College notebook: Dunn has YSU surging to top of Horizon League
Youngstown State women’s basketball player Mary Dunn has been on quite a streak since the calendar has turned to January.
Dunn, a Washington native and Trinity graduate, set career highs with 26 points and 13 rebounds in Youngstown State’s 81-29 pasting of Illinois-Chicago in a Horizon League game Jan. 3. The junior forward was 12-for-14 from the field while playing only 23 minutes.
In YSU’s next game, a 70-52 victory over IUPUI that extended the Penguins’ winning streak to five games, Dunn was 6-for-7 from the field and had seven rebounds.
Those two performances led to Dunn being named the Horizon League Player of the Week as she averaged 21.5 points, 10 rebounds and made 18 of 21 shots, which included 3-for-4 from three-point range.
Dunn came off the bench to score 23 points and grab a game-high 11 rebounds and block five shots last Monday as Youngstown State defeated Northern Kentucky, 77-66. In the Penguins’ 73-55 thumping of Cleveland State on Saturday, Dunn had another big all-around game, scoring 22 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
For the season, Dunn is averaging 13.3 points per game, is second on the team with 6.9 rebounds per contest and is shooting 55 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free-throw line. She also has made eight three-point field goals. In January, Dunn is scoring at a 15-points-per-game clip.
Youngstown State has a 15-5 record and is 7-2 in the Horizon League, a half-game out of first place.
In swimming
VMI freshman Stephen Hopta of McMurray and a Peters Township graduate was named last Tuesday the America East Male Swimmer of the Week, his second-straight week to receive the honor.
The Keydets swam at Washington & Lee University on Jan. 19 against the Generals and Randolph College. Hopta broke two more records after setting one last weekend at Old Dominion.
Hopta swam a 9:53.82 in the 1,000-yard freestyle to win the event and break his own school record. He set the VMI freshman record and won the 200-backstroke with a time of 1:53.28, and took second place in the 200 butterfly in 1:56.82. He also was part of VMI’s 200 medley relay team that finished in second place.
“It is good to see Stephen recognized again,” VMI head coach Andrew Bretscher said. “He competed hard on Saturday so it is well-deserved.”
Hopta holds five school records.
In basketball
Alexa Williamson has worked her way into Temple’s starting lineup as a freshman.
The Chartiers-Houston graduate, who was the Observer-Reporter’s Girls Basketball Player of the Year last season, has started seven of 17 games for the Owls and is averaging 5.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
Williamson scored a career-high 16 points against Tulane on Jan. 8, making six of eight shots from the field. She also had four rebounds and four blocked shots in the game. Williamson had a game-high 12 rebounds for La Salle.
Bucknell senior forward Kaitlyn Slagus was named the Patriot League Player of the Week on Jan. 14 after leading the Bison to league wins over Army and Lafayette. Both wins came on the road.
Slagus averaged 18.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in the wins, highlighted by a game-high 20 points and six rebounds in a 56-47 victory over Lafayette. She scored 18 points in the second half to help Bucknell pull away.
Slagus opened the week with a 16-point, eight-rebound performance in a 66-52 win at Army.
Slagus leads Bucknell in scoring (13.4) and rebounding (7.7).
The Penn State Fayette women’s team is a rarity as it has six players averaging double-figure points per game. Four of those players are from Washington County.
Taylor Costa, a freshman wing from Donora and a Ringgold graduate, is the Roaring Lions’ leading scorer at 13.3 points per game. Costa has a single-game high of 24 points against Lorain Community College. She scored 22 points against Garrett Community College.
Kaitlyn Riley, a freshman guard from Charleroi, is averaging 11.9 points per game but has been on a scoring tear of late. Riley scored a career-high 23 points against Penn State Beaver on Jan. 12 and followed that with a 21-point game against Penn State DuBois and 18 points against Penn State New Kensington.
Lyndsey Huhn and Bailey Vig, former teammates at California High School, are scoring in double figures. Huhn, a junior forward, is averaging 10.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. She has scored in double figures in six of Penn State Fayette’s last eight games, including a high of 19 points, to go with 13 rebounds, against Allegany (Md.). Vig, a freshman guard, is scoring at a clip of 11.8 per game but has a high of 23 points against Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
Sierra Kotchman, a Washington native and Trinity graduate, recently had consecutive 27-point performances for Fairmont State.
