Pine-Richland girls end season on high note

By: Jerin Steele
Sunday, February 27, 2022 | 11:01 AM

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The Pine-Richland girls basketball team fell short of reaching the playoffs, but it ended the season on a high note with a pair of victories.

The Rams took down Shaler, 60-51, on senior night Feb. 10 and followed that with a 65-51 win over Franklin Regional on Valentine’s Day.

Pine-Richland finished with a 7-15 record.

Sophomore Madison Zavasky paced the Rams in the Shaler win, scoring 16 points. Katie Pifer scored 15, and Sarah Pifer netted 11.

Zavasky had 21 in the Franklin Regional win, Sarah Pifer finished with 18, Sophie Catalano added 12 and Katie Pifer scored 11.

Catalano is one of the seniors on the team. She will continue her athletic career as a volleyball player at Clemson. Gianna Reighard plans to attend a four-year university and major in early childhood education. Christina Yarbrough is going into the dual-degree (bachelor’s/master’s) physician’s assistant program at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The future of the Rams’ program looks bright with the seventh-grade team finishing 18-0 this year and the eighth-grade team posting a 15-2 record.

Swimmers ready for WPIALs

With the WPIAL swimming championships set for March 3-4 at Pitt’s Trees Pool in Oakland, a group of Pine-Richland swimmers have posted some strong times.

Freshman Sarah Shaffer is second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1 minutes, 5.13 seconds, and older sister Elizabeth Shaffer is 13th at 1:08.21.

Elizabeth is 32nd in 100 freestyle (55.33) and 35th in 50 freestyle (25.47). Sarah is 16th in 200 IM (2:13.78).

Delaney Allen (54.21) is 12th in 100 freestyle, is tied for 14th in the 50 freestyle (24.80), 25th in 200 IM (2:15.37) and tied for 26th in 200 freestyle (2:00.33).

Mila Cribbs is 15th in 100 backstroke (1:00.24), 27th in 100 butterfly (1:01.24) and 29th in 50 freestyle (25.29).

Freshman Anna Schomaker is 21st in 500 freestyle (5:25.21) and 33rd in 200 freestyle (2:00.96).

On the boys team, Matthew Carper is third in 100 breaststroke (58.86), and 23rd in 200 IM (2:00.18).

Trent Vacula is fifth in 200 IM (1:57.21), 13th in 500 freestyle (4:49.82) and 28th in 100 breaststroke (1:01.83).

Justin Bogacz is seventh in 100 butterfly (52.02), 25th in 100 freestyle (49.12) and 27th in 50 freestyle (22.47).

Brennan Kirkpatrick is 20th in 500 freestyle (4:54.21), Grant Lundgren is 22nd in 100 butterfly (54.15), Reece Rupert is 24th in 100 backstroke (56.07) and William Laubacher is 24th in 200 freestyle (1:47.82).

In relays, the girls 200 medley relay team is fourth (1:49.09), eighth in the 200 freestyle relay (1:42.31), and 20th in the 400 freestyle relay (3:51.80).

The boys are 10th in the 200 medley relay (1:39.80) and the 400 freestyle relay (3:19.82). They are 11th in the 200 freestyle relay (1:31.10).

All times are as of Feb. 22.

The WPIAL Class 3A diving championships were held Feb. 26 at North Allegheny, and four Rams divers qualified. Senior Dylan McCabe was seeded 12th (207) in the boys meet.

Freshman Kendyll Jerry was seeded eighth (244.85), junior Emily Smallwood was 11th (227.55) and Emily Smallwood was tied for 21st (214.40) in the girls meet.

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland