High School category, Page 503
High school roundup for March 11, 2023: Penn-Trafford girls stun District 3 champions
Torrie DeStefano made a free throw with 8.1 seconds remaining as Penn-Trafford knocked off District 3 champion Greencastle-Antrim, 40-39, in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A girls basketball playoffs Saturday. The Warriors (18-9), the seventh seed out of the WPIAL, intercepted a pass on the next possession for...
Latrobe’s Vinny Kilkeary wins 3rd PIAA wrestling title; 3 others from WPIAL claim championships
HERSHEY — You never know what type of celebration you’ll get from a wrestler after winning a PIAA title. Latrobe senior Vinny Kilkeary’s celebration was uplifting Saturday at the Class 3A championship at Giant Center. After Kilkeary beat Canon-McMillan junior Andrew Binni, 8-5, to win the 127-pound class, coach Mark...
Saulle constructed hall of fame resume while building Freeport girls program
Expectations weren’t high when Tom Saulle became the Freeport girls basketball coach in 1977. “Everyone said that I was crazy, that we would never win,” he said. Saulle took a small step toward proving the doubters wrong in his first season. “We won two games that year, which was (then)...
Gritty New Castle stops Erie in PIAA 1st-round battle
New Castle leaned on past state playoff successes and a tough defense to eliminate District 10 champion Erie, 60-50, in a PIAA Class 6A first-round battle Saturday afternoon at the Ne-Ca High Fieldhouse. One year after reaching the Class 5A state championship game, the Red Hurricane and their four starting...
Deer Lakes boys open state playoffs with dominant win on home floor
The stairs that lead from the Deer Lakes locker room to the gym floor are quite steep, but the Lancers were confident they wouldn’t stumble on this day. A so-called “hangover” has tripped up some previous WPIAL champions, but those teams weren’t playing a state tournament game in their home...
Yough boys blitzed by Penn Cambria in fourth quarter in PIAA defeat
CRESSON — Yough was up by nine points with six minutes to play in its first PIAA boys basketball playoff game since 2005. The Cougars, though, didn’t feel comfortable. There was something about this Penn Cambria team, with its nonstop hustle and rapid-fire 3-point shooting, that had Yough on edge...
Burrell’s Cooper Hornack backs his guarantee with Class 2A state wrestling championship
HERSHEY — Sometimes guarantees don’t come true. But Burrell junior Cooper Hornack made sure he delivered on his guarantee. Hornack (43-9, 112-19) used a takedown with a minute left in the 127-pound finals to defeat Bentworth senior Chris Vargo, 2-1, in the PIAA Class 2A wrestling championships Saturday at Giant...
Early deficit too much for Highlands girls to overcome in 1st PIAA playoff game
The Highlands girls basketball team dug itself an early hole in a PIAA Class 4A first-round playoff game Saturday against District 6 champion Penn Cambria at Mt. Aloysius. The Golden Rams, playing in the program’s first tournament, fought their way back from a 15-point deficit in the second quarter and...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Highlands’ Jimmy Kunst, Freeport’s Julia Cummings
Julia Cummings Class: Senior School: Freeport Sport: Bowling Report card: Cummings finished second at the Western Regional girls singles bowling championship Friday at AMF Noble Manor Lanes. Cummings rolled a five-game series of 995 to lead in the qualifying round. She then won her semifinal match before falling in the...
Plum girls get into championship act, win Western Regional team bowling title
After seeing Plum’s Cade Schimmer win the WPIBL title and Sean Endler take the Western Regional crown in boys singles competition already this postseason, the Mustangs girls bowling team got into the championship act Saturday afternoon. Plum defeated Norwin, 171-168, in the decisive game of the best-of-three finals to win...
Latrobe’s Vinny Kilkeary, Waynesburg’s Mac Church to wrestle for 3rd PIAA 3A titles
HERSHEY – There are 65 wrestlers in the state of Pennsylvania that have won at least three PIAA titles. Out of that list, 13 are four-time champions. The list of 52 three-time winners will grow by three if Latrobe senior Vinny Kilkeary and Waynesburg senior Mac Church in Class 3A...
Coach optimistic after Franklin Regional sends 3 wrestlers to states
Franklin Regional wrestling coach Matt Lebe said he didn’t know how many Panthers would qualify for the PIAA individual tournament this year. His best guess was between one and five. It all depended on matchups. Well, Lebe headed to Hershey with three wrestlers — junior Tyler Kapusta (114 pounds), senior...
