District College category, Page 17
Knee injury behind her, Southmoreland grad Olivia Cernuto helps Gannon women’s basketball reach Elite Eight
Gannon women’s basketball coach Cleve Wright didn’t hesitate. When he found out Olivia Cernuto suffered an ACL injury during soccer that would wipe out her senior basketball season, he immediately made a trip to Southmoreland. Cernuto, who led the Scotties girls basketball team to two WPIAL Class 4A title games,...
Knoch grad Angelo DeLeonardis emerging as key player in 2nd year with Chatham baseball
When Angelo DeLeonardis arrived at Chatham last fall, he was eager to contribute during his freshman baseball season. Coach Nic Rush saw enough in DeLeonardis that convinced him he could be a catcher at the college level right away. But here’s the rub. The Cougars were returning two experienced catchers....
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Latrobe grad Landon Butler enters transfer portal
Landon Butler’s two brothers have experienced the NCAA transfer portal. Now, he will, too. Butler, a 6-foot-4 freshman, is leaving Montevallo, a Division II school in Alabama, after one season on the basketball team. A Latrobe graduate, Butler played in 28 games, starting seven, and averaged 3.8 points and 2.3...
Point Park men’s basketball team headed for NAIA Tournament thanks to quick turnaround
When veteran coach Kevin Reynolds took over the Point Park men’s basketball team in April 2022, he inherited a group that went 10-16 the season before. And two of those wins came via forfeit. Plus, the program hadn’t had a winning season since 2015-16, so Reynolds had a tall task...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Seton Hill’s Marc Marizzaldi earns 700th career win
What a way to close out a spring break trip. Seton Hill baseball brushed past Florida Southern, 3-1, to give longtime coach Marc Marizzaldi his 700th career win. Grad shortstop Owen Sabol (Norwin) had two hits, senior pitcher Aidan Layton earned the win and struck out eight and junior closer...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Latrobe grad Bryce Butler honored by CAA
Bryce Butler quickly found out what his role would be when he made the jump to Division I college basketball. He accepted it with a sense of gratitude and committed to being one of the best reserves in the game. The grad student guard at the College of Charleston came...
Westmoreland products Ashley Orischak, Olivia Kolowitz poised to help St. Francis (Pa.) softball get back to top of NEC
The St. Francis (Pa.) softball team has become accustomed to a fair amount of success in recent years. Since 2017, the Red Flash have won five Northeast Conference titles and made the same number of appearances in the NCAA Tournament. In 2017, with Plum’s Jordan Seneca and Yough’s Kelsie Marconi...
Penn State New Kensington softball team aims for return to conference championship
As members of the Penn State New Kensington softball team prepared for their season-opening spring trip to Florida, Molly Collins sent each player a list outlining exactly what she would need for the journey south. Sophomore pitcher Addy Gregg said Collins, a Riverview grad and PSNK’s only senior, is affectionately...
AK Valley campus clippings: Fox Chapel’s Borkovich earns award for SRU softball
Slippery Rock sophomore pitcher Mackenzie Borkovich, a Fox Chapel graduate, was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday for her work against Shippensburg and Shepherd in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference doubleheaders over the previous two days. She was in the circle as a...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Ligonier Valley grad sets javelin record
It looks like Miles Higgins is glad to get outside again. The sophomore from UNC-Wilmington opened the outdoor track and field season with a bang by winning the javelin title at the UNCW Seahawk Invitational. Higgins, a Ligonier Valley graduate, set a school record with a toss of 64.97 meters....
Seton Hill baseball knocks off nation’s No. 1 team
Christian Zilli (Hempfield) pitched a scoreless 11th inning to earn his third save of the season, and Noah Sweeney (Greensburg Salem) drove in Aidan Shephard (Norwin) for the winning run on a double play grounder as Seton Hill handed No. 1 Tampa its first loss of the season, 6-5, on...
Kiski Area grad Logan Bechtold bumps up in weight to help Saint Vincent wrestling win PAC title
By the time the Presidents’ Athletic Conference wrestling championship reached the finals, the outcome was all but decided. Saint Vincent, in the first year of its second incarnation, had seven wrestlers competing for titles, making the result almost anticlimactic. But once their title was made official via public address announcement,...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Saint Vincent’s Jaden Gales named PAC’s MVP
A player who puts the power in power forward, Jaden Gales made his presence known every time he took the basketball court this season for Saint Vincent. Whether he was throwing down an alley-oop dunk, running wide and finishing a break or swatting a shot into the second row, Gales...
