Canonsburg native named head coach at Salem International
Nick Gibson, a Canonsburg native, has been named head track & field coach at Salem International University.
A former standout at Canon-McMillan High School, Gibson is a 2015 graduate of Shippensburg University and was the assistant cross country/track and field coach at Queens University of Charlotte, N.C. He was an NCAA Division II All-American at Shippensburg as a member of the Raiders’ distance medley relay team. As a junior, Gibson was the anchor on both of Shippensburg’s PSAC championship 3,200-meter relay squads. He also earned two All-PSAC honors and three individual place-winning showings.
“This is a great opportunity that I’ve been given,” Gibson said. “I am looking forward to growing the men’s program and recruiting the best student-athletes to call Salem home for their collegiate career.”
The Gibson family is well-versed when it comes to the running community, with Nick’s father, brother and sister currently coaching at the NCAA Division I and II levels. His mom also is in the coaching ranks at the high school level.
“We’re excited to add a coach like Nicholas that has a passion for running to the SIU staff,” Salem athletic director Steve Potts said. “I am eager to see him develop the men’s cross county/track & field program at Salem. His desire to be a great coach and the knowledge of coaching that his family has will help our student-athletes to excel.”
Salem International, located in Salem, W.Va.
Mercyhurst redshirt senior Francis Mizia, a Bentleyville native and a Bentworth graduate, is ranked No. 1 at 165 pounds in NCAA Division II.
The NCAA released last week the standings for the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Awards that will be given in March at the respective Division I, II and III Championships. Mizia leads Division II in the Most Dominant Wrestler standings, a category in which individuals receive points for various types of wins along with losing points for a bout loss.
The Citadel’s Ty Buckiso, a junior from Venetia and a Peters Township graduate, won his weight class at the 23rd Annual All-Academy Championships hosted by the Naval Academy Jan. 29. It was the second All-Academy championship for Buckiso, who won as a freshman two years ago.
A 149-pounder, Buckiso went 3-0 during the tournament with a 17-1 technical fall over Norwich’s Tyler Ayers in the opening round, a 3-2 decision over Navy’s Corey Wilding in the semifinals and a 4-1 decision in the finals over Gerald McGinty from Air Force.
The Cal Poly wrestling team left the outcome of its match Jan. 28 in the hands of senior Colton Shorts.
In the final bout of the match, the 157-pounder from Canonsburg did not disappoint his teammates, leading from start to finish in a 6-0 decision over Sean O’Rourke and lifting the Mustangs to a 21-18 Pac-12 Conference dual meet victory over Cal State-Bakersfield.
“Shorts is continuing to close the gap on some of the best in the nation,” said Cal Poly head coach Jon Sioredas.
Shorts, now 18-11 on the season, stepped onto the mat with the team score tied at 18-18 and tallied a takedown in the first period, an escape in the second stanza and a takedown plus riding time in the final period for his shutout win.
Solomon Chishko, a two-time state champion at Canon-McMillan and a redshirt sophomore at Virginia Tech, is ranked No. 6 in the nation at 149 pounds by Intermat. Chishko has a 16-4 record this season including a 13-1 mark in dual meets and is 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He has a career overall record of 46-11.
A.C. Headlee, a former PIAA Class AAA state champion from Waynesburg and a sophomore at North Carolina, won the 141-pound title at the 14th Annual Shorty Hitchcock Memorial Classic hosted by Millersville.
Headlee went 5-0 in the tournament, winning by technical fall in the opening round and gaining a pair of decisions in his next two bouts to advance to the semifinals, where he won a 9-5 decision over Michael Van Brill of Rutgers. In the finals, Headlee was a 5-3 winner of Kizhan Clarke of American.
For the second time this season, Washington & Jefferson sophomore Danielle Parker was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week, for the period Jan. 23 through Jan. 29.
Parker averaged 20.5 points per game for the 2-0 Presidents on 58.6 percent shooting from the field (17-for-29) to go along with seven rebounds per game and two blocked shots per game. Parker tied her career high with 26 points against Saint Vincent Jan. 25 while also pulling down 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season and fifth double-digit rebound game. She followed that on Jan. 28 with a 15-point performance against Grove City.
For the second time in three weeks, Pitt-Johnstown’s Josh Wise was named the PSAC West Division Freshman of the Week for the period Jan. 23-29.
A former Observer-Reporter Boys Basketball Player of the Year while at Washington, Wise averaged 11 points per game as the Mountain Cats went 1-1 on the week. Wise scored 12 points, had four assists and recorded a steal in a contest against Seton Hill.
Bucknell’s Kaitlyn Slagus, a sophomore forward from Belle Vernon, received her third weekly honor from the Patriot League when she was named Player of the Week for Jan. 23-29.
Slagus had her 10th double-double of the season with 22 points and 13 rebounds, going 6-for-6 at the free-throw line and 7-for-11 from the field in the Bison’s 68-62 home over Army. She also posed as a defensive threat with four blocked shots and steal.
Slagus is averaging 13.3 points and a team-best 9.7 rebounds per game for Bucknell, which won its first nine Patriot League games for the first time in school history. The Bison are currently 9-2 in the conference and 17-5 overall.
Washington & Jefferson freshman Hannah Lacey was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Track and Field Rookie of the Week for her performance Jan. 27 at the Dr. William Taraschke Classic at Baldwin Wallace.
Lacey, who has won Rookie of the Week twice this indoor season, competed in the 1,000-meter run for the first time in her career and finished third with a W&J school record time of 3:13.47. The Beth-Center graduate also was fourth in the long jump with a mark of 14-11 ½ and ran the second leg of the second-place 1,600-meter relay.
Allegheny senior Amanda Balzer, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, was named the North Coast Athletic Conference Women’s Sprinter/Hurdler of the Week for Jan. 15-21 after finishing in second place in the 60-meter hurdles at the Carnegie Mellon Indoor Invitational.
In the preliminaries, Balzer had the fastest time (9.20) in the 25-runner field. The time is the second-fastest in Allegheny school history and the 16th-fastest by an NCAA Division III hurdler this season. In the finals, Balzer was almost as fast, finishing in second place with a time of 9.22 seconds.
Waynesburg’s Mitch Kendra, a junior from Washington and a Trinity graduate, won the pole vault competition and set the Yellow Jackets’ school record at the Denison Lid-Lifter indoor meet held Jan. 21.
Kendra, who is a wide receiver on Waynesburg’s football team in the fall, cleared 14-2 on his record-setting vault. For this performance, Kendra was named Waynesburg’s Male Athlete of the Week and the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Field Athlete of the Week.
Grove City’s Brittany Byer, a freshman from Canonsburg and a Canon-McMillan graduate, was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Women’s Swimmer of the Week for Jan. 23-29.
Byer swept the backstroke events Jan. 26 against arch-rival Westminster, posting winning times of 1:01.14 in the 100 and 2:15.21 in the 200. She also led off Grove City’s victorious 200 medley relay (1:48.79) and competed on the 200 freestyle relay that posted the meet’s top time (1:39.92).
In a meet Jan. 28 against Chatham, Byer won both the 50 freestyle (25.64) and 200 freestyle (2:01.88).