Chris Harlan stories, Page 48

Not much has come easy this season for West Allegheny, a team that battled through injuries and plenty of inconvenience to reach Wild Things Park. So, a four-hour championship fit them well. As Wednesday night threatened to become Thursday morning, West Allegheny’s Anthony Raineri bounced an eighth-inning single past second...

Mt. Lebanon waited 16 years for this celebration, so another hour and a half didn’t matter. The Blue Devils’ Tyler Smith lined a sixth-inning triple into the right-field corner at Wild Things Park and scored the winning run on Derrick Shields’ sacrifice fly for a 2-1 victory over Upper St....

SHIPPENSBURG — New Castle senior Maria Owens was upset with herself a day earlier after a 17th-place finish in the triple jump, disappointed largely by a foul on a big jump. “I couldn’t get over it,” she said. But eventually she decided to take that mistake, turn it into motivation...

Moon Area’s Mia Cochran admits the competitor in her likes a challenge, but she hasn’t found many on the track recently. So, she created one. The Arkansas recruit completed a distance “triple” this weekend that’s likely unprecedented, winning the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter titles at the PIAA Class 3A championship...

SHIPPENSBURG — Eden Christian’s Sean Aiken attempted the 3,200 meters for the first time a couple of months ago, and he really didn’t like running nearly two miles. “I personally don’t enjoy the two-mile,” he said. “I don’t know how many guys actually do, but it definitely had to grow...

SHIPPENSBURG — Carson McCoy apologized after his latest come-from-behind victory, knowing he’d just ruthlessly dashed the hopes of the same opponent for the third time. But McCoy wasn’t really sorry. The Deer Lakes senior used his strong kick to surge ahead in the final stretch and win the boys 800...

SHIPPENSBURG — The target distance on Shenango thrower Emma Callahan’s mind was 50 feet, 10¾ inches, which was the state championship record for girls shot put in Class 2A. On Saturday, she threw that distance. Exactly that distance. Callahan won the girls shot put title at the PIAA track championship...

SHIPPENSBURG — After defending her state 1,600-meter title Friday morning, Moon’s Mia Cochran revealed the top item on her afternoon agenda. “A nap,” she said. She’ll certainly need her rest. The Arkansas recruit is attempting to pull off a triple win this weekend in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters...

SHIPPENSBURG — Carson McCoy maybe isn’t a front runner, yet the Deer Lakes senior usually crosses the finish line first. His patient, wait-for-your-moment strategy worked again Friday as he surged down the stretch to defend his PIAA Class 2A title in the boys 1,600 meters at the state track championships...

From Emma Callahan’s view, she’d just set a WPIAL championship record, but the Shenango shot putter also knew it’s hard to see from the circle. “I was holding my breath and didn’t want to get excited too soon,” said Callahan, a senior. “I thought I had the record last year,...

Dante Calabria, a former WPIAL basketball star who won a national championship at North Carolina, was hired Tuesday as boys coach at Bethel Park. A 1992 Blackhawk graduate and WPIAL Hall of Fame inductee, Calabria has coached at the college, professional and prep school levels, most recently as an assistant...

A seventh-inning curveball glanced off Mt. Lebanon catcher Paul Connolly’s mitt and rolled away, causing a moment of panic since there was a runner on third and a one-run lead. Coach Patt McCloskey immediately wondered if West Mifflin’s baseball field was cursed, at least for his Blue Devils, who were...

Luke Rudolph insisted he’s not as fast as the relay runner he replaced, but the results say otherwise. Pine-Richland’s 400-meter relay team lost its anchor to injury late in the season, yet the boys kept breaking school records. Their latest record-setting run came at the WPIAL Class 3A individual championship...

North Catholic’s Trevor Paschall is usually sprinting around the WPIAL track championships faster than most anybody, but Wednesday he accepted help from a teammate just to walk. The senior sprinted 100 meters in 10.87 seconds to defend his WPIAL Class 2A title, but he grabbed at his right hamstring after...

What more could Mia Cochran have to prove? The Moon senior and Arkansas recruit became a three-time state cross country champion in the fall, and she entered this spring as the defending outdoor track state champion in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters. Still, she wanted more. So, Cochran decided...

As an 8-year-old, Wren Kucler told her mom she wanted to run around the house 100 times. That’s a lot of running for a little girl, but her mom Deanna saw no reason to discourage her, so she said, “Go ahead. Knock yourself out.” She ran all 100. Next she...

This outing was perfect for South Fayette pitcher Tyler Pitzer in more ways than one. Shoulder soreness had the junior shut down for about a month earlier this season, but the South Carolina commit showed Tuesday night what he can do at full strength when he pitched a five-inning perfect...

The role of the WPIAL executive director has changed over the years, with social media bringing more and more issues to the league’s attention, said outgoing director Amy Scheuneman. As a result, executive directors has become more than a one-person job. Now more than ever, the WPIAL staff and its...

Favorite: Mt. Lebanon could win its first WPIAL baseball title since 2006. The Blue Devils started this season 1-4 before finding their stride in section play behind OF Tanner Donati (.435, 20 RBIs, 12 extra-base hits). They’ve won 10 of their past 12 games, including a 2-1 victory over North...

Montour hasn’t won a WPIAL baseball title in 50 years, but the Spartans will start this year’s playoffs as the favorites in Class 4A. They were among six teams that earned No. 1 seeds Friday when the WPIAL revealed the playoff brackets on TribLive HSSN. The other top seeds went...

Two undefeated teams. Two more strong section champions. A defending WPIAL champion with only three losses. How do you rank them? That WPIAL softball committee faced that dilemma Thursday while trying to seed a Class 2A playoff bracket that proved the most challenging to complete. “The first five, you could...

The defending champion Mars boys and Shady Side Academy girls were among the four teams that earned top seeds in the WPIAL lacrosse playoff brackets revealed Thursday. The other No. 1s went to the Blackhawk girls and Mt. Lebanon boys. The playoffs start with first-round games Monday and Tuesday. Higher-seeded...

The Butler boys arrived at the WPIAL team championships with a mission: eliminate any suspense about who might be the winner. “That was our goal,” sprinter Guinness Brown said. “Get it done early.” Much like Brown running 100 meters, it was over quickly. The Butler boys claimed 10 of the...

Tim McConnell had walked into Chartiers Valley’s gym countless times, but the longtime basketball coach felt somewhat sentimental when he entered Tuesday morning. He knew it would be his last visit as Colts coach. “When I went to meet with my team and I walked through the doors and I...