Saint Vincent club hockey team qualifies for national tournament, to delight of former coach
His euphoric acclamation was a clear sign Mike Ziemianski couldn’t have been prouder. The former longtime Saint Vincent coach was overcome with emotion in the moments after the school’s recent club hockey victory over IUP, securing the program’s first College Hockey East playoff championship and third trip to the American...
Gateway grads Sarah Corrie, Shelly Jones take top 2 spots in PSAC shot put competition
Sarah Corrie came close to securing a spot at the NCAA Division II indoor track and field championships. The Slippery Rock graduate student captured the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference shot put title Feb. 19 at Lehigh and helped her team win its seventh PSAC team title. Her season-best of 14.21...
Former GCC track star Corinn Brewer working to bring women’s decathlon to the Olympics
Decathlete Corinn Brewer is working to change the Olympics. A lofty sounding goal? Yes. But not to the former Greensburg Central Catholic track and field standout who is a first-year multi-event athlete and pole vaulter at Lehigh. Brewer is pushing for the games to add the women’s decathlon, an event...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Saint Vincent wins hockey title
You can keep your cups. Saint Vincent hockey is playing for belts. For the first time in program history, Saint Vincent won the College Hockey East Division 3 championship belt. It was the program’s first title since the 1976-77 team won the WPIHA championship. The Polar Bearcats skated past IUP...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Mt. Pleasant’s Brunson excelling at plate for Penn State softball
The Penn State softball team is cooking — with a new chef in the kitchen. First-year Nittany Lions outfielder Haylie Brunson, a junior from Mt. Pleasant and a former TribLive Westmoreland player of the year, is hitting a team-best .385 (15 for 39) with two homers and 14 RBIs. She...
Newfound confidence has Hempfield grad Isaiah Vance thinking about wrestling for national title at UPJ
Pat Pecora has coached many talented wrestlers in his legendary career at Pitt-Johnstown. All-Americans. National champions. But there’s only one Carlton Haselrig. Pecora calls him “the greatest heavyweight of all time,” and there’s not a lot of hyperbole in Pecora’s assertion. Haselrig won three NCAA Division II titles and three...
Geneva men, Chatham women claim 2024 PAC basketball titles
Jonathan Bertovich had 20 points, and Mark Rachic added 18 off the bench to lift host Geneva to an 83-63 victory over Saint Vincent in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference men’s basketball championship game Saturday night. Bertovich knocked down 4 of 5 shots from behind the 3-point arc and was 8...
Saint Vincent, Geneva to meet for PAC men’s basketball title
Presidents’ Athletic Conference men’s basketball championship Who: No. 2 seed Saint Vincent (23-3) at No. 1 Geneva (23-3) When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Metheny Fieldhouse, Beaver Falls Livestream: www.pacstream.net Coaches: D.P. Harris, Saint Vincent; Jeff Santarsiero, Geneva Players to watch: Dev Ostrowski, Saint Vincent; Trevor Tipton, Geneva Notable: The finalists...
Carnegie Mellon’s Gary Aldrich named throws coach for U.S. team at Paris Olympics
Carnegie Mellon track and field coach Gary Aldrich will make his eighth international coaching assignment this summer at the Paris Olympics as the U.S.A. men’s throws coach, CMU announced Thursday. Aldrich held the same position at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. “It was hard to find the words when I was...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Southmoreland grad picked for coaching program
Duquesne assistant women’s basketball coach Vanessa Abel was selected to participate in the Next Generation Institute by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. Abel is a former Southmoreland standout and a Duquesne alum. The second-year institute is an educational program for experienced assistants who have aspirations to be head coaches in...
Apollo-Ridge grad Olivia Stiffy uses gymnastics, cheer background as part of new STUNT team at Mercyhurst
While she was growing up, Olivia Stiffy competed as a gymnast for nearly a decade, including representing Apollo-Ridge at the WPIAL level. But she never considered playing any kind of sports beyond high school. Also a longtime cheerleader, Stiffy joined the football cheer squad at Mercyhurst, which seemed to satisfy...
Saint Vincent women’s bowling raises its profile nationally with steady success
Saint Vincent, to most of the outside world, is known as the long-time training camp home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Jeff Zidek started the Bearcats’ women’s bowling program seven years ago, that was one of his big selling points when he contacted potential recruits. Now, potential recruits are contacting...
