Dunn named Horizon League top freshman
Youngstown State forward Mary Dunn was named the Horizon League Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Year.
Dunn, a native of Washington and a Trinity graduate, led all Horizon League freshmen in scoring and field-goal percentage, and she was the only freshman in the league to rank among the top three scorers on her team. Additionally, Dunn was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Week a conference-high four times.
Dunn is the first Penguins player to be named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year since the award was changed in 2013-14 to honor the league’s top freshman. There was previously a Newcomer of the Year award.
“We are very proud of Mary for earning Horizon League Freshman-of-the-Year honors,” YSU head coach John Barnes said. “She has come a long way this season and has worked hard to improve. She has had a lot of pressure as a freshman in our offense to carry a big portion of our scoring load, and she has responded wonderfully. The honor is well deserved.”
Dunn averaged 11.4 points and 4.0 rebounds while shooting 51.4 percent from the field during the regular season. She scored in double figures 17 times, including nine straight games from Dec. 6 through Jan. 14.
Dunn was well on her way to setting Youngstown State’s record for points by a freshman before an ankle injury slowed her at the end of January. Despite missing two games and playing only eight minutes combined in two others because of the injury, her 307 points this season are the sixth-most by a Penguins freshman. Her 18 blocked shots are the fourth most.
Solomon Chishko, a former state champion at Canon-McMillan, won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship at 149 pounds, qualified for the upcoming NCAA Championships and helped Virginia Tech to the ACC team title.
A redshirt sophomore, Chishko won his first ACC title with a 12-7 decision over No. 3 seed Troy Heilmann of North Carolina in the finals. Chishko scored an early takedown and never trailed, adding a takedown in the second period and three takedowns in the third period to pull away. Chishko is ranked sixth nationally at 149 and has a 21-3 record.
Chishko is not the only former Canon-McMillan standout who will be competing at the NCAA Championships March 16-18 at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Cal Poly senior Colton Shorts of Canonsburg qualified for the NCAA tournament by placing second in the 157-pound weight class at the Pac-12 Championships hosted by Stanford.
Shorts, the No. 2 seed in his weight class, earned his way to the finals with a first-round bye and a 3-1 decision over Paul Fox of Stanford in the semifinals before he was defeated by top-seeded Josh Shields of Arizona State 10-5. Only two wrestlers from the 157-pound class advanced to the nationals and Shorts did not have to wrestle a second-place match because Fox finished third and had already lost to Shorts, who has a 19-11 record.
Shorts was one of two former Canon-McMillan wrestlers who placed second in his weight class at the Pac-12 meet. Connor Schram, a redshirt sophomore at Stanford, was the runner-up in the 133-pound weight class. The Pac-12, however, received only one automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships at 133 pounds.
Schram was the top seed in the tournament. He received a bye in the first round and won a 12-1 major decision over Josh Newberg of Boise State in the semifinals. In the title matchup, Schram dropped a 5-4 decision in a tiebreaker to Joey Palmer of Oregon State. The bout was tied 4-4 after three periods and sudden victory. Palmer rode Schram the entire 30 seconds of the first overtime; Schram started the second round in neutral, giving Palmer an escape point, and Palmer fended off all takedown attempts for the win.
Schram helped Stanford to a third-place finish in the team standings. Arizona State won the team title.
A former PIAA champion, Schram has a 14-4 record this season and is ranked No. 18 in the nation at 133 by Intermat.
Two Washington County natives and teammates at The Citadel were named to the All-Southern Conference team.
Ty Buckiso of Venetia, a junior, was named to the first team at 149 pounds, and Doug Gudenburr, a freshman from Finleyville, was named to the all-freshman team at 141 pounds.
A Peters Township graduate, Buckiso had a 22-15 record during the regular season with six conference wins. He placed fourth at the Southern Conference tournament. Buckiso lost in the semifinals to John Fahy from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in a sudden victory. He then earned a 9-1 major decision over Gardner-Webb’s Joby Armenta in the consolation semifinal before falling to Campbell’s Benjamin Barton in the third-place bout.
Gudenburr is a Ringgold graduate. He had 19 regular-season wins and four conference victories. At the conference tournament, Gudenburr placed third. He earned a pin in 1:23 and a 6-2 decision win before falling in the third-place match by an 11-3 major decision.
Mercyhurst senior Francis Mizia earned his fourth trip to the NCAA Division II Championships by placing second at 165 pounds in the Super Region One Tournament held in Erie.
