High School category, Page 323
PIAA announces sites, times for 1st round of 2024 boys state basketball playoffs
The PIAA has released the brackets for the 2024 boys basketball state playoffs with first-round games scheduled for Friday and Saturday. There are 36 boys teams from the WPIAL ready to battle on the Road to Hershey. Since the expansion to six classifications seven years ago, eight District 7 teams...
Adlan Hifri making a splash with Quaker Valley swimming in 1st year in United States
It’s been a succession of firsts for Quaker Valley swimmer Adlan Hifri. “This school year is my first year living in the United States, my first time to attend a public school, and my first experience on a U.S. swim team,” said Hifri, a junior. “I started my journey of...
Quaker Valley divers fill podium at WPIAL meet
Two, three and five. The Quaker Valley diving team ended up with three girls among the top five at the WPIAL 2A finals Feb. 23 at North Allegheny. QV junior Ruby Olliffe placed second for the third year in a row with a 405.55 final score, ahead of third-place finisher...
Penn-Trafford notebook: Emily Valenta places 3rd in state rifle competition
Penn-Trafford junior Emily Valenta ended up placing third in the state in the high school individual rifle competition. She finished with a 411.1 total to finish behind Everett’s Trey Myers (413.8) and Kinzey Williams (413.1). Emily’s sister Carlee, a senior, placed 16th with a 406.2 score. Emily Valenta was the...
Dedication pays off with trip to WPIAL tournament for Penn Hills wrestler
Penn Hills wrestling coach Jeremy Packer couldn’t help but admire Julian Lavender’s desire to make his senior year a special one. One day, Packer, who lives in West Deer and works in Pittsburgh, wasn’t planning on coming in to open up the wrestling room. Lavender, a 127-pound senior wrestler, called...
Penn Hills track team builds toward spring at state indoor meet
Mackenzie McIntyre has been slowly building toward bigger accomplishments. The Penn Hills junior has been making strong contributions to the track team since her freshman year. McIntyre was one of two members of the Penn Hills indoor track team to reach the PTFCA indoor state championship Feb. 25 at Penn...
Pine-Richland notebook: Realignment puts Rams in conference with Aliquippa
Pine-Richland football coach Jon LeDonne will face his alma mater, Aliquippa, next fall. It’s a scenario that seems crazy with Aliquippa’s Class 2A enrollment, but due to the PIAA competitive balance rules, the Quips will be bumped up to Class 5A next year and are in a conference with the...
Riverview girls turn attention to PIAA playoffs
“It almost was a Cinderella story.” Those were the descriptive words from Riverview coach Jill Catanzaro as her Riverview girls basketball team came close to upending No. 2 Aquinas Academy in a battle for the third-place spot in WPIAL Class A on Feb. 28. The game at Shaler High School ultimately...
Plum, Riverview athletes benefit from indoor track and field season
Owen Proskin finished as one of the top scorers for the Plum boys basketball team this season. The 6-foot-4 sophomore also made the most of his athletic double duty this winter through indoor track and field training and competition. His versatility showed with a third-place medal in the high jump...
Gateway boys earn berth to PIAA tournament
The Gateway boys basketball team faced a do-or-die scenario for a trip to the PIAA playoffs. After a loss to No. 2 Franklin Regional in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals and then a close setback at home to Bethel Park in the fifth-place consolation semifinals, the Gators were still alive...
Bentworth’s Chris Vargo pulls huge upset at 2A wrestling Southwest Regional
ALTOONA — Ask Bentworth senior Chris Vargo what it means to win four regional wrestling championships, and the response might seem surprising. Even after a convincing decision Saturday against a nationally ranked opponent. “Right now, it doesn’t mean (anything),” Vargo said. On a night when Frazier standout Rune Lawrence notched...
Butler’s Santino Sloboda stuns top-ranked wrestler to win WPIAL Class 3A crown
Very few people at the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling championships Saturday at Canon-McMillan gave Butler sophomore Santino Sloboda a chance at beating the No. 1 wrestler in the country at his weight class. Sloboda and his circle did. A reversal with two seconds left in the 114-pound final gave Sloboda...
