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 for a 3-2 victory in the title game as Logan Connelly (Norwin), Nate Loughner (Penn-Trafford) and Zach Ridilla (Latrobe) all lit the lamp.

SVC never trailed, taking a 3-1 lead before holding back the Crimson Hawks.

SVC moves on to the national championship set for March 7-12 in St. Louis.

Baseball

Mercyhurst: Several former high school teammates saw action in a 16-0 win in the opener against Notre Dame (Ohio). Junior first baseman Jayden Walker (Norwin), finally healthy and looking to make an impact, had a double, while junior centerfielder Eric Chorba (Norwin) homered and drove in two runs, and junior catcher Landon DiBeradin (Norwin) had a hit.

Mount St. Mary’s: Sophomore infielder Ty Stecko is hitting .294 with three runs, two doubles and three RBIs through five games.

Pitt: Sophomore infielder Jake Kendro (Norwin) is playing for the Panthers this season after transferring from Tennessee. Last season, he played in 24 games and made seven starts as the Volunteers reached the College World Series. He had six RBIs, six runs, four doubles and a home run in his debut season.

There are two other Westmoreland County players on the Panthers’ roster in grad student Josh Spiegel (Penn-Trafford) and redshirt sophomore Phil Fox (Hempfield).

Spiegel transferred from Penn State, where he played for three seasons after starting his college career at Oklahoma State. As a redshirt senior in 2023, he hit .276 with four doubles, three home runs, a triple and 25 RBIs for the Nittany Lions.

Fox spent the past two seasons at Gardner-Webb. He had Tommy John surgery in 2022. He was a Big South Conference All-Freshman selection last year.

Seton Hill: There’s nothing like a 15-inning win to get a baseball team over .500.

Seton Hill rallied late to clip visiting Ohio Dominican, 5-4, to sweep a doubleheader and move to 3-2 on the season. Grad student Owen Sabol (Norwin) singled on a 2-2 pitch in the bottom of the 15th for the game-winner after the Griffins tied it 2-2 in the 13th. Junior Max Mandler walked, and senior Aidan Shephard (Norwin) and freshman Owen Mandler singled to set up Sabol’s hit.

Grad student Jack Oberdorf (Greensburg Salem), freshman Jakob Haynes (Penn-Trafford) and junior Matt Frazetta each had two hits for the Griffins.

Senior righthander Aidan Layton struck out 12, while junior Jared Dowey and sophomore Jack Whalen (Norwin) had two hits in a 5-2 win on Game 1.

Men’s indoor track & field

Grove City: Senior Gabe Dunlap (Penn-Trafford) took fifth in the high jump (5 feet, 10.75 inches), sixth in the long jump (20-7.75) and seventh in both the pole vault (11-5.75) and 60-meter dash (7.16 seconds) to help the Wolverines win their first PAC Championship.

Saint Vincent: Senior Tim Patterson won the 5,000-meter race at the PAC Championships with a meet-record time of 15 minutes, 4.63 seconds. But he wasn’t done: Patterson also claimed gold in the 3,000 meters (9:03.23).

Westminster: Grad student Ryan Beard (Franklin Regional) was the runner-up in the 200-meter dash at the PAC Championships with a time of 22.23 seconds. He added a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter dash with a personal-record time of 7.07 seconds.

Women’s indoor track & field

Duquesne: Senior Hannah Seitzinger (Belle Vernon) won gold in the 500-meter dash at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships, completing a three-peat in the event with a time of 1 minute, 12.17 seconds. She is the first Duquesne athlete in the program to win three consecutive titles. Her time came with a bonus: It also broke her school record. She also contributed to a fourth-place finish for the distance-medley relay.

Senior Sadie Wetzel (Latrobe) finished second in the high jump with a school record-tying mark of 5 feet, 8 inches.

Saint Vincent: The distance-medley relay of sophomore Cassy Lanza, senior Miranda Guthrie, sophomore Lily Murphy (Hempfield) and sophomore Miranda Cincotta finished third at the PAC Championships in 13 minutes, 20 seconds, in Youngstown, Ohio. The time broke the program record, set in 2018, by 23 seconds.

Sophomore Kristen Price took third in the 5,000-meter run (18:55.15) and was fourth in the 3,000 meters (10:56.67).

Cincotta placed fourth in the mile (5:16.51).

Men’s volleyball

Penn State: Grad student John Kerr (Derry) registered a double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs, to go with a .462 hitting percentage, as No. 9 Penn State defeated New Jersey Institute of Technology, 3-1. Kerr went on to deliver 13 kills and hit .524 in a 3-0 sweep of NJIT. Penn State improved to 11-3 (3-0 EIVA).

Men’s tennis

Saint Vincent: Coach Brian Niemiec earned his 100th career victory leading the men’s and women’s teams in Latrobe as the Bearcats blanked Mount Aloysius, 9-0. Niemiec has 53 wins with the men, who improved to 5-0 for the season.

Bearcats’ freshman Brady Johnson was named the PAC Newcomer of the Week after he went 3-0 in two wins.