NTWSR TOP 20 TIOGA COUNTY STORYLINES OF THE 2025-26 SPORTS' SEASONS .. #10 to #7 (August 15, 2026)

Northern Tier West Sport Report
TIOGA COUNTY — NTWSR continues the countdown of the Top 20 storylines of the 2025-26 school sports year in the West with #10 through #7.
The Lady Warriors went 10-0 in the Small School division to win the championship and finished 15-4 overall. 
Senior Abby Gehman was named the All-Tioga County Co-Player of the Year after collecting 238 kills, 200 service points with 65 aces, 213 digs and 12 assists.
Senior Raegan VanGorden was the ‘Offensive Player of the Year’ after recording 510 assists, 210 service points with 50 aces and 63 kills and adding 216 digs while junior Olivia Nolan was named First Team All-Tioga County and juniors Aubrey Wells and Bailey Snyder were on the Second Team. 

#9 .. North Penn-Mansfield’s Michael Knefley Wins Strongly Contested NTL XC Title

North Penn-Mansfield’s Michael Knefley held off Canton’s Lawrence Halbfoerster down the final stretch to take home the NTL Coaches’ Invitational boys’ race title.
Knefley (16:31.9) was right ahead of Halbfoerster (16:33.6) and Wellsboro’s Henry Whitney (16:36.6).
“It’s exciting,” Knefley said about taking first. “I think it was anybody’s game. There’s four of us really close, but I knew I wanted it, and then I went off.”

#8 .. Williamson’s Maddie Bailey Has Impressive T&F Postseason

Maddie Bailey paced Williamson’s girls all season and lead the Lady Warriors to a 4th place finish at the NTL coaches’ invite, taking 1st place in the long jump, 2nd in the 800m run and joining with teammates Natalie Yonker, Madison Fay and Lainey Hackett to win the 4x800m relay title. 
Bailey followed up NTL’s with an impressive performance at the District IV Championships, placing 2nd in the long jump, 3rd in the 800 and 4th with Hackett, Fay and Yonker in the two-mile relay while qualifying for the State Championships in all three events. The foursome finished 22nd at States while Bailey was 16th in the 800m and 28th in the long jump.

#7 .. Wellsboro Claims Share of Large School Baseball Title

Wellsboro cruised through their regular season nearly unscathed, falling just twice while collecting multiple mercy-rule wins on their way to a share of the NTL Large School title and the top seed in the District IV 3A playoffs.
In their first match-up with Athens, who Wellsboro would end up sharing the title with, they played at the home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, PNC Field, and the Wildcats would get the early jump in the title race, winning 6-1 to hand the Hornets their second .. and final .. loss of the regular season. 
Wellsboro then put together a 13-game winning streak which included season-sweeping wins over Troy (14-7) and NP-Mansfield (7-12), a pair of wins over Towanda (10-11), a 4-3 win over eventual District IV 2A champ South Williamsport (14-7) and an extra-inning, 6-5 win over Athens to claim a share of the championship.
The Hornets took their 17-2 record into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and rolled Bloomsburg 11-1 in their first round game before falling to No. 4 seed Warrior Run in the semifinals to bring the Hornets’ 2026 season to an end.
Head Coach Kyle Smith got production throughout his mostly underclassmen-filled lineup, with seven Hornets batting over .320 and eight with at least 16 base hits on the year. 
Leading the way at the plate was senior Marek Mascho .. the All-Tioga County Player of the Year,  and junior Coen Tennis, the Defensive Player of the Year.
Marek had 36 base hits on the season .. including a home run, 10 doubles and the 100th hit of his career .. while adding 35 runs scored, 27 RBI, eight stolen bases and a .500 on-base-percentage. Coach Smith’s senior leader also pitched 26 innings for the Hornets, going 3-1 with a 5.19 ERA and 22 strikeouts.
Tennis, the Hornets’ catcher, hit .463 with 31 base hits .. with three home runs, a triple and five doubles .. and had 31 RBI, 21 runs scored, seven stolen bases and a .537 OBP. 
Freshman Gage Baltzley, the All-Tioga County Co-Newcomer of the Year, proved to be a tough out in his first varsity season, hitting .362 with 17 base hits and drawing 18 walks to get on base at a team-leading .557 clip. The Hornets’ second baseman added 25 RBI, 20 runs scored and 18 stolen bases and went 4-0 on the mound, pitching 30 innings with a 2.40 ERA and 32 strikeouts.


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