High School category, Page 323
Plum, Riverview athletes benefit from indoor track and field season
Owen Proskin finished as one of the top scorers for the Plum boys basketball team this season. The 6-foot-4 sophomore also made the most of his athletic double duty this winter through indoor track and field training and competition. His versatility showed with a third-place medal in the high jump...
Gateway boys earn berth to PIAA tournament
The Gateway boys basketball team faced a do-or-die scenario for a trip to the PIAA playoffs. After a loss to No. 2 Franklin Regional in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals and then a close setback at home to Bethel Park in the fifth-place consolation semifinals, the Gators were still alive...
Bentworth’s Chris Vargo pulls huge upset at 2A wrestling Southwest Regional
ALTOONA — Ask Bentworth senior Chris Vargo what it means to win four regional wrestling championships, and the response might seem surprising. Even after a convincing decision Saturday against a nationally ranked opponent. “Right now, it doesn’t mean (anything),” Vargo said. On a night when Frazier standout Rune Lawrence notched...
Butler’s Santino Sloboda stuns top-ranked wrestler to win WPIAL Class 3A crown
Very few people at the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling championships Saturday at Canon-McMillan gave Butler sophomore Santino Sloboda a chance at beating the No. 1 wrestler in the country at his weight class. Sloboda and his circle did. A reversal with two seconds left in the 114-pound final gave Sloboda...
Kiski Area’s Cooper Roscosky wins WPIAL title; pair from Plum headed to states
Kiski Area sophomore Cooper Roscosky has one-upped his brother, Braydon. With his 4-2 overtime win against Norwin senior Nathan Campbell, Cooper became the first in the family to win a WPIAL Class 3A title. He claimed the 189-pound title at the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling championships at Canon-McMillan. Now his...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for March 2, 2024
High schools Basketball Boys WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Championship Saturday’s result Upper St. Clair 64, Baldwin 41 Class 2A Championship Saturday’s result Aliquippa 69, Greensburg Central Catholic 32 Girls WPIAL playoffs Class 5A Championship Saturday’s result South Fayette 70, Armstrong 63 Class 4A Championship Saturday’s result North Catholic 40, Blackhawk...
Latrobe’s Luke Willochell claims 3rd WPIAL title; Hempfield’s Eli Carr his 2nd
No one said winning a title would be easy, but Latrobe junior Luke Willochell found a way Saturday at the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling championships at Canon-McMillan. Willochell (38-1) claimed his third by defeating Franklin Regional senior Tyler Kapusta, 1-0, to win the 121-pound title. Now his focus turns to...
73 WPIAL boys, girls basketball teams seeded for PIAA play
With the Path to the Pete now history, the focus turns to the Road to Hershey and the start of the 2024 PIAA basketball postseason. The state playoffs begin with first round action on Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9. Here is a final list of the WPIAL teams...
Upper St. Clair ends Baldwin’s WPIAL run with resounding victory in Class 6A final
“Let’s go dance,” Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer told his players, guiding them back to their Petersen Events Center locker room where they bounced and sang along to “Y-M-C-A.” There might be some debate about whether they’re the best dancers in the WPIAL, but the Panthers left Pitt’s arena...
Canon-McMillan dominates girls 2A wrestling regional; Norwin advances 4
In the first PIAA girls Western Regional championships, held at Canon-McMillan High School, schools from around the WPIAL had solid representation in the final matches. No school had more of a presence than the host. The Big Macs had three wrestlers win gold in their respective weight classes and had...
Gateway tops rival Franklin Regional for regional boys bowling title
Gateway turned in a dominant performance at the Western Pennsylvania Regional boys team tournament Saturday at AMF Noble Manor Lanes, finishing atop the field in qualifying and going undefeated in the step-ladder finals en route to the title. The Gators faced neighborhood rival Franklin Regional in the finals and swept...
Westmoreland high school athletes of the week for the week ending March 3, 2024: Kendall Berger and David Mutter
Kendall Berger School: Norwin Class: Junior Sport: Basketball Claim to fame: Berger helped lead Norwin to the WPIAL Class 6A championship with an impressive performance in the semifinals. She scored 18 of her game and playoff career-high 22 points in the second half as Norwin pulled away for a 63-47...
South Fayette beats Armstrong to complete 3-peat in WPIAL Class 5AVideo
Experience matters for the South Fayette girls basketball team. The sixth-seeded Lions weren’t expected to return to the Petersen Events Center for the WPIAL Class 5A girls basketball title game this season. But once South Fayette got there, what the Lions had witnessed in previous years helped them win their...
