College notebook: Kotchman climbs scoring ranks, named first team all-conference
Kotchman
Howard
By Chris Dugan/Sports editor/dugan@observer-reporter.com
By Chris Dugan/Sports editor/dugan@observer-reporter.com
Schmidt
Parshall
Sierra Kotchman has been at Fairmont State for only two years but the Washington native and Trinity graduate has established herself as one of the elite women’s basketball players in Falcons history.
A sophomore guard, Kotchman became the 31st player in program history to score 1,000 career points during Fairmont State’s 87-56 victory over West Virginia State on Feb. 24. Kotchman had 23 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots in the game. She became the first player in Fairmont State history to score 1,000 career points in her first two seasons.
Kotchman, a former Observer-Reporter Girls Basketball Player of the Year, has 1,049 career points. She is the Falcons’ leading scorer at 17.6 points per game and is shooting 39 percent from three-point range and 88 percent (79-for-90) from the free-throw line.
On Monday, Kotchman was named to the All-Mountain East Conference first team.
In addition to basketball prowess, Kotchman recently received Google Cloud Academic All-District honors. She has a 3.93 grade-point average as a Business Administration major (marketing concentration).
Fairmont State (13-15) plays West Virginia Wesleyan in the Mountain East Conference tournament Wednesday (noon) at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va. Both the Mountain East men’s and women’s conference tournaments will be played in Wheeling.
In wrestling
Former Jefferson-Morgan standout Brendan Howard has qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships after winning the Super Region I title at 125 pounds.
Howard helped UPJ win its 22nd regional championship and first since 2016.
Howard, who has a 21-5 record this season, was a 6-0 winner over Gannon’s Jacob Dunlop, a Belle Vernon graduate, in the finals. Three of Howard’s loses have come to ranked wrestlers and two are Division I wrestlers.
Howard received a bye into the quarterfinals, where he won an 11-1 major decision over Shippensburg’s Corbin Hopkins before advancing to the finals with a 15-0 technical fall in 3:12 over Seton Hill’s Derrick Chandler-Christie.
Howard had a 156-35 for Jefferson-Morgan, qualified for the PIAA Class AA tournament twice and was seventh as a senior. He is second in school history for career wins behind four-time state champion Gavin Teasdale.
Howard, a redshirt junior, is ranked No. 9 in his weight class in Division II.
The Division II Championships will be held Friday and Saturday at The Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mike Carr, a redshirt sophomore at Illinois, will be the No. 1 seed at 141 pounds for the Big Ten Championships that begin Saturday in Minneapolis.
A former PIAA champion at South Fayette, Carr is the top seed in the Big Ten meet for the first time. He was the runner-up last season at 141. Carr finished the regular season undefeated at 7-0 in Big Ten duals, and 11-2 overall.
The NCAA Division I Championships will be held March 21-23 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
In basketball
Marlena Schmidt, a junior center from Eighty Four and a Ringgold graduate, has helped Southeastern University, located in Lakeland, Fla., win The Sun Conference and advance to the NAIA Division II national tournament in Sioux City, Iowa.
Schmidt is averaging 11 points per game and leads the Fire in rebounding (6.8 per game) and blocked shots (85). She is shooting 58 percent from the field.
Schmidt was named second team all-conference.
Southeastern (27-2), is the No. 2 seed in the NAIA tournament and plays plays Alice Lloyd (Ky.) in the opening round Wednesday.
Penn State Fayette’s Kaitlyn Riley, a Charleroi graduate, was named the Penn State University Athletic Conference West Division Rookie of the Year and was selected to the division’s first team.
Riley is Penn State Fayette’s leading scorer, averaging 15.5 points per game.
In track and field
Hannah Falcione, a junior at Miami (Ohio), was named the Mid-American Conference Women’s Field Athlete of the Week for Feb. 11-17.
A Peters Township graduate and Venetia native, Falcione had a personal-best 12.14 meters (39-9¾) in the triple jump at Ohio State’s Buckeye Tune-Up, earning a second-place finish in the event.
Falcione recently finished eighth at the MAC Championships with a leap of 39-5.
In softball
Bailey Parshall, a freshman from Belle Vernon, struck out 15 of 27 batters in Penn State’s 3-1 victory over Detroit Mercy in Madeira Beach, Fla. Parshall tied the Penn State record for most strikeouts in a game.
Parshall has two complete-game wins on the season and 10-plus strikeouts in three games. For the season, Parshall has a 2-6 record and 2.50 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 42 innings for the Nittany Lions, who are 3-10.
Drexel’s Linda Rush, a junior shortstop from Canon-McMillan, is swinging a hot bat for the Dragons. Rush is batting .355 through 10 games and is second on the team with 11 RBI and 24 total bases.
Rush went 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI in an 11-8 loss to North Dakota State on Feb. 16 in Madeira Beach, Fla.
Abby McCartney is the leading hitter for Robert Morris through the Colonial’s first 12 games.
McCartney, a senior first baseman/outfielder and a Canon-McMillan graduate, is batting .351 and leads RMU with 13 hits and three doubles. She went 2-for-4 with a home run, double and three RBI in a 6-5 loss to North Carolina central on Feb. 24 in Spartanburg, S.C.
In tennis
Westminster sophomore Miguel Ascencio was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for Feb. 18-24.
Against Penn State Behrend, Ascencio, a Venetia native and Peters Township graduate, won his match at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-1, after partnering with the Titans’ Logan Mannhiermer in an 8-5 No. 1 doubles win.
In swimming
Saint Vincent’s Maddie Bartung and Grove City’s Brittany Byer each were named to the All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference first team.
Bartung, a senior from Bridgeville and a South Fayette graduate, placed in seven events (three individual and four relays) during the PAC Championships that were held at Grove City’s James E. Longnecker Competition Pool.
Bartung was the conference champion in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle and was the runner-up in the 100 free. She won the 500 free in 5:13.35, winning by nearly four seconds. Her winning time in the 200 free was 1:56.04.
Bartung was a member of the Bearcats’ winning 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams, the runner-up 200 medley relay team and the 800 freestyle relay team that finished in second place.
Byer, a junior from Canonsburg and a Canon-McMillan graduate, was on two conference-winning relay teams and placed in three individual events while helping Grove City to a second-place finish in the team standings.
Byer was on the Wolverines’ winning 400 medley and 800 freestyle relay teams. She helped Grove City’s 400 freestyle relay team to a runner-up finish and the 200 freestyle relay squad to a third-place showing. In individual events, Byer was third in the 100 backstroke, fourth in the 200 backstroke and sixth in the 50 freestyle.