High School category, Page 1124
Trib HSSN’s boys swimmer of the week: North Allegheny’s Josh Galecki
Josh Galecki knows the feeling of winning gold in relay events at both the WPIAL and PIAA swimming championships. The North Allegheny senior freestyler helped the 400-yard free relay capture the WPIAL Class AAA crown the past two seasons. Last March, he joined the 200 free relay at states and...
Mt. Pleasant boys make stand in final seconds to stop DerryVideo
Derry had one last chance, but Mt. Pleasant wasn’t having it. Sophomore forward Luke Brandner swiped at the ball and knocked it away as Derry’s Tyson Webb drove the lane and teammate Jake Johnson swarmed to complete the steal in the closing seconds as Mt. Pleasant held on for a...
Highlands overcomes first-half shooting slump to beat FreeportVideo
It wasn’t Highlands’ cleanest game of the season, but the Golden Rams escaped from Freeport with a key section victory on Friday night. Led by Luke Cochran’s 24-point performance — the senior guard also eclipsed 1,000 career points during the game — the Golden Rams (9-1, 2-0) shook off a...
Burrell’s unseeded Christie earns berth in WCCA wrestling semifinals
Burrell wrestling coach Josh Shields missed the opening night of the 67th annual Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association wrestling tournament Friday because he and his wife Kylie welcomed the birth of their new son, Laker James, late in the afternoon. Laker weighed in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces and 22 inches...
2010s TribLive HSSN All-Decade Football Team: Defense
When the NFL playoffs arrive this weekend, three WPIAL defensive stars from the past decade will be in uniform, a testament to the football talent Western Pennsylvania produces. But that’s not what earned them their recognition here. As high school players, Thomas Jefferson’s Chase Winovich, Woodland Hills’ Quinton Jefferson and...
Struggling Butler football program leaving WPIAL for independent schedule
Worried that years of losing will force its program to someday fold, Butler decided it won’t play WPIAL football next season and instead will put together an independent schedule. The school notified the WPIAL on Friday, Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said. The team endured its second consecutive 0-10 season...
Championship rivalry renewed on busy Friday of hoops
New Castle has won three straight WPIAL Class 4A boys basketball championships. In all three title games, the Red Hurricane knocked off rival Quaker Valley. Now the ‘Canes and Quakers meet for the first of two regular season meetings on Friday. In 2017 finals, New Castle cruised to a 73-58...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for Jan. 2, 2020
Basketball Boys Thursday’s results WPIAL Nonsection Union at Avonworth, ppd. Friday’s schedule WPIAL Class 6A Section 1 North Allegheny at Pine-Richland, 7:30 p.m. North Hills at Butler, 8 p.m. Seneca Valley at Central Catholic, 7:25 p.m. Section 2 Baldwin at Upper St. Clair, 7:30 p.m. Canon-McMillan at Mt. Lebanon, 7:30...
High school roundup for Jan. 2, 2020: Chartiers Valley fends off Trinity, keeps unbeaten streak alive
Chartiers Valley fended off a strong challenge to its unbeaten streak Thursday night, rallying for a 62-56 victory over Trinity in a matchup of the top two teams in the Trib HSSN Class 5A girls basketball rankings. Trailing by two points after three quarters, Chartiers Valley (9-0, 3-0 in Section...
North Catholic tops Freeport in matchup of section leaders
Despite facing a 21-point deficit after three quarters of Thursday’s Section 1-4A contest at North Catholic, the Freeport girls basketball team didn’t wave the white flag. The Yellowjackets opened the final quarter with an 11-2 run to trim the Trojanette lead to 12. But the margin was too large to...
Freshman Savannah Schneck helps Norwin girls avenge playoff loss to North Allegheny
With its 13-point lead squeezed to three with about a minute to play, Norwin did what any seasoned team would do in such a chaotic situation. It gave the basketball to a freshman. Reserve swing-guard Savannah Schneck made the most of her minutes, coming up clutch in a clash of...
2010s TribLive HSSN All-Decade Football Team: Offense
The 2010s were a record-setting decade for WPIAL football teams, with career, single-season and single-game record books rewritten more than once. When the decade dawned, no WPIAL passer had broken the career 7,000-yard barrier. None had thrown for 3,000 yards in a season. Nobody had touched 500 yards in a...