After WPIAL title, Deer Lakes boys set sights on run to state championship
The Deer Lakes boys basketball team had three goals at the beginning of the season: win a section title, repeat as WPIAL champs and get back to Hershey for the state finals. After Friday’s 55-49 win over Alle-Kiski Valley rival Burrell in the WPIAL Class 3A championship, the Lancers can...
North Catholic gets past Blackhawk in OT to win WPIAL title for 3rd straight seasonVideo
North Catholic took home its third WPIAL title in a row and seventh in the past eight years with a 40-37 win over Blackhawk in overtime in a championship rematch in the Class 4A finals Saturday at Petersen Events Center. The Trojanettes were spearheaded by Alayna Rocco, who tallied 26...
Latrobe’s Luke Willochell survives scare, stays on track for 3rd WPIAL title
It wasn’t easy, but Latrobe junior Luke Willochell survived a scare in the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling semifinals Saturday at Canon-McMillan. Willochell gave up an early takedown and rallied in the third period to defeat Canon-McMillan sophomore Cooper Hartman, 8-4, to advance to the 121-pound finals for the third consecutive...
WPIAL champion Norwin girls ‘refused to be outworked’ on title run
Songs, desserts, family. They all came up in conversation during a postgame news conference Friday night at Petersen Events Center as coach Brian Brozeski and eight of his Norwin girls basketball player shared some playful banter with reporters. It was a light and telling session with the newly crowned WPIAL...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Freeport’s Kira Schrecongost, Deer Lakes’ Wayne Love
Kira Schrecongost School: Freeport Class: Junior Sport: Swimming Report card: Schrecongost won the WPIAL Class 2A girls 100-yard butterfly title for the second time Thursday. She edged rival Katie Jackovic, a senior from South Park, by 58 one-hundredths of a second, winning in 55.37 seconds at Pitt’s Trees Pool. She...
Union girls fend off challenge from St. Joseph to defend WPIAL title in OTVideo
Winning a WPIAL basketball championship is hard enough. Two in a row seems improbable. Add in a double-digit deficit early in the game, and the difficulty level increases even more. But the top-seeded Union girls pulled it off Saturday, coming up clutch in overtime and securing back-to-back titles with a...
Shane Bartha, Apollo-Ridge’s all-time leading scorer, to join A-K Valley Sports Hall of Fame
Shane Bartha’s playing days at Apollo-Ridge featured plenty of memorable basketball victories, most notably the Vikings’ 54-51 win over Brentwood in the 1991 WPIAL Class AA girls final. But it’s the lone loss of Bartha’s senior season that still weighs on her mind. The Vikings dropped a tough 51-49 decision...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: 9 county basketball teams in PIAA field
The PIAA basketball playoff field is set. State first-round games will begin March 8-9. Boys qualifiers from Westmoreland County are Franklin Regional in Class 5A, Derry and Burrell in 3A, Greensburg Central Catholic and Jeannette in 2A and Monessen in Class A. For the girls, it’s Norwin in 6A, Greensburg...
Aquinas Academy boys show they’re no one-man team
Aquinas Academy entered this season with a lot of uncertainty after losing WPIAL all-time leading scorer Vinnie Cugini to graduation. But instead of taking a step backward, the new-look Crusaders proved themselves by recording 15 wins and earning a WPIAL playoff victory for only the second time in program history....
Disciplined lifestyle leads Norwin senior to Navy wrestling team
The military lifestyle appears to suit Nate Campbell. Discipline is nothing new to the Norwin senior wrestler. “I don’t drink or do drugs. I get eight hours of sleep a night. I prioritize academics as well as work out and wrestle every day,” Campbell said. “I put good foods in...
Fox Chapel wrestlers battle through adversity to send 10 to WPIAL meet
The Fox Chapel wrestling team battled some sickness during the section tournament, but that didn’t slow the Foxes from sending a large contingent of wrestlers to the WPIAL Class 3A championships. Fox Chapel had 10 wrestlers move on. While the Foxes didn’t produce a champion, Landon Funk (114 pounds), Alexander...
Fox Chapel track standouts pick up medals at indoor state meet
Fox Chapel track coach Tom Moul felt it was fitting for the Foxes to wrap up the indoor season by having three athletes medal at the PTFCA Indoor State Championship at Penn State. The Foxes have spent all season piling up accolades. Fox Chapel set seven school records during the...
