High School category, Page 933
5 WPIAL wrestlers headed to Hershey with Class AA Super Regional titles
AJ Corrado did something Saturday at IUP’s Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex no other Burrell wrestler has done. He also hopes he is the only one to do it. With a 3-2 ultimate tiebreaker decision over Johnsonburg’s Cole Casilio in the PIAA Class AA West Super Regional 160-pound championship, Corrado...
Freeport’s Schrecongost sets school record at WPIAL championshipsVideo
Alexis Schrecongost finished third in the WPIAL Class AA 100-yard breaststroke as a freshman and placed fourth last season. She battled both years but fell just short against the likes of graduates Heather Gardner from Mt. Pleasant, Rachel Blackburn from Highlands and Harley Kessler from Indiana. The Freeport junior didn’t...
WPIAL wrestlers acquit themselves well at Class AAA Super Regional
ALTOONA — Franklin Regional junior Finn Solomon and Hempfield senior heavyweight Isaiah Vance made statements Saturday at the PIAA West Super Regional at Altoona High School Field House. Solomon had a dominating 12-1 victory against Waynesburg junior Cole Homet in the 138-pound final. Vance was equally impressive with a 7-2...
Mars scores 24 consecutive points in WPIAL 5A quarterfinal win over Trinity
Zac Schlegel and his Mars teammates were reluctant to see the second quarter clock reach zeroes Saturday. Those eight minutes went by like a blur. “That was the funnest quarter I’ve ever played,” Schlegel said. “Everybody was hitting shots.” Everybody wearing white, at least. For Trinity, the second quarter surely...
Mt. Lebanon edges Bethel Park in Class 6A battle
Senior Morgan Palmer drained a key 3-pointer in overtime then connected on a free throw with 4.5 seconds remaining to give Mt. Lebanon a thrilling 59-58 overtime win over Bethel Park in the WPIAL Class 6A quarterfinals Saturday afternoon. The win for the Blue Devils avenged a semifinal loss to...
Big 2nd half allows Norwin girls to pull away from Butler
Halftime speeches and the adjustments that accompany them have helped many a WPIAL basketball team advance in the postseason. After a sluggish first half Saturday afternoon against Butler, Norwin had a heart-to-heart at the break and reversed course for another trip to the semifinals. In a flurry, the third-seeded Knights...
Greensburg Central Catholic boys advance to WPIAL semifinalsVideo
With some film to watch and more time to prepare, Greensburg Central Catholic installed a new defense for Sewickley Academy, a team that beat the Centurions in the last game of the regular season, for the rematch in the WPIAL playoffs. Maybe the result would be different, GCC figured, if...
High school roundup for March 6, 2021: Laurel Highlands, Chartiers Valley move on in 5A bracket
Rodney Gallagher scored 16 points as No. 3 Laurel Highlands overcame a slow start and defeated No. 6 Penn Hills, 48-41, in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals Saturday afternoon. Brandon Davis added 13 points and Jayden Pratt had 12 points and nine rebounds for Laurel Highlands (13-3), which trailed by...
North Allegheny, Peters Township will host WPIAL basketball championships
North Allegheny and Peters Township, two of the area’s larger high school gyms, are expected to host all 12 WPIAL basketball championship games. The finals are March 12, 13 and 15. The WPIAL already revealed the schedule for the first two nights of championship games with two contests per day...
Surging Jeannette boys overwhelm Winchester Thurston in quarterfinals
Count Winchester Thurston boys basketball coach Justin Walther among the believers in surging Jeannette’s WPIAL title chances. “They’re loaded,” he said. “I think they’ve got a chance to win it all.” The Jayhawks won for the seventh time in a row Saturday at home in the Class 2A quarterfinals and...
Hempfield bowlers come through in the clutch, claim regional team title
The Hempfield boys bowling team won a Western Regional championship Saturday at the North Versailles Bowling Center, avenging a loss from last month and saving some of its best bowling for last. The Spartans defeated North Allegheny, 2-1, in the finals. Last month, North Allegheny defeated Hempfield in the semifinals...
Northgate wins 2nd WPIAL girls swimming championship in 3 years
Sparked by two second-place finishes in three relay races at Upper St. Clair High School, Northgate captured its second WPIAL Class 2A girls swimming championship in the past three years. The Flames, who won with a score of 254 points, were also team champions in 2019. Elizabeth Forward was crowned...