Hampton junior Meghan Murray eclipses milestone but Talbots fall short of PIAA playoffs
Bored, restless and stuck at home during the lockdown three years ago, then-Hampton eighth grader Meghan Murray grabbed a notebook and jotted down five goals for high school basketball. “One of them was ‘Get 1,000 points by junior year,’ ” she said. Check. Murray reached her goal on a free...
Hampton freshman Gabriella Elk thriving at diving
When Hampton freshman Gabriella Elk made the transition from gymnastics to diving, one part of the switch proved to be tricky. “I was never used to landing on my head,” she said. “That took some getting used to.” Elk has landed among the best young divers in Hampton history. Despite...
Fox Chapel swimmer leaves seed time in dust in dominant performance at WPIAL meet
Fox Chapel swimming coach Dan Taylor was more than pleased with how sophomore Christian Dantey attacked the 200 freestyle at the WPIAL Class 3A championships at Trees Pool. Coming in seeded fifth with a qualifying time of 1 minute, 44.54 seconds, Dantey blew away the field and won his first...
Fox Chapel boys battle their way into PIAA tournament field
Asher White knew that Fox Chapel basketball wasn’t going to be the same before this season started. The 6-foot-3 sophomore forward would need to be one of many players who needed to step into roles to make sure the Foxes were on the right track. “Last year, I played very...
Westmoreland County athletes of the week: Norwin’s Josephine Dollman, Southmoreland’s Henry Miller
Josephine Dollman School: Norwin Sport: Wrestling Class: Freshman Claim to fame: Dollman, who goes by Jojo, won a title at the inaugural MyHouse Western Regional girls championships at Kiski Area. She needed 2 minutes, 39 seconds to pin Saegertown’s Kacie Mook to capture the 136-pound title. She had three consecutive...
Experienced Riverview baseball team adjusts to Class 2A competition
The Riverview baseball team lost just two starters from last year’s WPIAL playoff qualifier. While catcher Taylor Zellefrow and pitcher/outfielder Vinnie Shook will surely be missed after producing strong varsity careers, veteran coach Bill Gras said the returning starters and others ready to step up and step into new roles...
Plum baseball preparing for promising season with Florida training trip
The Plum baseball team is in Florida this week for some practice time and game play under sunny skies and in temperatures expected to reach the upper 70s. The excursion south, veteran coach Carl Vollmer said, is expected to serve as an extension to an already productive series of workouts...
Norwin notebook: Pair of Knights swimmers make states
A pair of Norwin swimmers earned spots in the PIAA Class 3A championships, scheduled for March 15-18 at Bucknell University. Nathan Kostrobala and Anna Little qualified for the state meet with strong finishes at the WPIAL championships earlier this month at Pitt. Kostrobala will compete for a state medal in...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports on March 11, 2023: Heavyweights collide when New Castle meets Erie
Opening weekend on the Road to Hershey continues Saturday. Last year, New Castle lost in the WPIAL finals to Laurel Highlands and then ripped off four wins in the state playoffs to reach the PIAA Class 5A championship game, where the Red Hurricane lost to Imhotep Charter. The last time...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for March 10, 2023
High schools Basketball Boys PIAA playoffs Class 6A Saturday’s schedule First round Chambersburg (15-11) at Plymouth-Whitemarsh (24-4), 4 p.m.; CB East (22-4) vs. Archbishop Wood (16-8) at Archbishop Ryan, 4:30 p.m.; Central (16-11) vs. North Penn (18-8) at West Philadelphia, 3 p.m.; Coatesville (18-9) at Scranton (14-11), 5 p.m.; WC...
High school roundup for March 10, 2023: Uniontown boys knock off District 3 champs
Calvin Winfrey III scored 23 points as WPIAL sixth-place finisher Uniontown defeated District 3 champion Berks Catholic, 81-69, in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A boys basketball playoffs Friday night. Bakari Wallace had 18 points, while Jamire Braxton and Notorious Grooms scored 12 each for the Red Raiders...
‘Bad night’ eliminates North Hills in 1st round of PIAA playoffs
North Hills spent the past 10 days putting up shots in its own gym, making Friday’s shooting woes hard to explain. The Indians shot 39% from the field and endured two single-digit quarters in a 56-52 home-court loss to Mechanicsburg in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A playoffs....
Penn Hills enjoys home-court advantage, routs DuBois in state playoff opener
Noah Barren was happy to be comfortable on a snowy night in Penn Hills. During the Indians’ run through the state playoffs last season, Penn Hills scored a first-round upset on the other side of the state, then got stranded on the side of the road on their way home...