Kotchman scored 27 to lead Fairmont State to an 89-84 victory over Urbana on Jan. 17. The sophomore guard also had five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Kotchman, who is a former Observer-Reporter Girls Basketball Player of the Year, accounted for four of Fairmont State’s seven three-pointers in the game.
In Fairmont State’s next game, an 87-59 rout of Notre Dame (Ohio), Kotchman matched her previous outing by scoring 27 points to go with four rebounds and five assists, shooting 7 of 12 from three-point range.
For the season, Kotchman is the Falcons’ leading scorer at 16.7 points per game. She is shooting 37 percent from three-point range and 89 percent (59 of 66) from the free-throw line.
David Collins of Youngstown Ohio, who played at First Love Christian Academy in Washington, has started every game this season for South Florida and is the Bulls’ leading scorer at 14.3 points per game. The sophomore guard also is second on the team in assists and steals.
Collins had a career-high 23 points in 69-60 loss against Houston on Jan. 19. He made six of nine shots from the field in the game and 10 of 14 free throws. Prior to that game, Collins’ season high was 21 points, which he produced in three consecutive games in November against Georgetown, Florida A&M and The Citadel.
In wrestling
Illinois’ Mike Carr, a state champion at South Fayette, is ranked No. 4 in the nation at 141 pounds. Carr, a redshirt sophomore, scored four points in the final 30 seconds to beat No. 15 Max Murin, 6-3, in Illinois’ dual meet Friday against Iowa. Carr has an 8-2 record.
One of the assistant coaches at Illinois is Jeremy Hunter, who is a four-time state champion at McGuffey and NCAA champion at Penn State.
Belle Vernon graduate Zach Hartman is off to a strong start to his freshman year at Bucknell.
Hartman has a 16-4 record and has cracked the national rankings in the 157-pound weight class. His four losses have come against wrestlers ranked nationally in the top 10 by Intermat. Hartman has moved into the Intermat rankings at No. 10. He also is ranked No. 11 by The Open Mat and FloWrestling at 157 pounds.
Hartman had a strong start to the season and a third-place finish at the Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30 in Illinois. He defeated five seeded wrestlers to finish the tournament at 6-1. The unseeded freshman upset two nationally ranked wrestlers in No. 15 Christian Pogdilao (10-2 major decision) of Arizona State and No. 17 John Van Brill (7-5 decision) of Rutgers.
Hartman pinned a nationally ranked opponent during a dual meet at Lehigh. Hartman, who was ranked as high as 10th nationally, pinned Josh Humphreys, who came in at 17th, to improve to 14-4 on the season. The duo were locked in a scoreless tie through two periods. Early in the third period, Hartman gained control of Humphreys with a cradle and brought his shoulders to the mat for the pin.
Hartman had an outstanding career at Belle Vernon, where he had a 170-25 record that included 96 pins. Hartman finished second at the PIAA Championships as a senior, fifth as a sophomore and third as a freshman. He also qualified as a junior for the state tournament and has the most career wins at Belle Vernon.
Gannon sophomore and Belle Vernon graduate Jacob Dunlop was honored as the PSAC Wrestler of the Week for Dec. 31-Jan. 6 after he went 3-0 in the NWCA National Duals in Louisville, Ky.
Dunlop, wrestling at 125 pounds, defeated 10th-ranked Maleek Williams, the 2018 NCAA Division II runner-up from Upper Iowa, 11-4. He secured a 9-1 major decision over Limestone’s James Sass and beat Central Oklahoma’s Noah McQuigg by an 8-0 major decision.
Dunlop has a 13-6 record and the 13 wins are the team-high at Gannon.
In track and field
Westminster junior Tim Maxwell, a McGuffey graduate, placed second in the pole vault at West Virginia University’s Marty Pushkin Track Classic held Jan. 11. Maxwell’s best vault cleared 13-5¼. Over the weekend, Maxwell placed fourth at the Spire Great Lakes Invitational, clearing 15-0 ¼.
Compiled by Chris Dugan