High School category, Page 517
Shaler girls grab hard-earned playoff spot in season to remember
Awards from youth basketball camps aren’t items that Hanna DeJidas will likely be submitting with college applications. But the junior guard on the Shaler girls basketball team likely won’t forget winning them either. The foundation for the Titans program was laid with tokens of appreciation from varsity coach Cornelious Nesbit....
Chartiers Valley wrestlers turn attention toward individual postseason success
You would think a growing team like the Chartiers Valley wrestling program would not like being part of a loaded section where signs of improvement might not be evident in your spot in the final standings. With WPIAL realignment this past offseason, the Colts were placed in Section 5-3A along...
Chartiers Valley hockey battles to the end after sluggish start to season
Inexperience and youth made this a tough season at times for the Chartiers Valley hockey program, but the Colts have shown a strong finishing kick to the regular season even though they fell short of qualifying for the PIHL Penguins Cup playoffs. “There’s an old expression that hard work beats...
Baldwin Hall of Fame gymnast Renee Ruggeri shares her love of the sport through coaching
Renee Ruggeri, the original and sole owner of Ultimate Gymnastics in Delmont, has devoted almost her entire life to the sport she loves. She went from a hall-of-fame gymnastics career to a hall-of-fame coaching career. “The success I have had in my almost 40 years of coaching has been aided...
Father-daughter duos take over Baldwin softball program
The timing is ideal. The Baldwin softball program is highlighted by a unique coaching situation in 2023. Baldwin has not one but four new coaches for the spring season: two pairs of fathers and daughters. Ron Santillo, 51, has taken over as head coach and is assisted by his daughter...
Quaker Valley wrestler Logan Richey joins elite company
Quaker Valley senior Logan Richey joined an elite group of wrestlers at his school Feb. 1 with his performance at the WPIAL Class 2A team tournament. Competing at 145 pounds, Richey recorded his 100th career victory via a pin at the 3:35 mark against Jefferson-Morgan’s Grant Hathaway. The talented QV...
Quaker Valley bounces back from skid in time for Penguins Cup playoffs
Quaker Valley’s youthful hockey team snapped out of its funk Feb. 9 with an impressive 8-4 win against North Catholic. The victory temporarily propelled the Quakers past North Catholic in the PIHL Class A Gold Division standings. “Given the youth of our team, including the seven freshmen, I am very...
Penn-Trafford wins state rifle championship
Diana Cholock described Penn-Trafford’s rifle season as crazy after her team captured the school’s first state title on Feb. 14. Penn-Trafford had five shooters in the Top 16, including the No. 1 shooter in junior Ivy Thomas. The Warriors finished with 1,023.3 points, out-shooting WPIAL champion Butler, 1,018.9. Thomas shot...
Penn-Trafford hockey team heating up ahead of Penguins Cup playoffs
It’s been a roller-coaster type season for the 2022-23 Penn-Trafford hockey team. There were highs at the being of the season when the team started 7-2 and finished second in a holiday tournament. That was followed by a poor month of January where the team posted a 1-5 record. But...
Penn Hills wrestlers make strides during nontraditional season
Penn Hills wrestling coach Jeremy Packer enjoyed having a different type of schedule this season. Due to what the Indians thought were going to be low numbers, Penn Hills focused on competing in individual tournaments and building up the skills of wrestlers in a program filled with inexperienced grapplers. Entering...
Penn Hills notebook: Indoor track team looks to build speed, stamina
While Penn Hills indoor track coach Lee Zelkowitz like to use the winter season as a program builder for the fall outdoor season, the Indians would like to build some momentum by sending a few athletes to the state meet. But first, the Indians had to have athletes qualify for...
Pine-Richland sophomore makes name for herself at WPIAL gymnastics meet
Annamaria Samuels has a unique first name and sometimes it’s accidentally misspelled, which was the case on the WPIAL championship results sheet. Don’t expect to see many misspellings in the future, because Samuels certainly made a name for herself with her performance at WPIALs. Samuels, a sophomore at Pine-Richland, took...
Breakout regular season leads Pine-Richland girls into playoff matchup with rival North Allegheny
The first two meetings with North Allegheny provided lessons for the Pine-Richland girls basketball team. The third meeting yields an opportunity to pull an upset. Pine-Richland received the seventh seed in the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs and will travel to No. 2 North Allegheny for a first-round matchup at 7...
