College notebook: Garry led Division II in passing
Tanner Garry
Cheyenne Trest
Josh Wise
Sean Hilverding
The football team at Slippery Rock University didn’t know for sure what it had in quarterback Tanner Garry.
A McDonald native and former standout at Fort Cherry High School, Garry transferred to Slippery Rock prior to this season and had not started a football game since 2011, while with the Rangers.
What Slippery Rock ended up getting was the leading passer in NCAA Division II.
Garry helped The Rock to an 8-3 record by passing for 3,522 yards, which led all D-II quarterbacks and is the second-most single-season total in Slippery Rock history.
Garry set the school record for single-season touchdown passes with 32. He also broke the Slippery Rock record for career 300-yard passing games with eight. Garry also broke the school record for completions in a season with 268.
Nationally, Garry ranked third in passing yards per game (320.2), sixth in passing touchdowns, 11th in total offense (314.5 per game) and 33rd in completion percentage (61.3). He had season highs of 518 yards and five touchdowns against Gannon and also passed for five touchdowns in the season opener against Kentucky State.
Garry was named Wednesday to the All-PSAC West Division second team.
In basketball
After starting her collegiate career with two double figure scoring games, Seton Hill guard Cheyenne Trest was named Monday the PSAC West Division Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Week.
Trest, a Canon-McMillan graduate, is only the second Griffins player to earn a Freshman of the Week award and the first in three years.
Trest started her collegiate career with a 13-point performance Friday in the Griffins’ 71-68 win against Lincoln at the PSAC/CIAA Challenge at Virginia State. She also had six assists in the win. In her first career start, Trest scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in a 69-49 loss to Virginia State.
• Josh Wise, a guard from Washington, is off to a good start to his sophomore season at Pitt-Johnstown. Wise, a former Observer-Reporter Boys Basketball Player of the Year at Washington, is averaging 14.5 points per game, which ranks second on the team. Wise scored a career-high 23 points in UPJ’s 80-69 victory over Urbana Saturday in the IUP Top-Off Tournament. He made was 8 of 16 from the field and three three-pointers to go along with seven rebounds.
• Siena’s highly touted freshman forward Prince Oduro, who played last season for First Love Christian Academy in Washington, scored nine of his 11 points in the second half and overtime in the Saints’ 68-60 season-opening loss to the College of Charleston.
Oduro also had 10 rebounds to record a double-double in his collegiate debut.
• Bucknell forward Kaitlyn Slagus, a junior from Belle Vernon, got her season off to a good start and was named the Patriot League Player of the Week after registering a pair of double-doubles and leading the Bison to wins over Rider and Akron.
Slagus, who posted the 14th and 15th double-doubles of her career, has been named the Patriot League Player of the Week five times in her first three seasons.
In a 76-71 win at Rider in the season opener, Slagus scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. She followed that with a 20-point, 15-rebound performance in a 63-52 victory over Akron.
In football
Justin Watson, a senior wide receiver at Penn and a former standout at South Fayette High School, was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week following a record-setting performance in The Quakers’ 38-35 win over Princeton Nov. 4 at historic Franklin Field.
Watson became Penn’s all-time leader in receptions during the game, hauling in eight passes. He now has 273 career pass receptions.
His final catch against Princeton was a game-winning 15-yard touchdown with 1:12 remaining. It was his second touchdown of the day – the first a 36-yarder early in the third quarter.
Watson has caught at least one touchdown in all nine of Penn’s games this season, which is an Ivy League record. He has multiple TDs in four games. His 13 receiving touchdowns is tied for first among all FCS receivers.
• Chavas Rawlins of Monessen is the second-leading receiver for Duquesne. Rawlins, a redshirt junior wide receiver, has 37 catches for 337 yards and four touchdowns. He had a season-high seven catches against West Virginia Wesleyan and 83 receiving yards in the Dukes’ season-opener against South Dakota State.
• Shai McKenzie is the second-leading rusher for Hampton University. A former Observer-Reporter Offensive Player of the Year at Washington High School, McKenzie has 487 yards and three touchdowns for the Pirates, who will take a 5-5 record into their season finale Saturday against Howard.
McKenzie rushed for 147 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries in Hampton’s 31-27 victory over Florida A&M on Oct. 21. He also scored two touchdowns in a 16-14 victory over Norfolk State.
In wrestling
The season-opening match between ninth-ranked Virginia Tech and 21st-ranked Stanford featured two former Canon-McMillan multi-time state champions.
Solomon Chishko, who won PIAA championships for the Big Macs in 2013 and 2014, wrestled at 149 pounds for Virginia Tech. Connor Schram, a state champion at Canon-Mac in 2010 and 2013, was Stanford’s 125-pounder.
Schram opened the match with a 3-1 victory but Chishko’s 5-3 sudden victory win helped Virginia Tech to a 22-12 victory.
• North Carolina’s A.C. Headlee, a sophomore from Waynesburg, won the 141-pound at the Hokie Open in Roanoke, Va.
Headlee won four bouts via decision, including a 3-2 sudden victory win over Old Dominion’s Alex Madrigal in the finals. Headlee was a third-place finisher at the Hokie Open last year.
In cross country
Sean Hilverding is having quite a successful season for Point Park. A Spraggs native and Waynesburg graduate, Hilverding has been named the River States Conference Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week three times.
Hilverding has helped Point Park qualify for the NAIA Championships that will be held Saturday in Vancouver, Wash.
A junior, Hilverding received conference honors in September for placing second overall in a field of 92 runners at the Lebanon Valley Invitational and for placing eighth out of 217 runners at the Lock Haven Open.
He received conference honors again in October after placing 25th among 208 runners at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational.
Hilverding also placed 10th at the Chick-Fil-A Asbury Classic and was 17th at the River States Conference Championships at Asbury, Ky.,, helping the Pioneers to a a second-place finish in the team standings.
• Penn State-Fayette won its second consecutive Penn State University Athletic Conference men’s championship. Aaron Mylan, a freshman from Rices Landing and a Jefferson-Morgan graduate, helped in the title chase. Mylan finished fourth at the conference championship meet, helping Penn State-Fayette to the team title and qualify for the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in Virginia Beach, Va., where the Roaring Lions finished eighth nationally.