High School category, Page 309

The Cheswick Christian Academy boys basketball team defeated Pittsburgh Christian Academy, 42-39, on Saturday at a packed Steve Warden Gymnasium to take home its first SWCAC title since 2015. Grant Rochkind, the league MVP, finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and six assists for Cheswick Christian. The game featured eight...

Uniontown had a couple of good looks at a go-ahead 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter and had possession of the ball down three with only a minute left. The Red Raiders certainly had chances to maybe knock off the reigning champion in a WPIAL semifinal Saturday, but against a...

Seneca Valley’s Isaiah Clerkley turned in a dominant performance and Lola Malarky extended North Allegheny’s stranglehold on girls gold at the WPIAL Class 3A diving championships Saturday. Clerkley defended his boys championship with a score of 583.35, the best score in the boys competition since 2019. Fox Chapel’s Jackson Hagler...

RJ Sledge hit five 3-pointers and scored 28 points as top-seeded Imani Christian won a rematch of last year’s WPIAL championship game, defeating No. 5 Union, 101-67, in the Class A boys basketball semifinals Saturday at Montour. Nate Brazil added 26 points for the Saints (13-10), who will meet No....

It was a day of perfection for the Derry wrestling team at the WPIAL Class 2A championship Saturday at Chartiers Valley. The Trojans went 3 for 3 in the finals, and it was their most champions in the same season. Junior Anthony Mucci and his dad, Blaise, have something in...

Winning a WPIAL wrestling title is not easy. Just asked Burrell senior Cooper Hornack. He needed an overtime takedown and a couple of great scrambles to defeat Burgettstown senior Gaven Suica, 3-1, to win the 139-pound title, his third, at the WPIAL Class 2A championships Saturday at Chartiers Valley. Twice,...

Jordan Marks has spent plenty of time at the Petersen Events Center. Before becoming the head coach at Neighborhood Academy, Marks cut his teeth as a video coordinator under former Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. So, Marks is pretty familiar with where he will be next Thursday night. Behind 18 points...

Beaver Falls senior Avina Norman has been a force in the postseason for the Tigers, averaging 20.5 points per game in leading the team in scoring in both first-round and quarterfinal victories. However, her play Saturday went from sweet to sour thanks to the defense of Shady Side Academy sophomore...

She came off a curl and caught the basketball on the wing, in front of her team’s bench, and let it fly with 21.4 seconds left in the third quarter. Erica Gribble, Greensburg Central Catholic’s skilled sophomore, asked for the ball on a weaving give-and-go from senior Avery Davis —...

Standout senior guard Terek Crosby of Yough scored his 2,000th career point Saturday in a 61-47 loss to Shady Side Academy in a WPIAL Class 3A consolation game at Fox Chapel. He hit the milestone with a spinning layup in the lane during the second quarter. He is the 34th...

Fox Chapel, Gateway and Peters Township will host WPIAL semifinal doubleheaders Tuesday night. Games are scheduled that night for Class 6A and 2A boys and Class 5A and 4A girls. WPIAL basketball Tuesday’s semifinals Class 6A boys 1-Mt. Lebanon (20-4) vs. 4-Baldwin (17-6) at Bethel Park, 7 p.m. 2-Central Catholic...

Veronica Flanagan Class: Junior School: Kiski Area Sport: Bowling Report card: Kiski Area junior Veronica Flanagan captured the WPIBL girls singles championship Thursday at AMF Mt. Lebanon after she defeated Freeport’s Mackensie Livingston, 222-183, in the final. Flanagan, the WPIBL runner-up last year, was fourth after the qualifying round when...

Drew Griffith ran two miles in a historic time, faster than the all-time indoor best for high school boys, but the Butler senior’s name won’t appear in any national record book. While running last weekend at an invitational meet hosted by Notre Dame, Griffith won the 2-mile race in 8...

It’s been quite a season for the Franklin Regional swimming teams. The boys finished the season 11-0 and were Section 1-3A champions while the girls were 8-3 overall and also were Section 1-3A champions. The girls’ losses were nonsection. Both also were Class 3A Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association team champions....

The fall sports landscape will look quite different next year with the WPIAL realigning teams in its latest two-year enrollment cycle. Norwin and Hempfield are back in Class 6A for football and will play in one, eight-team conference that also will include Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic, Mt. Lebanon, Seneca Valley, North...

A couple more games. Maybe another week of section play would have done the trick. Franklin Regional may have peaked too late, but that’s not exactly a bad thing as coach Bernie Pucka looks back on girls basketball season. The Panthers finished fifth in Section 1-5A, when fourth would have...

Swimmers by their nature are super competitive, both in practice when challenging teammates and at meets against other schools. The Hampton swim team has added another outlet in which to stoke that competitive fire — the video game Fortnite. “Before the high school season would start, we would play three...

A season of ups and downs came to an end for the Hampton girls basketball team Feb. 20 with a loss to No. 2 seed McKeesport in the first round of the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs. “Our girls put forth a great effort after a good week of preparation,” said...

Mason Miles wanted more input on how to become a better thrower. The Fox Chapel senior does his best to work with throw coach Jayne Beatty a few times a week. Beatty, who was a three-time All-American at Slippery Rock, was able to help Miles refine his technique and make...

Zach Skrinjar has a theory about the first round of the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs. Despite there being some mismatches on paper in terms of high seeds against lower seeds, the veteran Fox Chapel boys basketball coach believes the first round is the most difficult. “Everyone has nerves. You know...

Bethel Park junior Cally Edner made a big splash in the pool again this year. Edner qualified for the WPIAL Class 3A swim finals Feb. 29-March 1 at Pitt’s Trees pool in every individual event. “We call that the WPIAL sweep,” said Kathy Strock, Bethel Park’s girls coach. “Cally is...

The Bethel Park hockey team found itself in a battle for a PIHL Class 3A playoff spot coming down the stretch in the regular season. The senior-laden Black Hawks were tied with Central Catholic in seventh place with a 9-7-0-1 record and 19 points, trailing Seneca Valley (30 points), Pine-Richland...

Bethel Park’s girls basketball team ended its season in a most positive way — with six consecutive victories. The Black Hawks fell a game short, however, of qualifying for the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. “We played a really competitive schedule (against) some of the 5A teams,” coach Steve Norman said....

Brooke Price will again swim the 100-yard backstroke Friday on the second day of the WPIAL Class 3A championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool. The Plum sophomore swam to 17th in the event in her WPIAL debut last year. It was the only individual event she qualified for in her first...

In 2021, the Plum girls basketball team defeated Lincoln Park to snap a two-­decade-long win drought in the WPIAL playoffs. Last year, the Mustangs topped Montour in the WPIAL first round before bowing out to No. 2 Oakland Catholic, the eventual WPIAL runner-up, in the quarterfinals. Plum hoped to make...