District College category, Page 58
Former Slippery Rock star Micah Till turns pro
Micah Till was a wrecking ball around the basket at Slippery Rock. The 6-foot-7, 250-pound forward could rebound with the best in NCAA Division II basketball, but he was far from one-dimensional. He graduated as the only Rock player with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 blocks, 100 steals...
Kevin Wanichko promoted to track and field coach at Saint Vincent
Kevin Wanichko was named the men’s track and field coach at Saint Vincent on Tuesday. Wanichko served as the women’s cross country and track and field coach since July, 2016. He was the men’s track and field assistant the past season. The Bailey, N.C. native is a 2012 graduate of...
Slippery Rock, IUP ranked in preseason top 25 football polls
A pair of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division football rivals are ranked in the Division II top 25 by a pair of national college preview magazines. Slippery Rock is No. 9 in the Street & Smith’s poll and No. 11 in the Lindy’s Sports rankings. Both preseason lists were...
Former GCC standout AnnaMarie Gatti promoted to assistant with St. Francis (Pa.) softball
When she played college softball, AnnaMarie Gatti was known as a drop-ball pitcher, one who could induce ground ball outs to stifle opposing rallies. But now that she has entered the coaching ranks, the former WPIAL star is on the rise. Gatti, an overpowering pitcher at Greensburg Central Catholic before...
Seton Hill women’s basketball brings in 7 new players
Seton Hill women’s basketball coach Mark Katarski found away to build a solid recruiting class for the 2020-21 season, mainly online. The incoming class includes junior transfer Sonia Sarda of Granollers, Spain. Sarda played the past two seasons at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, where she averaged 11.2 points as...
Wrestler Jarrod King headlines 2020 Edinboro Hall of Fame class
Jarrod King won an NCAA Division I wrestling title in 2009. On Friday, he joined his brother Matt (2015) as the first family members to be inducted into the Edinboro University Athletic Hall of Fame. The 39th annual Hall of Fame ceremony will tentatively take place Sept. 4. The Connellsville...
Southmoreland grad Lexi Klatt leaving one Division II school for another
Lexi Klatt is on the move. The former Southmoreland softball standout is leaving Alderson Broaddus after less than half a season to play closer to home in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Klatt, a catcher and outfielder, announced she is transferring to Edinboro. “I was just unhappy there,” the rising...
Luckhardt, Mihalik, Hieber, Murawski among locals on College Football Hall of Fame ballot
When John Luckhardt retired from Cal U in 2012, he likened his 40-plus-year journey coaching football, which also included a successful stint at Washington & Jefferson, to a “Carnival cruise.” Luckhardt could soon be setting sail toward the elite of college football. He is a candidate for the 2021 College...
Temporary recruiting calendar proposed for Division I men’s basketball
The plan is temporary, but it is a plan nonetheless. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee on Monday endorsed a fall recruiting calendar which was devised by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and other collaborators. The outline is meant to reestablish important recruiting dates that had been...
Number of WPIAL softball standouts were off to fast starts at college level
It pains some coaches and fans to think what could have been this season for a number of former WPIAL softball stars playing at the Division I college level. When the coronavirus pandemic showed up early in the spring and put a line through the NCAA softball season, it also...
Craig Heyward, Steve Wisniewski among those on 2021 College Football Hall of Fame ballot
Craig Heyward, Steve Wisniewski and Matt Cavanaugh are among those with local ties who were listed on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021 that was announced Tuesday. Heyward was a 1987 consensus All-American after leading the nation in rushing yards for Pitt. The late...
Latrobe grad Taylor Miller earns CSCAA All-American honors
Latrobe graduate Taylor Miller did not get to qualify for this season’s NCAA Division I women’s diving championship meet but earned a top honor by coming close. Miller, an Ohio University sophomore, was selected as an All-American on the 3-meter board by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of...
Ex-Greensburg Central Catholic soccer star Cartwright fighting back from injury-stunted career at Notre Dame
A bright spotlight followed Bailey Cartwright when she played high school soccer at Greensburg Central Catholic, one so bright it was more like a heat lamp sometimes for the star forward. Her goal-scoring barrage became a sort of spectacle as record after record fell and the Centurions meandered through each...