Latrobe’s Gabe Willochell, Mt. Pleasant’s Dayton Pitzer to miss WCCA wrestling tournament
The Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association wrestling tournament this weekend will be missing two prominent wrestlers. Latrobe senior Gabe Willochell, the No. 1 seed at 132 pounds who is fresh off an exciting win against two-time PIAA champion Alejandro Herrera-Rondon of Seneca Valley, has been scratched from the tournament because of...
Highlands boys sharing spotlight, climbing WPIAL rankings
When Highlands takes the court, most eyes in the gym usually drift straight toward the play of forward Johnny Crise and point guard Luke Cochran. Over the past few years, the pair of childhood best friends have helped Highlands (8-1, 1-0) jump into the upper echelon of WPIAL boys basketball....
Shaler Area wrestling coach Swope hopes Yeager’s tournament medal is building blockVideo
Brad Yeager demonstrated what Shaler Area wrestling coach Ethan Swope hopes to see more of moving forward. By placing sixth at 106 pounds, the Titans freshman wrestler earned a medal in his first varsity tournament. Shaler, which has only five wrestlers on the roster, placed 28th as a team at...
Shaler focuses on fine-tuning in pursuit of WPIAL qualifying
Shaler Area sophomore Jake Bacasa wants everything to come together so he can qualify for the WPIAL Class AAA swimming championships. Right now, Bacasa is within several seconds of qualifying in the 100 breast and 500 free. “I want to better my technique,” Bacasa said. “A lot of the techniques...
Full roster could spell playoffs again for Hampton girls basketball
It might be too early to shout about, but Hampton girls basketball is back at the top of the section. After a four-win season last year following seven consecutive playoff appearances, the team went into the new year 2-0 in its section. That put the team in first place despite...
South Fayette senior Duncan signs with Ohio swim team
South Fayette senior Abbie Duncan signed a letter of intent to compete for the Ohio women’s swimming team next season. Tom Donati, her coach with the Mt. Lebanon Aqua Club, said the Bobcats are getting a steal. Donati said Duncan is one of the most talented swimmers he has coached...
Offense catching up to defense as Chartiers Valley hockey hopes for strong 2nd halfVideo
With only three returning varsity players, Chartiers Valley hockey coach Paul Bonetti thought his team might be in for a challenging season. When the Colts dropped their first two games, it looked as though his suspicions were confirmed. At the holiday break, their record was a pedestrian 5-4-1-1 (including an...
Penn Hills girls hope tough nonsection games pay off in section playVideo
Robert Cash never has shied away from having his Penn Hills girls basketball program play against the top teams in the WPIAL. The Indians’ 3-5 overall record doesn’t look great, but the Indians’ losses came against the top teams in the WPIAL and out-of-state teams. The losses haven’t affected their...
Penn Hills boys steer clear of early season roadblocks
Going into the season, Dan DeRose knew his Penn Hills boys basketball team was going to be tested with a tough regular season schedule. DeRose knew his team would be battle ready when it came to the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs thanks to a tough nonsection schedule as well. Off-the-court...
North Hills swimming teams enjoying improvement this season
While they’re only a handful of meets into their season, the North Hills boys and girls swimming teams are seeing measureable gains in their performances. So far, the North Hills girls (3-0) have seen one pool record, in addition to qualifying three of their relay teams for WPIALs and six...
Big year for Hampton wrestler Ty Kocak includes 100th win, commitment to George Mason
It might seem like ages ago that Ty Kocak wrestled his first match for Hampton. If you see a photo of him from three years ago, it looks like it too. He started at 106 pounds, the lightest weight class. But Kocak kept growing — and so did his win...
Detail-oriented Penn-Trafford boys collecting quality wins
Penn-Trafford is more interested in the small details than the big picture. The Warriors boys basketball team is off to a firm start, but its success is more situational than all-encompassing as Section 3-6A play begins to ramp up. “I’m not terribly surprised by the start we’ve had,” coach Jim...
Westmoreland County boys basketball notebook: New defense suits Centurions
Greensburg Central Catholic soundly defeated Class 3A No. 3 Washington, 50-34, on the second day of the Greensburg Salem Holiday Classic. Coaches were praising the team’s defensive efforts, particularly how the Centurions performed in a 1-2-2 zone press. First-year coach Christian Hyland was asked when the new defense was introduced...
