High School category, Page 324
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...
North Allegheny notebook: Wren Kucler, Jack Bertram win gold at indoor state meet
North Allegheny junior runners Wren Kucler and Jack Bertram capped off the indoor track and field season in style by winning gold medals at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association state championships Feb. 24, at Penn State. Kucler won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9 minutes, 51.56...
North Allegheny divers follow different routes to WPIAL success
A gymnastics background can certainly help, but North Allegheny diving coach Patti McClure says she’s first looking for a kid with a “kamikaze” attitude. “I look at my divers and say, ‘Find me a friend who doesn’t care how they land in the water,’” McClure said with a laugh. “It’s...
Franklin Regional’s Juliano Marion keeps hot streak going, wins section title
When Franklin Regional senior Juliano Marion lost to Ringgold junior Jake Conroy on Jan. 3, he used it as a learning experience. Marion (39-5) had lost three consecutive matches, including two in the Powerade Tournament, but he wasn’t concerned. Now he’s one of the hotter wrestlers in the WPIAL and...
Defense made difference for Franklin Regional in run to WPIAL finals
Franklin Regional boys basketball coach Jesse Reed played in a lot of high-stakes games in his career. From WPIAL and PIAA finals at Greensburg Central Catholic to the NCAA Tournament with American University to professional-level games in Luxembourg, he felt the heat lamps. But facing a WPIAL semifinal as a...
Hampton wrestlers march ahead in postseason tournaments
The Hampton wrestlers had such a memorable season as a team, they decided to keep it going as individuals. The Talbots, who won a WPIAL playoff match for the first time since 2018, fared well in the ensuing sectional and WPIAL individual tournaments. “We walked away very proud of their...
Aliquippa dominates Greensburg Central Catholic to win record-tying 14th WPIAL titleVideo
The term competitive balance has grown attached to Aliquippa in football. There wasn’t much of it in the WPIAL Class 2A basketball championship either. The top-seeded Quips rode scorching-hot shooting and a career day from sophomore Josh Pratt to a one-sided title repeat Saturday afternoon, brushing aside No. 2 Greensburg...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for March 1, 2024
High schools Basketball Boys WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Championship Saturday’s schedule Baldwin (18-6) vs. Upper St. Clair (19-5) at Petersen Events Center, 7 p.m. Class 5A Championship Friday’s result Moon 53, Franklin Regional 48 Class 3A Championship Friday’s result Deer Lakes 55, Burrell 49 Class 2A Championship Saturday’s schedule Aliquippa...
Bentworth, Frazier’s Rune Lawrence lead WPIAL contingent at 2A regional wrestling
Bentworth led the WPIAL contingent by advancing four to the semifinals at the Class 2A PIAA Southwest Regional wrestling tournament Friday in Altoona. Drake McClure (114), Chris Vargo (127), Owen Ivcic (145) and Vitali Daniels (189) are alive in Saturday’s semifinals. Only District 6 power Bishop McCort, with eight, has...
Moon rallies past Franklin Regional to secure 5th WPIAL boys basketball title
One team got hot in the fourth quarter, and the other was not. Moon’s Michael Santicola broke a fourth-quarter tie with consecutive 3-pointers about a minute apart as the top-seeded Tigers rallied late to defeat No. 2 Franklin Regional, 53-48, in the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball final Friday night...
Latrobe freshman thrives under bright lights of WPIAL Class 3A tournament
Latrobe freshman Hunter Snyder has been on the big stage before. He’s competed in Freestyle Nationals at Fargo and Junior Olympic states. Now he’s one win away from earning a trip to Hershey for the PIAA Class 3A wrestling championships. Snyder is one of four Latrobe wrestlers to reach Saturday’s...
Kiski Area’s Roscosky, Plum’s Walker reach WPIAL wrestling semis
Kiski Area senior Cooper Roscosky achieved something Friday that he missed out last year: advancing to the WPIAL Class 3A semifinals. Roscosky lost in the quarterfinals in 2023, ended up sixth and did not qualify for the PIAA tournament. He needs one win Saturday after advancing to the semifinals with...
Franklin Regional’s Holden Thomas, Mt. Pleasant pair earn WPIAL swimming titles
Holden Thomas earned a bronze medal last year in the boys Class 3A 100-yard backstroke. He stood on the third step of the award podium looking up at WPIAL champ William Gao from North Allegheny and runner-up Patton Graziano from Penn-Trafford. This time around, Thomas wanted to be the one...
New champs crowned as Kiski Area, Indiana take WPIAL Class 2A team titles
There was no repeat champion in the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships Friday afternoon at Pitt’s Trees Pool. The girls WPIAL Class 2A swimming championship came down to the last event of the day. Leading by two points over second-place Quaker Valley and 10 points over third-place Mt. Pleasant, Kiski...
Norwin topples North Allegheny to capture 3rd WPIAL girls basketball championshipVideo
Sweets to the sweet. Norwin girls basketball coach Brian Brozeski, who revealed after Friday’s night’s WPIAL Class 6A title game that he likes to bake, likened his team and its run to championship to making a pie. “It’s the perfect recipe,” Brozeski said, pointing to the eight girls who joined...
Kiski Area girls capture WPIAL team swimming title
Last year, the Kiski Area boys swim team captured the WPIAL Class 2A team title at Pitt’s Trees Pool. On Friday, it was the Lady Cavaliers’ turn to lift high the first-place trophy. Leading Quaker Valley by two points and two-time defending champion Mt. Pleasant by 10 heading into the...
Deer Lakes tops rival Burrell to win 2nd straight WPIAL Class 3A title
Billy Schaeffer couldn’t quite put into words what it meant for Deer Lakes to win back-to-back WPIAL boys basketball titles and this time do so against rival Burrell. But the wide smile on his face told the story. “I don’t know what to say, so I’m just going to keep...
2024 WPIAL Class 6A boys basketball championship breakdown: Upper St. Clair vs. Baldwin
WPIAL Class 6A boys basketball championship No. 3 Upper St. Clair vs. No. 4 Baldwin 7 p.m. Saturday at Petersen Events Center On the air: Audio broadcast: TribLive HSSN; Video livestream: NFHS Network WPIAL titles: Upper St. Clair 3 (1996, 2005, 2021), Baldwin 0 Upper St. Clair (19-5) Coach: Danny...