No. 2 New Castle holds off Latrobe to reach WPIAL semifinals for 11th straight season
New Castle took advantage of some cold Latrobe shooting early on Saturday and rolled to its 11 consecutive WPIAL boys basketball semifinals appearance. The No. 2-seeded Red Hurricanes provided a balanced scoring attack with all five starters tallying nine points or more in a 65-51 quarterfinal victory over the No....
George Guido: Plum baseball, softball fields getting turf upgrade
Plum High School baseball has certainly come a long way since the sport was played in the front yard of the school with outfielders running up a hill to catch a fly ball. The school is in the process of installing artificial turf on both the baseball and softball fields...
Norwin notebook: Bilinsky to be selected for Roundball Classic
The Roundball Classic is returning in full force this spring. Organizer Allen Deep said the all-star basketball event will be played May 13-15 at Geneva. Rosters are far from finished, but Deep knows one player he will invite to the event. He said Norwin senior guard Ty Bilinsky will be...
North Journal notebook: North Allegheny’s Coy wins WPIAL wrestling title
Dylan Coy can now call himself a WPIAL champion. The North Allegheny junior wrestler defeated one of the WPIAL’s top grapplers in the 120-pound championship match, edging Waynesburg’s Mac Church, 4-3, to claim the Class AAA title Feb. 27, at Canon-McMillan. He also scored a quarterfinal-round tech fall and a...
Hampton boys look to grow from tough season
A season that began with a delay ended with a dud for the Hampton boys basketball team. One of the most demanding seasons in coach Joe Lafko’s 25 years at the school concluded with a 73-49 loss to No. 17 seed McKeesport in the opening round of the WPIAL Class...
Junior Jake DeMotte arrives for Fox Chapel, plays key role in playoff victory
Throughout this season, the Fox Chapel boys basketball team has gotten contributions from several players. Junior Eli Yofan has been the go-to-guy, averaging 22 points a game, but JP Dockey, Kent Baldauf, Jake DeMotte and Russell Fenton have all come up big at times as well. “That’s the unique thing...
Second WPIAL wrestling title gives Pine-Richland’s Cole Spencer reason to smile
In the middle of the second period of the WPIAL Class AAA 160-pound wrestling final, Cole Spencer took an accidental shot from Norwin’s Chase Kranitz and realized one of his teeth was broken. “I got a little chip on it, and I asked the ref, ‘Where do I put this?’...
5 Pine-Richland runners test themselves at indoor nationals
Five distance runners from Pine-Richland traveled to Virginia last month to test themselves against some of the best high school competition in the country and came home with solid results. Meredith Price, Audrey DeKunder, Elizabeth Hunkele, Angelina Hunkele and Natalie McLean competed at the 2021 Adidas Indoor Nationals on Feb....
Plum basketball teams enjoy playoff success before bowing out
For the Plum girls basketball team, joy at winning the program’s first playoff game since 2002 on March 1 turned to disappointment the next day as covid issues forced the Mustangs to bow out of the WPIAL Class 5A tournament ahead of a first-round matchup against No. 2 Chartiers Valley....
Experience helps Plum’s Kvortek capture WPIAL gymnastics gold medal in bars event
When Sarah Kvortek placed fifth on bars at last year’s WPIAL individual gymnastics championships at Moon High School, her sights quickly were set on soon rising to the top of the medals podium. The Plum sophomore fulfilled that title goal Feb. 27 as her return to WPIALs brought championship gold...
Union confusion leads Imani Christian basketball team on ride to wrong school
Sixty miles separate the Union Area High School near New Castle from Union High School in Rimersburg, but the districts with matching names continue to cause trouble for bus drivers. For the second time in four years, a WPIAL basketball team ended up at the wrong one. This time, the...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports on March 6, 2021: Trinity looks for another upset
With each round of the WPIAL basketball playoffs on a three-day cycle, Saturday is smack dab in the middle of the elite-eight round. Quarterfinals action on Saturday will feature games from boys 5A, boys 2A, girls 6A and girls 3A. Boys quarterfinals • Mars knows all about the value of...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for March 5, 2021
High school Basketball Boys WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Quarterfinals Friday’s results Upper St. Clair 72, Seneca Valley 70 Butler 58, Penn-Trafford 55 (OT) Fox Chapel 74, North Allegheny 56 Pine-Richland 65, Hempfield 61 Semifinals Tuesday’s schedule Upper St. Clair (17-1) vs. Butler (12-8), 6 p.m.; Pine-Richland (12-5) at Fox Chapel...
