Avolio gets hall of fame call from La Roche
Phil Avolio, an Eighty Four native, was recently inducted into the La Roche College Athletic Hall of Fame.
A former standout baseball player at Canon-McMillan before attending La Roche, Avolio was one of six inductees in the Red Hawks’ 2016 hall of fame class. Induction ceremonies were held in late January.
A 2009 La Roache graduate, Avolio had a distinguished baseball career with the Red Hawks. He ranked second on the school’s all-time pitching wins list when he graduated and is currently ranked fourth. In addition to his 15 career victories, Avolio threw 11 complete games and struck out 108 batters.
He was on the La Roche team that won the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference regular-season championship in 2007 and helped the Red Hawks to the AMCC championship game in 2006 and 2007. Avolio threw one no-hitter during the 2007 season, which sparked a winning streak as La Roche won 11 of its next 12 games en route to the AMCC regular-season championship.
Avolio received the 2009 AMCC Faculty Representative Award given to the top academic student-athlete in the conference.
“La Roche and the baseball field always feels welcoming. It never feels like you were gone for very long,” Avolio said of his induction.
A Facilities Management major at La Roche, Avolio currently works as the Facilities and Parks Coordinator for Mt. Lebanon Municipality. He and wife, Meredith, have two children, Sieena and Rowan. They reside in Allison Park.
Derrick Nelson of Spaggs is having a spectacular senior season at Coker, an NCAA Division II school in Hartsville, S.C.
Nelson, who had a 131-30 record and was a three-time state tournament qualifier in high school at Waynesburg, has a 25-3 record at 133 pounds and is ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II’s Super Region II.
A Pitt transfer, Nelson has 39 wins in two seasons at Coker. He was ranked as high as No. 4 regionally as a junior.
• Virginia Tech’s Solomon Chishko, a former PIAA champion at Canon-McMillan is ranked No. 8 in the country at 141 pounds by Intermat.com.
Chishko, a redshirt freshman, has a 23-2 record and is unbeaten (15-0) in dual meets. His 37 dual-meet points ranks third on the team.
• Ty Buckiso, a sophomore from Venetia, has a 17-11 record wrestling at 141 pounds for The Citadel. A Peters Township graduate, Buckiso is 5-0 in Southern Conference dual meets and has three wins by fall and two by technical fall.
As a freshman, Buckiso had a 22-14 record that included seven wins in dual meets.
Penn State Beaver senior guard Morgan Kurtz was named both the Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week and the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Women’s Division II Player of the Week for Jan. 24-30.
Kurtz, a Trinity graduate, surpassed the 1,500-point mark for her career when she scored 23 points against Penn State-Wilkes-Barre Jan. 29. One day later, she set the school’s single-game scoring record with a 36-point performance in a 98-56 win over Penn State Worthington-Scranton. Kurtz made 12 of 17 shots, including six of nine three-pointers, and converted six of seven free throws during the record-setting game. Kurtz also had 10 rebounds, 10 steals and four assists for the week.
Kurtz has scored at least 18 points in five consecutive games. For the season, she is the second-leading scorer for Penn State Beaver, averaging 17.0 points per game. The Lions are 11-1 in conference play and 14-9 overall.
• Observer-Reporter Boys Basketball Player of the Year, has been a key player for West Liberty, which is ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division II.
A senior forward, Lamberti is averaging 9.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game for the Hilltoppers (20-2) and is shooting 61 percent from the field. In an 84-77 win Feb. 4 over 8th-ranked Fairmont State, Lamberti scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Marissa Kalsey, a senior from Waynesburg, is the Westminster College Titan Athlete of the Week.
One of the top women’s pole vaulters in NCAA Division III, Kalsey won the event last week at the Jim Wuske Invitational hosted by Mount Union College. Kalsey cleared a season-best 12-9½, equaling the second-best height in the country this season.
Kalsey also placed second out of 44 competitors from Division I, II, III and NAIA schools at the SPIRE Midwest Open Jan. 30 in Geneva, Ohio. She cleared 12-0½.
At the season-opening Youngstown State University Icebreaker, Kalsey proved that she was already in midseason form by clearing 12-0¾ for a first-place finish.
• Zak Dysert, a sophomore from McDonald, is a member of the Baldwin Wallace men’s indoor track & field team.
A Fort Cherry graduate, Dysert is competing in the weight throw. Last weekend at the Bob Shannon Invitational, which was hosted by Denison University, Dysert helped 20th-ranked Baldwin Wallace to a second-place finish in the team standings. He finished second in the weight throw with a toss of 51-7 ½.
Dysert also had a second-place finish at the Mid-January Meet in Berea, Ohio. His throw of 53-3 was a career best and helped Baldwin Wallace win the team title.