Gateway bowlers earn trip to regional championships
The youthful Gateway boys bowling team collected 2,561 pins through three games and finished 15th out of 24 teams at the WPIBL boys team championship tournament Feb. 15, at Sims Lanes in Beaver Falls. Junior Alex Keeling-Oliver led the Gators with games of 165, 210 and 168 to finish with...
Shaler notebook: Titans make themselves at home in playoffs
This winter, making the playoffs was standard operating procedure for the Shaler athletic department. The Titans saw plenty of teams earn a chance to move on to the next level of competition. The Shaler boys basketball, girls basketball, boys bowling, girls bowling and two unified bocce teams all earned spots...
Westmoreland high school athletes of the week: Week ending Feb. 19, 2023
Melina Stratigos School: Belle Vernon Sport: Swimming Year: Junior Claim to fame: Stratigos helped the Leopards to a 67-47 victory over Steel Valley as she won the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly and swam legs of the winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams. She also won a pair...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Fox Chapel’s Anna Troutman, Freeport’s Michael Braun
Anna Troutman Class: Junior School: Fox Chapel Sport: Track and field Report card: Troutman finished first in the high jump at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association championship meet Saturday at Edinboro. She cleared the bar at 5 feet, 5 inches, bettering the next-closest competitors by 4 inches. She also finished...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for Feb. 18, 2023
High schools WPIAL championships Boys Class 6A Quarterfinals Friday’s schedule Norwin (14-8) at New Castle (20-2), 7 p.m.; Butler (14-7) at Mt. Lebanon (15-7), 7 p.m.; Seneca Valley (9-12) at Upper St. Clair (14-8), 7 p.m.; Baldwin (12-10) vs. Central Catholic (13-9) at Gateway, 7 p.m. Class 5A Quarterfinals Wednesday’s...
Big day for Canon-McMillan at TSTCA indoor track championships
Rose Kuchera won a pair of events, the 60-meter hurdles and long jump, to headline a big day for Canon-McMillan at the TSTCA indoor track championships Saturday at Edinboro. On the girls side, Bennett Pidro won the 60-meter dash and the 4x200 relay team also finished first. In boys competition,...
WPIAL Class 2A wrestlers begin postseason quest at section tournaments
Every wrestler who takes the mat wants to win. That doesn’t always happen, but this is the time of the season when individuals are in survival mode. Missing out on first place at this stage doesn’t mean the end of any and all hopes. WPIAL high school wrestlers in Class...
High school roundup for Feb. 18, 2023: Keystone Oaks holds off South Park in Class 3A first round
Eriona Neal scored 26 points as No. 7 Keystone Oaks held off No. 10 South Park, 61-57, in a WPIAL Class 3A girls basketball first-round playoff matchup Saturday at Peters Township. Laney Wagner added 18 points and Bailey Rieg had 11 for Keystone Oaks (16-7), which led 42-25 after three...
No. 11 Mohawk upsets No. 6 Apollo-Ridge in 1st round, gets rematch with Neshannock
The Mohawk girls basketball team had a long ride home from Apollo-Ridge after a WPIAL Class 3A first-round game Saturday afternoon. But the nearly 90-minute trip back to the New Castle area was a joyous one. Three players landed in double figures as the No. 11-seeded Warriors came away with...
Fast start lifts No. 5 OLSH to 1st-round win over Mt. Pleasant
Falling into an early hole in the WPIAL basketball playoffs is often a bad sign, especially for a lower seed. It certainly didn’t help Mt. Pleasant in its tournament opener. While the Vikings chipped away at a double-digit deficit, they spent the afternoon feeling remorseful about the opening minutes and...
22 WPIAL football players picked for Big School East-West all-star game
Pine-Richland teammates Ryan Palmieri, Jake Beam, John Rottinghaus and Matt Nicely, who won a state title together in December, were among 22 WPIAL football players chosen for the Big School East-West all-star game. The East-West event consists of two games May 21 at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg. The big school...
North Hills ‘workhorse’ to play college ball at Cal (Pa.)
Logan Greer’s hunger has paid off. Greer, a senior offensive and defensive lineman for the North Hills football team, recently committed to Cal (Pa.) to continue his academic and athletic career. “It felt like family,” said Greer, a three-year starter for the Indians. “I really liked the coaching staff and...