A Bentleyville native and Bentworth graduate, Mizia secured his qualifying status by defeating Troy Warner of Kutztown 5-3. Mizia scored 16½ team points to help Mercyhurst to a fourth-place finish in the team standings.
Mizia will take a 35-2 record into the national tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday in Birmingham, Ala.
Dustin Conti of Jefferson and a redshirt junior at Clarion, placed second at 197 pounds during the Eastern Wrestling League Championships held in Bloomsburg.
A Jefferson-Morgan graduate, Conti had a dominant 18-0 technical fall victory over Cleveland State’s Collin Kelly in the first round. The semifinal bout against Lock Haven’s Tristan Sponseller was all drama. The two wrestled to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation, and neither wrestler got much traction in the first sudden victory period until the waning moments. A coach’s review wiped out what would have been Sponseller’s bout-winning takedown with one second remaining, while at the same time giving Conti a takedown just seconds before that, advancing Conti to the finals. The championship match against Ryan Wolfe of Rider was an entertaining one, but Conti ultimately lost by a 9-2 decision.
Thiel freshman outside hitter Mitchell Patterson of Canonsburg was named the Continental Volleyball Conference Player of the Week for Feb. 7-13.
A Canon-McMillan graduate, Patterson led Thiel to a 1-1 conference record that included a 3-0 win over Cairn. Patterson led the Tomcats with 20 kills. In a 3-1 loss the next day to Rutgers-Newark, Patterson led Thiel with 15 kills.
Patterson finished the week with 35 kills, hitting .383 and recording 36.5 points in seven sets. On the season, Patterson leads Thiel with 188 kills.
South Fayette graduate Mary Rosati, a senior at Edinboro, placed seventh in the 200-yard backstroke and 11th in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the PSAC Championships and helped the Fighting Scots to a sixth-place finish in the team standings.
Nazareth sophomore Desiree Kline, a Canon-McMillan graduate, completed a stellar season with a ninth-place finish in the 1-meter competition at the NCAA Regional 4 Championships in Ithaca, N.Y. Kline accumulated 409.95 points in the competition that included 29 divers. She also was ninth in the 3-meter board with 421.20 points.
Kline narrowly missed a berth to the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships as the top seven divers in each competition advanced.
“It was a very successful season for Desiree,” said Nazareth coach Scott Whitbeck. “I am excited to see her build off this year’s success for the 2017-18 season.”
Giorgiana Zeremenko and Olivia Gray each are batting better than .300 for the Pitt softball team that is off to a 12-5 start.
Zeremenko, a junior catcher from Canonsburg, leads the Panthers with three home runs and 16 RBI to go with a .308 batting average.
Gray, a sophomore third baseman and a Trinity graduate, has team highs of 13 runs, seven doubles and 11 walks to go with four stolen bases and a .302 batting average. Gray has committed only one error in 84 chances.
Olivia LoRusso, a former Observer-Reporter Softball Player of the Year while at Canon-McMillan, is the second-leading hitter for Robert Morris.
Through 14 games, LoRusso, a junior third baseman from Eighty Four, has a .333 batting average and leads the Colonials with five doubles, two home runs and 10 RBI.
LaRusso is tied for the team lead in home runs with her former Canon-McMillan teammate Abby McCartney. A sophomore outfielder, McCartney has two home runs in only 23 at-bats.
Josh Wise had a successful freshman season at Pitt-Johnstown. The former Washington standout and Observer-Reporter Boys Basketball Player of the Year averaged 8.1 points per game for UPJ.
Wise played in all 30 of the Mountain Cats’ games, averaging 18.4 minutes of playing time. He shot 46 percent from the field and 39 percent from three-point range.
Shippensburg’s Alec Rideout, a junior from Canonsburg, will compete in the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships that start Thursday in Birmingham, Ala. Rideout, who received all-region honors last week, has qualified in the shot put. His best throw of the season was 57-11¼, which set the PSAC Indoor Championships record and ranks seventh this year in the nation.
In winning the PSAC championship, three of Rideout’s throws traveled farther than every other competitor’s best throw.
Zak Dysert of McDonald, a junior at Baldwin-Wallace, was named All-Great Lakes Region by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Asscociation.
The Fort Cherry graduate was named to the team in the weight throw as he recorded a career-best mark of 56-11½ last month at the Hillsdale Wide Track Classic and placed third at the Division III All-Ohio Championships.