Ray Fisher stories, Page 13

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...

Quaker Valley coach Austin Heinl was thrilled if not ecstatic with his team’s performance at the WPIAL Class 2A Northern Sectional wrestling tournament. Five QV grapplers advanced to the championship round of the tournament held Feb. 17 at Keystone Oaks. “I am happy with how we did. We had four...

Thomas Jefferson bowler Joey Nix tied the school record five times in practice. Nix eclipsed it during a WPIBL match Jan. 17 against Norwin. The sophomore bowling star rolled the first 300 game in school history at Spins Bowl in West Mifflin, his home alley. “I have worked very hard...

The Baldwin Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2024 consisted of one athlete, four coaches and three teams. All distinguished in their own right, the inductees included Maddison Sgattoni, coaches Bob Gneus, Ed Helbig, Bunny Schmidt and Rich Wright, the 1987-88 ice hockey team and the 2014 and 2015 girls...

Much like the luminosity displayed by a three-carat diamond, Baldwin junior Abby Rexrode has had a brilliant three-year gymnastics career. And she’s not finished just yet. Rexrode won her third consecutive WPIAL all-around advanced division title in gymnastics Feb. 10 at Moon, taking first place in three of four events....

Quaker Valley’s boys swim team competed with just seven athletes on its roster in 2023-24. “Give some high accolades to these boys. There’s not a lot of them, but they have a lot of grit,” QV coach Mercedes McCarthy said earlier this season. “They are tiny but mighty. Sometimes we...

Bethel Park junior Cally Edner made a big splash in the pool again this year. Edner qualified for the WPIAL Class 3A swim finals Feb. 29-March 1 at Pitt’s Trees pool in every individual event. “We call that the WPIAL sweep,” said Kathy Strock, Bethel Park’s girls coach. “Cally is...

The Bethel Park hockey team found itself in a battle for a PIHL Class 3A playoff spot coming down the stretch in the regular season. The senior-laden Black Hawks were tied with Central Catholic in seventh place with a 9-7-0-1 record and 19 points, trailing Seneca Valley (30 points), Pine-Richland...

Bethel Park’s girls basketball team ended its season in a most positive way — with six consecutive victories. The Black Hawks fell a game short, however, of qualifying for the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. “We played a really competitive schedule (against) some of the 5A teams,” coach Steve Norman said....

The Quaker Valley swim program honored its seniors Feb. 8 at the Sewickley Valley YMCA. One girl, Mia Hrabovsky, received notable recognition for her contributions to the program over the past four years. Hrabovsky, 18, has Down syndrome. But it hasn’t stopped her from developing into an integral member of...

Oumou “Mimi” Thiero was a dominant force for the Quaker Valley girls team during the 2023-24 regular season. In fact, the 6-foot-4 sophomore guard/forward proved to be one of the leading players in the WPIAL. “Mimi has been excellent,” QV coach Ken Johns said. “She gets a lot of attention...

It’s club volleyball season and one team loaded with talented WPIAL athletes already has brought home a tournament championship. Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Association’s 17 Premier team took first place at the inaugural Nike Classic Open in Columbus on Jan. 13-14. Maggie Burnham, who played collegiately at Northwestern and Duquesne (when...

Quaker Valley’s Lindsay Gledhill, a senior rowing afficionado, took a scientific approach to choosing a college. Rutgers became the crystal clear winner. “I was drawn to Rutgers by the competition, culture of the team, academics and location,” Gledhill said. “Rutgers crew competes in not only the Big Ten but also...

Brennan Breisinger is one of a kind on the wrestling mat. As an eighth grader on the Quaker Valley middle school team, Breisinger began the week of Jan. 29 with an unblemished 24-0 record — with 21 pins and three major decisions — and has placed first in the Allegheny...

It was a gratifying yet somewhat sad day at Sewickley Academy. On Jan. 20, the basketball court in the Means Alumni Gymnasium and Events Center was dedicated and named for Win Palmer during Spirit Day. Palmer, beloved former coach and director of athletics at Sewickley Academy, died Aug. 31, 2023,...

The Sewickley Academy boys and girls basketball teams are heading into the season’s stretch run. Here’s a look at both teams and where they stand: Girls coming together Sewickley Academy’s girls basketball team ended the first half of section play with a victory, defeating host Shenango, 45-41. It gave the...

Although in different PIHL divisions, they would jointly make up a formidable starting lineup. Quaker Valley landed five players on the Varsity A Gold all-star team while Sewickley Academy had two selected for the D-2 game. As a group, there are three forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender. The PIHL...

Gary Gomolak is a big-time name in Thomas Jefferson football lore. Considered one of the best players in team history as a 6-foot-3, 197-pound tight end/safety, Gomolak was one of the most heavily recruited athletes at TJ. Gomolak received offers from Pitt, Boston College, West Virginia, Indiana, Purdue, South Carolina,...

Notebook items from around the South Hills: Thomas Jefferson senior Evan Berger said it was cool to break the all-time leading scoring total in school history in boys or girls basketball. Berger, a 6-foot-4 guard/forward, passed 1989 TJ graduate Karri Miller Lockhart when he netted his 1,358th point Dec. 12...

Quaker Valley already has four wrestlers in its 20-win club for 2023-24. Prior to the Allegheny County championships held Jan. 19-20 at Fox Chapel, QV senior Jack Kazalas (22-1), junior Marcus Richey (22-4) and sophomores Bruce Anderchak (21-1) and Matthew Danna (21-3) were 20-match winners. “They all are showing that...

Players on the Quaker Valley boys basketball team said “enough is enough.” Three consecutive losses were all they could handle; the Quakers responded with a 54-51 section win against South Allegheny in two overtimes on Jan. 12. The hard-fought victory lifted QV’s record to 2-2 in Section 4-4A and 7-6...

There’s a nice symmetry. A group of 24 Thomas Jefferson graduates or district contributors, along with two championship-caliber teams, will be inducted into the West Jefferson Hills School District Hall of Fame in March. It’s the Class of ‘24. TJ graduates who have distinguished themselves in the areas of academics,...

Three of the top wrestlers in the WPIAL — Maddox Shaw, Bode Marlow and Shepard Turk — attend Thomas Jefferson. All three are juniors who were ranked No. 1 in WPIAL Class 2A in their respective weight divisions by Trib HSSN. Shaw closed out the month of December with a...

Mason Kernan, a senior at Bethel Park, came away from the star-studded Powerade holiday wrestling tournament with a seventh-place finish at 139 pounds. Kernan defeated Carter Nogle of Mount St. Joseph (Md.) by a 7-5 score, giving him a 2-2 record in the prestigious national event. It also landed the...

Three Bethel Park hockey players — forwards Ethan Cooley and Anthony Karner and defenseman Zach Mazzacone — earned all-star status this season. Cooley, Karner and Mazzacone, all seniors, were selected to play for the PIHL Class 3A all-star team. All three were proud of their selections. “It’s a great accomplishment...