points
10. Niagara Falls basketball, 14-4, Section VI Class AAA semifinalists
Heading into this season, Niagara Falls had not won a Niagara Frontier League title since the 2013-14 season. That changed this year by becoming co-champions of the league alongside Lewiston-Porter.
This year’s Wolverines team finished the season at 14-4 overall and 11-3 in league play. The young Falls team was able to put together a plus-108 point differential while winning its most games in a season since 2013-14 when the team went 16-3.
The Wolverines' season ended in the Section VI AAA semifinals with a 59-48 loss to Lancaster. Offensively, the team was led by Aliva Day, who averaged 11.2 points per game.