Kiski Area’s Cooper Roscosky wins WPIAL title; pair from Plum headed to states
Kiski Area sophomore Cooper Roscosky has one-upped his brother, Braydon. With his 4-2 overtime win against Norwin senior Nathan Campbell, Cooper became the first in the family to win a WPIAL Class 3A title. He claimed the 189-pound title at the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling championships at Canon-McMillan. Now his...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for March 2, 2024
High schools Basketball Boys WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Championship Saturday’s result Upper St. Clair 64, Baldwin 41 Class 2A Championship Saturday’s result Aliquippa 69, Greensburg Central Catholic 32 Girls WPIAL playoffs Class 5A Championship Saturday’s result South Fayette 70, Armstrong 63 Class 4A Championship Saturday’s result North Catholic 40, Blackhawk...
Latrobe’s Luke Willochell claims 3rd WPIAL title; Hempfield’s Eli Carr his 2nd
No one said winning a title would be easy, but Latrobe junior Luke Willochell found a way Saturday at the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling championships at Canon-McMillan. Willochell (38-1) claimed his third by defeating Franklin Regional senior Tyler Kapusta, 1-0, to win the 121-pound title. Now his focus turns to...
73 WPIAL boys, girls basketball teams seeded for PIAA play
With the Path to the Pete now history, the focus turns to the Road to Hershey and the start of the 2024 PIAA basketball postseason. The state playoffs begin with first round action on Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9. Here is a final list of the WPIAL teams...
Upper St. Clair ends Baldwin’s WPIAL run with resounding victory in Class 6A final
“Let’s go dance,” Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer told his players, guiding them back to their Petersen Events Center locker room where they bounced and sang along to “Y-M-C-A.” There might be some debate about whether they’re the best dancers in the WPIAL, but the Panthers left Pitt’s arena...
Canon-McMillan dominates girls 2A wrestling regional; Norwin advances 4
In the first PIAA girls Western Regional championships, held at Canon-McMillan High School, schools from around the WPIAL had solid representation in the final matches. No school had more of a presence than the host. The Big Macs had three wrestlers win gold in their respective weight classes and had...
Gateway tops rival Franklin Regional for regional boys bowling title
Gateway turned in a dominant performance at the Western Pennsylvania Regional boys team tournament Saturday at AMF Noble Manor Lanes, finishing atop the field in qualifying and going undefeated in the step-ladder finals en route to the title. The Gators faced neighborhood rival Franklin Regional in the finals and swept...
Westmoreland high school athletes of the week for the week ending March 3, 2024: Kendall Berger and David Mutter
Kendall Berger School: Norwin Class: Junior Sport: Basketball Claim to fame: Berger helped lead Norwin to the WPIAL Class 6A championship with an impressive performance in the semifinals. She scored 18 of her game and playoff career-high 22 points in the second half as Norwin pulled away for a 63-47...
South Fayette beats Armstrong to complete 3-peat in WPIAL Class 5AVideo
Experience matters for the South Fayette girls basketball team. The sixth-seeded Lions weren’t expected to return to the Petersen Events Center for the WPIAL Class 5A girls basketball title game this season. But once South Fayette got there, what the Lions had witnessed in previous years helped them win their...
After WPIAL title, Deer Lakes boys set sights on run to state championship
The Deer Lakes boys basketball team had three goals at the beginning of the season: win a section title, repeat as WPIAL champs and get back to Hershey for the state finals. After Friday’s 55-49 win over Alle-Kiski Valley rival Burrell in the WPIAL Class 3A championship, the Lancers can...
North Catholic gets past Blackhawk in OT to win WPIAL title for 3rd straight seasonVideo
North Catholic took home its third WPIAL title in a row and seventh in the past eight years with a 40-37 win over Blackhawk in overtime in a championship rematch in the Class 4A finals Saturday at Petersen Events Center. The Trojanettes were spearheaded by Alayna Rocco, who tallied 26...
Latrobe’s Luke Willochell survives scare, stays on track for 3rd WPIAL title
It wasn’t easy, but Latrobe junior Luke Willochell survived a scare in the WPIAL Class 3A wrestling semifinals Saturday at Canon-McMillan. Willochell gave up an early takedown and rallied in the third period to defeat Canon-McMillan sophomore Cooper Hartman, 8-4, to advance to the 121-pound finals for the third consecutive...
WPIAL champion Norwin girls ‘refused to be outworked’ on title run
Songs, desserts, family. They all came up in conversation during a postgame news conference Friday night at Petersen Events Center as coach Brian Brozeski and eight of his Norwin girls basketball player shared some playful banter with reporters. It was a light and telling session with the newly crowned WPIAL...
