Alle-Kiski Valley high school notebook: Runners make noise early

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, September 9, 2018 | 10:27 PM

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The early portion of the cross country season allows runners to make strong statements at a few big invitationals, and a handful of Alle-Kiski Valley runners have gotten out to fast starts.

Fox Chapel seniors Sarena Seeger and Christian Fitch followed up their individual wins at the season-opening Gateway Invitational at Boyce Park by turning in good performances at the 16th annual Red, White and Blue Classic on Saturday at Schenley Park in Oakland.

Seeger finished second among Class AAA girls behind Oakland Catholic’s Hannah Schupansky, clocking a time of 18 minutes, 59.28 seconds. Fitch finished third among Class AAA boys. Those haven’t been the only top performances at early-season invitationals. Fox Chapel’s Grace Sisson placed fifth at the Red, White and Blue Classic after taking fifth at Gateway. Highlands’ C.J. Thimons and Deer Lakes’ Josh Yourish took eighth and 10th, respectively, among Class A and AA boys at the Red, White and Blue. Yourish was eighth at Gateway.

“That is a tough course to begin the season with all the hills, but it’s a good test,” Yourish said after the Gateway Invitational, which took place in hot, humid conditions Sept. 1 at Boyce Park in Plum. “I was happy with my time. An 18:59 this early in the season on a tough course like Boyce is something that I will take.”

Fox Chapel swept the boys and girls titles at Gateway, and the Foxes girls were second behind North Allegheny at the Red, White and Blue. Other top local runners included Kiski Area’s Kierra Shreffler, who took fourth; Riverview sophomore Mason Ochs, who was third; and Riverview’s Gideon Deasy, who was seventh.

Golden goal

It didn’t take long for Apollo-Ridge to claim a signature Section 2-AA girls soccer win.

Mayce Anthony’s penalty-kick goal in the final seconds of double overtime Saturday gave the Vikings a 2-1, come-from-behind victory over two-time defending section champion Freeport.

The Vikings (2-0, 1-0), who are playing up in Class AA this season after spending the first three years of program history in Class A, snapped Freeport’s 25-game section unbeaten streak, dealing the Yellowjackets their first section defeat since Oct. 20, 2015.

Kat Yurjevich, a Leechburg student who plays for Apollo-Ridge as part of the co-op between the schools, scored the tying goal in Saturday’s victory.

‘Bruno’ stars

Former Burrell football standout Alex Bellinotti made the most of his own personal Battle of the Bypass against Valley on Friday.

Bellinotti, playing this season for Shady Side Academy after spending his first three seasons at Burrell, rushed for a touchdown and a 2-point conversion and was among the Indians’ leading tacklers in their 43-14 win over Valley at Memorial Stadium.

Dubbed “Bruno” by his new teammates, Bellinotti, a two-time all-conference tight end and linebacker who has offers from Cornell and West Virginia State, is providing a physical presence in the middle of SSA’s defense, sharing videos of his big hits on social media.

“No. 1, he’s an awesome kid,” SSA coach Chuck DiNardo said. “For coming in his senior year, he really earned the respect of the team right away basically by the way he comes to work every day. Great kid, very hard worker and what he brings to us on both sides of the ball is some physicality. He does a nice job plugging up the middle. You get a little more comfortable when you have a guy like him in the middle.”

Staying international

Nolan Cressler’s professional basketball career is taking him on a tour of Europe.

The former Plum star signed a contract this week with KK Dynamic of the Basketball League of Serbia, the highest level of professional basketball in the country.

Cressler played his first professional season in Estonia for Avis Utilitas Rapla, where he was one of the team’s top scorers. The 6-foot-4 guard graduated in 2012 as Plum’s all-time leading scorer and played collegiately at Cornell and Vanderbilt, topping 1,000 career points.

Michael Love contributed. Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Highlands, Kiski School, Plum, Shady Side Academy