North Allegheny notebook: Lee, Shi win WPIAL Scholar-Athlete Awards

By: Tribune-Review
Saturday, April 22, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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The WPIAL saw an increased number of applicants for the James Collins Scholar-Athlete Award this year, and Wednesday announced 20 winners from the 162 nominees, including two students from North Allegheny.

North Allegheny’s Harron Lee and Christina Shi were recognized.

Lee, who carries a 4.61 GPA, is a four-year letter-winner in baseball and three-time football letterman. He helped the Tigers win WPIAL championships in football as a senior and baseball as a junior. He was named all-conference in both sports. Lee plans to study finance and play baseball at MIT.

Shi, a 4.0 student, won four WPIAL gold medals and three PIAA gold medals in diving during her career. She was a three-time All-American selection and a USA Diving Junior National Championships finalist. She will study economics and statistics and compete in diving at Harvard.

The selection committee chose 10 boys and 10 girls. Each receives a $1,000 scholarship.

The other boys winners were Trinity’s Ty Banco, Waynesburg’s Michael Church, Aquinas Academy’s Vinnie Cugini, Mt. Lebanon’s Chase Dustevich, Seneca Valley’s Beaux Lizewski, Armstrong’s Cadin Olsen, Avonworth’s Matthew Purcell, Peters Township’s Steven Suchko and Bentworth’s Landon Urcho.

The other girls winners were Freeport’s Cassidy Dell, Mt. Lebanon’s Deirdre Flaherty, Mars’ Gwen Howell, Quaker Valley’s Nora Johns, Mapletown’s Ella Menear, Neshannock’s Aaralyn Nogay, West Greene’s London Whipkey, Trinity’s Eden Williamson and Carmichaels’ Sophia Zalar.

This was the 32nd year for the program. The 162 applicants were 20 more than last school year and the most since 2002, according to the WPIAL.

NA boys volleyball on a roll

North Allegheny’s boys volleyball team posted a 3-0 win over North Hills on April 19 to claim its fourth straight win.

The Tigers won 25-15, 25-15, 25-21. Jax Wilhite and Will Robertson each had nine kills, and Varun Kaveti had eight for North Allegheny (5-2, 5-2), which also posted recent 3-0 wins over Fox Chapel, Seneca Valley and Pine-Richland.

Tigers baseball tops Allderdice

Winning pitcher David Posey threw a complete-game one-hitter and struck out nine while driving in two runs to lead North Allegheny (7-2, 4-1) to a 4-0 Section 1-6A baseball win over Allderdice on April 19.

Ian Zahorchak homered for North Allegheny.

NA tennis duo wins section title

Evan Kaufman and Matthew Kampi won an all-North Allegheny final, defeating Srivatsav Thirumala and Adhav Ramadas for the Section 2-3A doubles title, 6-4, 7-6 (2), on April 19.

Both tandems qualified for the WPIAL doubles tournament this week.

Bartolomucci leads Tigers past SSA

Marc Bartolomucci scored four goals and added three assists to help North Allegheny boys lacrosse to a 10-8 victory over Shady Side Academy on April 19.

Jonathan Castillo, Nick Sichak, Travis Lamark (2), Christian Tedder and Evan Lyon also scored as the Tigers improved to 6-3 overall and 4-0 in Section 2-3A.

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