College notebook: Kotchman sets Fairmont State record
Sierra Kotchman has made an immediate impact for the Fairmont State women’s basketball team. And in one way, the Trinity graduate has made a bigger impact than any freshman in Falcons history.
Kotchman set the Fairmont State freshman single-season scoring record Saturday when she had 24 points in a 77-71 loss to West Virginia State. Kotchman’s 24 points pushed her season total to 476, which eclipsed the school record of 466 set by Lori Smith in 1990.
Kotchman has scored 20 points or more 13 times and is the Falcons’ leading scorer at 18.3 points per game. She is shooting 41 percent from the field, 37 percent from three-point range and has made 94 of 102 free throws (92.2 percent). She set a career-high with 32 points in a game against West Liberty in December.
The Observer-Reporter Player of the Year last season when she helped Trinity become the first Washington County school to play in a girls basketball state championship game, Kotchman is the fourth-leading scorer in the Mountain East Conference and ranks first in free-throw percentage.
Fairmont State has a 14-12 record.
In swimming
Brittany Byer, a sophomore from Canonsburg and a Canon-McMillan graduate, helped the Grove City women’s team to its record 10th consecutive Presidents’ Athletic Conference championship last weekend at the Wolverines’ James E. Longnecker Pool.
Byer was a member of three winning relay teams and placed second in two individual events.
She helped get Grove City off to a strong start with her performance on the winning 200 freestyle relay team as it won the first event of the opening night. Byer capped the night by being part of the Wolverines’ winning 400 medley relay team.
She also was on the first-place 800 freestyle relay team and placed second in the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke.
In baseball
Washington native and Trinity graduate Mike Deegan has been selected to the Marietta College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Deegan, a 2001 Marietta graduate, played four years of baseball for the Pioneers, earning three varsity letters. He was named first team All-Ohio Athletic Conference in 1999 and 2001 and was a first team All-Mideast Region selection in 2001.
Deegan helped Marietta to four OAC championships, four NCAA Regional appearances, a pair of Regional championships, two NCAA Division III World Series appearances and a national runner-up finish in 2001.
Following his playing career, Deegan returned to Marietta and served as the Pioneers’ top assistant coach for 10 seasons, helping the Pioneers win NCAA Division III national championships in 2006, 2011 and 2012.
Deegan is currently in his sixth season as the head coach at Denison University. He was named the North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2014 and holds the highest winning percentage in school history.
In track & field
Ben Heim, a freshman at Washington & Jefferson, has been blazing on the indoor track, winning four Presidents’ Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week honors.
Heim, a Washington graduate, received his most-recent honor Monday after winning the 800 meters in a time of 1:58.86 Saturday at the Mount Union Tune-Up in Alliance, Ohio. He also ran the second leg of W&J’s winning 1,600-meter relay that posted a PAC season-best time of 3:29.39.
Heim won the Rookie of the Week award three consecutive weeks in January. He won the mile run in 4:31.59 at Baldwin Wallace’s Dr. William Traschke Classic, set the school record in the 800 meters (1:56..64) at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational and won the 800 meters at the West Virginia Open.
- Baldwin Wallace senior Zak Dysert, a McDonald native and Fort Cherry graduate, was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Men’s Field Athlete of the Week Feb. 5.
Dysert earned his first weekly honor after winning the weight throw at the Hillsdale “Wide Track” Classic, hosted by Hillsdale College in Michigan. He had a career-best throw of 59-2¾.
Dysert also earned All-Ohio honors, the second of his career, by winning the weight throw at the Division III All-Ohio Indoor Championships in Westerville, Ohio, earlier this month. His winning throw was 58-3.
As a junior, Dysert earned Indoor All-Ohio honors and Indoor United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Great Lake honors in the weight throw. During the outdoor season, Dysert was the OAC champion in the discus, finished third in the hammer throw and earned All-Great Lakes honors in the hammer throw.
- Sean Hilverding, a junior from Spraggs and a Waynesburg graduate, helped the Point Park men’s team to the River States Conference Indoor Track & Field championship Feb. 9 in Tiffin, Ohio.
Hilverding was named all-conference after placing second in the 3,000 meters.
In basketball
For the ninth time, Seton Hill guard and Canonsburg native Cheyenne Trest was named the PSAC West Division Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Week, the conference announced Monday.
Trest, a Canon-McMillan graduate, led the Griffins to a PSAC West road win at UPJ last Wednesday by scoring a game-high 24 points. She was 9 of 15 from the field and had two assists. It was Trest’s fifth 20-point game and 23rd double-figure scoring effort of the season.
Trest is the second-leading scorer for the Griffins, averaging 14.8 points per game. She also leads the team with 79 assists and 18 blocked shots. Trest is 13th in the PSAC in scoring and 14th in assists per game.
The Griffins have a 19-7 overall record and were ranked 8th last week in the NCAA Divison II Atlantic Regional rankings.
- Waynesburg’s Matt Popeck has had an outstanding freshman season for the Yellow Jackets.
Popeck, a Washington graduate and the Observer-Reporter Boys Basketball Player of the Year last season, scored a career-high 33 points Saturday in Waynesburg’s 86-61 victory over Geneva.
Four times this season, Popeck has been named the ECAC and PAC Rookie of the Week. The most recent honor came Feb. 6, after Popeck become the first Waynesburg player since the 2014-15 season to score 30 points in a game. Popeck scored 30 in a Waynesburg win over Westminster.
Popeck is Waynesburg’s second-leading scorer at 15.5 points per game and is shooting 33 percent from three-point range.