High School category, Page 289

Second-year Penn Hills boys volleyball coach Will Piccolino has started to find his footing while leading the program. The Indians have already started moving some players around the court to find a better position to win matches. Penn Hills hopes that can provide some steady play. The Indians went 0-10...

Edward Bowser found the right focus while pitching for the Pittsburgh Rawling Tigers last summer. The Penn Hills senior knew he had his mind on the task at hand. Following one game, Bowser wrapped up the contest and discovered he had thrown the first no-hitter of his baseball career. “To...

Gateway junior Hunter Raymer capped the swimming season by earning a pair of medals at the PIAA Class 3A championships March 13-14, at Bucknell. He secured an eighth-place finish in the 200-yard IM in a time of 1 minute, 54.10 seconds in the championship heat. Conestoga’s Jake Wang won the...

Shaler tore down the black-and-yellow curtain that had been surrounding Western Pennsylvania in boys volleyball for the previous five seasons last year. The Titans won against North Allegheny three times, captured the program’s first WPIAL championship, finished with a 19-1 record and reached the PIAA Class 3A championship match before...

Watching fly balls sail over the fence for home runs was something people who follow the Shaler softball team got used to last season. But anyone who comes out to watch the Titans this season can expect a different strategy being employed. Many of the power hitters who helped propel...

Chartiers Valley’s 2023 softball season came to a sudden halt when it was blanked in the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals. A 10-0 loss was not the way the Colts wanted their season to end against the team they shared the section title with. Fast forward a few months and the...

It might be a fresh start for the Chartiers Valley baseball team with a new coaching staff and a renovated lineup with a bevy of seniors graduating from a year ago, but the Colts don’t plan on missing a beat. After going 14-7 and sharing a section 3-4A title with...

A two-time WPIAL champion, Thomas Jefferson’s Maddox Shaw advanced to the PIAA Class 3A tournament in Hershey again this year where he took first place in the 139-pound weight division. Shaw became TJ’s second state champion in the past three years and second under coach Michael Ladick. “For 730 days...

Wrestler of the Year Rune Lawrence Frazier, sr., 215 pounds 2023-24 record: 33-1; Career record: 145-8 Winning four PIAA wrestling titles is not common. When Frazier senior Rune Lawrence completed the task March 9, he became only the 14th wrestler to achieve such a goal. He also is the seventh...

High schools Baseball Saturday’s results Nonsection Avonworth 6, Sidwell Friends 5 Grayslake North 15, Chartiers-Houston 5 North Hills 10, Avonworth 0 West Mifflin 4, Severn 3 Latrobe at Wadsworth (OH) (n) Poland (OH) at Shenango (n) Basketball PIAA championships At Giant Center, Hershey Boys Class 6A Saturday’s result Central York...

Josh Lanyard completed a hat trick to tie the score with the goalie pulled with 1:37 to play and AJ Verszyla netted the game-winner in overtime as Pine-Richland rallied to defeat LaSalle College, 5-4, in the Pennsylvania Cup Class 3A finals Saturday. It’s the fourth state title for Pine-Richland, its...

Kayla Williams School: Latrobe Class: Senior Sport: Softball Claim to fame: Williams sprinted out of the gates to open the season. The Slippery Rock commit earned her first pitching win of the season, striking out nine, and helped her cause with a big day at the plate in an 11-3...

The number of Division I colleges interested in adding John Wetzel to their defensive backfield keeps growing. Wetzel, a junior at Latrobe, pulled in three more scholarship offers, bringing his total to 13. Buffalo, Eastern Michigan and Monmouth extended offers to Wetzel, a 6-foot, 195-pound safety who also plays quarterback...

HERSHEY — Fin Hutchison was the last basketball player from Franklin Regional to leave Giant Center on Friday night. The senior guard cradled the PIAA Class 5A runner-up trophy like a kid with his favorite toy, gently setting it down to answer questions before heading for the bus. He glowed,...

Every Sports Hall of Famer has stories about the great plays they made or a number of championships they won. For Fred Paganelli, who grew up in Natrona Heights and will join the A-K Valley Sports Hall of Fame in May, his sports life was filled with many memories, championships...

Giona Lavorini Class: Junior School: Knoch Sport: Swimming Report card: Lavorini won a gold medal in the 100-yard breaststroke at the PIAA Class 2A girls swimming championships March 16 at Bucknell. Lavorini dropped more than a second from her prelim time to win the championship heat in 1 minute, 2.11...

HERSHEY — Greg Huston wasn’t on the bench last March when Blackhawk lost in the state finals, but he understood the team’s heartache as well as anybody. He was here a dad watching his daughter from the Giant Center seats. “I felt the pain in the stands,” he said, “because...

Hampton track star Dale Hall enters his senior season in the unusual position of being a reigning state champion and an underdog, all at the same time. Hall, who last spring won the PIAA Class 3A 1,600-meter title as the No. 11 seed, has a pair of Notre Dame recruits,...

Vibes are high for the Pine-Richland softball team and for good reason. The entire starting lineup returns from last year’s team that made it to the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals. Experience is always nice to have, but what really excites Rams coach Sam Hartzberg is how well everyone on the...

One day after Hampton’s boys basketball season came to an end, Joe Lafko contemplated the Talbots’ memorable journey. “We had a fantastic year,” the longtime coach said. “I am so proud of this team.” The Talbots (25-5) put together one of the finest seasons in program history, winning a second...

The Fox Chapel boys and girls swimming teams wrapped up their seasons at the PIAA Class 3A swimming and diving championships at Bucknell. Sarah Pasquella ended up being Fox Chapel’s top performer. The Foxes senior standout finished second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1 minute, 1.8 seconds....

The Fox Chapel baseball team hasn’t been immune to having to postpone games due to the cold snap that has plagued mid-March in Western Pennsylvania. But the Foxes were able to keep their season-opening date with defending Class 5A PIAA champion Shaler. Fox Chapel lost its season opener, 5-2, but...

Mason Kernan ended his four-year reign on the mats at Bethel Park with a 124-18 record. A 133-pound senior and West Virginia recruit, Kernan captured a WPIAL Class 3A championship and placed third in the state this season. “Mason competed hard this season and gave everything he had,” Bethel Park...

Bethel Park has won two PIAA baseball championships and two WPIAL runner-up trophies over the last three years. The Black Hawks were WPIAL finalists in 2023 but saw their two-year run as PIAA 5A champions end with a 2-1 playoff loss to Bonner-Pendergast out of District 12. “We graduated 14...

Wrestler of the Year Landon Sidun Norwin, fr., 114 pounds 2023-24 record: 42-2; Overall record: 42-2 Landon Sidun was well known even before he wrestled his first high school match. He was being touted as the next superstar. The freshman didn’t disappoint. Sidun bounced back from a loss in the...