Trib HSSN May Madness: Lauryn Williams, Rochester vs. Sydney Bordonaro, Burrell

By: Don Rebel
Friday, May 22, 2020 | 9:00 AM

Over the course of the next month and a half, May Madness will determine who fans believe is the WPIAL Athlete of the Century.

HSSN has put together two 32-player brackets, one for the boys and one for the girls of WPIAL alums. Outside of a few exceptions, the field is made up of former district players who excelled in more than one sport.

Each weekday, May Madness will have one matchup each on the boys and girls bracket with a little background info on each athlete found in a daily tale of the tape.

Starting at 9 a.m. Friday and running through 9 a.m. Saturday, you can vote on the HSSN twitter page on the two athletes featured in this first round matchup.

Check the HSSN website at noon Saturday for the matchup’s final results.

Here is the contest for the girls. Round 1, Day 16:

Lauryn Williams vs. Sydney Bordonaro is a matchup between the golden girl of the WPIAL in the early days of the first decade against the versatility of one of the top athletes from the A-K Valley in the middle of the second decade.

Lauryn Williams — Rochester Class of 2001

(Track and field, basketball)

• Became only the third female athlete in PIAA track and field history to win the 100- and 200-meter dashes three times.

• Took home state gold in the 1999, 2000 and 2001 PIAA Class AA 100-meter and 200-meter races, setting the 100-meter state record as a senior with a time of 11.78 seconds and setting the 200-meter record as a senior with a time of 24:47.

• After finishing in second place in the 100-meter and 200-meter WPIAL Class AA championship races as a freshman, Williams swept gold in both races as a sophomore, junior and senior.

• Broke the WPIAL records in both the 100- and 200-meter races as a sophomore with times of 12.0 in the 100 and 24.8 in the 200.

• As a senior, Williams helped Rochester win gold in the 400-meter relay at both the WPIAL and PIAA championships.

• Thanks in part to Williams’ success, Rochester brought home the PIAA Class AA team silver in 2001.

• Played a year of basketball for Rochester as a senior.

• Was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2009.

• Ran in college for the track and field team at Miami. She won many national races and awards and became one of only five athletes to ever win a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, becoming the first American woman to do so.

Sydney Bordonaro — Burrell Class of 2015

(Basketball, track and field, soccer)

• 2013, 2014, 2015 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Terrific 10 all-star basketball team member.

• 2013, 2014, 2015 Valley News Dispatch girls basketball player of the year.

• 2014 and 2015 all-state first team.

• Averaged double-digit points totals in all four years as a starter at Burrell, finishing with 1,754 points in her career.

• Set the Burrell school record for most career points (1,754), most points in a season (545), most points in a game (36), most career assists (492), most assists in a season (166), most career 3-pointers (187) and highest free-throw shooting percentage (82%).

• Led Burrell to its best season in 2014 when the Bucs finished 28-2 with a loss to Seton LaSalle in the WPIAL Class AA championship game and again to the Rebels in the PIAA Class AA semifinals in her junior season.

• Was a member of the Burrell soccer and track and field teams.

• Started her college basketball career at Pepperdine before transferring to Long Beach State.

Lauryn Williams – @LaurynCWilliams
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Sydney Bordonaro – @sydney_b_21

— TribLive HSSN (@TribLiveHSSN) May 22, 2020

Tags: Burrell, Rochester