Franklin Regional grad Fisch lives dream, earns walk-on spot with Pitt basketball
It is not quite “The Fish Who Saved Pittsburgh.” No, this story is more along the lines of, “The Fisch Who Wooed Pittsburgh,” and it is a tale of devotion, determination and fulfillment. In a couple of years, Pitt super fan Aidan Fisch went from being a team manager on...
NCAA Division III extends preseason on run-up to sports’ phased return
In another step geared toward keeping the health and safety of student-athletes first, the NCAA Division III Administrative Committee announced it will lengthen the preseason for sports teams for 2020-21. The move looks to provide a cushion of preparation time as college athletics begin to swing toward a measured return...
IUP names women’s volleyball coach
IUP dipped into the NCAA Division I ranks to hire its new women’s volleyball coach. Julie Torbett, who played high school volleyball at Eisenhower (1986) in Warren County and is a 1990 graduate of Penn State, was named the eighth head coach in the history of the program. Torbett previously...
WPIAL alums earn PSAC spring honors
A trio of WPIAL alums were among 10 student-athletes from schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference selected as spring 2020 Top 10 Award recipients. Slippery Rock’s Lacey Cohen (tennis, Fox Chapel), Seton Hill’s Tommy Pellis (baseball, Greensburg Central Catholic) and Cal (Pa.)’s Nick Riggle (baseball, Keystone Oaks) were among...
Notre Dame standout, Franklin Regional grad Palmer Jackson receives local golf award
Each time he swats a drive down the center of the fairway with a gentle cut or hard fade, Palmer Jackson improves his game. With each flip wedge or curling putt, he is dialing in to something more. Whether it is physical swing mechanics or a sharper mental approach, Jackson...
IUP’s Dan Braun named top golf coach in Atlantic Region
The college golf season was cut short by coronavirus restrictions, but IUP coach Dan Braun continues to clean up with postseason awards. A small but impressive body of work in 2019-20 has garnered Braun the Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. The award was announced by the Golf Coaches Association...
Presidents Athletic Conference working on plan for return to sports
The Presidents Athletic Conference has begun work on a return-to-play plan for intercollegiate sports for the 2020-21 academic year. The league has approved the formation of working groups involving conference executives, administrators, health professionals and coaches to address issues and report back to the Presidents’ Council with recommended guidelines, best...
Waynesburg’s Miller, a Bethel Park grad, to continue baseball pursuits at Division I Gardner-Webb
When the NCAA announced that collegiate athletes affected by the cancellation of spring seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic would receive an extra year of eligibility, it created an opportunity for Bethel Park graduate Mason Miller, a senior on the Waynesburg University baseball team. After three-plus successful seasons for the...
Longtime Carnegie Mellon ‘D’ coordinator Terry Bodnar seeks solace in retirement
For years, Terry Bodnar coached a Carnegie Mellon defense that put toughness on display and made life difficult for opposing offenses. These days, the gameplan for the recently retired longtime Tartans defensive coordinator is spending relaxing days with his son, Jon, and his family in Texas and chasing down his...
Carnegie Mellon golfer Jason Li finalist for national player of the year award
The last two years, he was a semifinalist. Now, Jason Li is a step closer to winning a prestigious golf award. Li, a junior at Carnegie Mellon and a graduate of Sewickley Academy, is a finalist for the NCAA Division III Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award, presented...
Norwin grad Steve Petrick to play final year of college football at Maine
Steve Petrick thinks he still has something to give college football, and he plans to make his final season count. “One hundred percent,” he said. But Petrick will have to put that punctuation mark on his meandering career at another new school — his fourth in as many years. A...
Ex-Slippery Rock QB Roland Rivers stays ready as he awaits opportunity
When the NFL Draft came and went in April, former Slippery Rock quarterback Roland Rivers III never received a call. So he waited, hoping a team would sign him as a free agent afterward. Still, nothing came. Now, almost a month after the draft, Rivers still is without an NFL...
