College notebook: Former Waynesburg teammates headed to NCAA tournament
Two former Waynesburg Central standouts, Wyatt Henson and Luca Augustine, have qualified for the NCAA Wrestling Championships that will be held March 20-22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Henson, a redshirt junior at Lock Haven, qualified by winning his second consecutive Mid-American Conference championship. Henson went 4-0 in the tournament with three technical falls, including a 23-3 victory over second-seeded Andrew Austin of Central Michigan in the 141-pound finals. Henson was the top seed.
In the NCAA tournament, Henson is seeded No. 16 and will face No. 17 Shannon Hanna of Campbell in the first round. It will be the second NCAA appearance for Henson, who has a 26-4 record. He ranks third in the nation with 13 technical falls.
Lock Haven won the team title at the MAC tournament.
Augustine, a redshirt junior at Pitt, placed second in the ACC Championships at 174 pounds and will be making his first trip to the national tournament.
Augustine lost a 5-2 decision to North Carolina State’s Matty Singleton at 174 pounds in the ACC finals.
In the NCAA event, Augustine is seeded 15th and will wrestle No. 18 seed Gavon Sax of Oklahoma in the first round. Augustine has a 15-6 record.
In basketball
Penn State Altoona junior forward Avana Sayles was named first team All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and the league’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year.
A Venetia native and Peters Township graduate, Sayles started all 27 games for the Lions and made an impact at both ends of the court. Among all players in the AMCC, she ranked second in field goals made (176), defensive rebounds (167) and total rebounds (238), third in steals (68), blocked shots (41) and blocks per game (1.5), fourth in offensive rebounds (71), total rebounds per game (8.8) and points (405), fifth in steals per game (2.5, sixth in points per game (15.0), 12th in field goal percentage (39.9) and 14th in free throws made (53).
Michael Dunn, a Washington native, capped a fine season at Edinboro.
The senior guard averaged 9.5 points per game and finished among the PSAC leaders in several shooting categories. Dunn was fifth in three-point field goals made per game (2.8), ninth in three-point percentage (39 percent) and finished eighth in Edinboro history in three-pointers made in a season (76).
Edinboro finished the season with a 15-13 record and made the PSAC tournament for the first time in six years. The Fighting Scots swept the season series against IUP for the first time in 17 years.
Courtney Dahlquist, a Trinity graduate, has helped Campbell win 19 games during the regular season. The Camels began play in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament Thursday night.
A senior forward, Dahlquist is Campbell’s second-leading scorer, averaging 9.2 points per game. She ranks third in the CAA in three-point shooting percentage at 36.5. She scored a career-high 21 points, in only 27 minutes of playing time, in a 75-70 loss to Stony Brook on Jan. 26 and followed that with a 20-point performance in a 76-67 win over Monmouth, a game in which Dahlquist made six three-pointers.
In baseball
California senior first baseman Payton Conte was named the PSAC West Athlete of the Week for his performances Feb. 24 to March 2.
A California native, Conte had a .538 batting average for the week with a 1.269 OPS, six RBI and five runs as California won all three of its games. He delivered a two-run double in the seventh inning and scored twice in a 9-6 win at Salem. Conte then combined for six hits in a pair of victories over G-MAC favorites Northwood and Tiffin in games played in Florida.
Entering Thursday, Conte had a .439 batting average with a team-leading 15 RBI.
Waynesburg designated hitter Seth Burgdolt was named to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week on Wednesday after hitting. 800 during the Yellow Jackets’ spring team to Florida last week.
A graduate student and former McGuffey standout, Burgdolt went 8-for-10 with a home run, three doubles, eight runs and two RBI during the week. He also walked twice, was hit by a pitch and had three sacrifice bunts.
In a doubleheader against Elizabethtown, Burgdolt had a pair of three-hit games. The Taylorstown native went 3-for-4 with a home run, two doubles and four runs in the opener and followed by going 3-for-3 with an RBI and run in the nightcap.
In lacrosse
Washington & Jefferson goalkeeper Stephen Moschetta was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week for Feb. 17-23.
Moschetta, a Washington native and Trinity graduate, held down the defensive efforts for the Presidents in a split against Marietta and Hiram. The sophomore averaged 12 saves per game. Moschetta saved 10 shots against Marietta before stopping a season-high 14 shots, including 10 in the first half, in an 8-3 victory over Hiram. Moschetta registered a .824 save percentage against the Terriers.
In wrestling
Chris Vargo, a freshman at Edinboro, placed fifth at the Mid-American Conference Championships.
Vargo, a graduate of Charleroi who wrestled in high school for Bentworth, defeated Kent State’s Tyeler Hagensen 18-1 in the fifth-place bout at 125 pounds.
Waynesburg’s Jessie Orbin, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, placed fifth at 174 pounds in the NCAA Division III Region 4 Championships that were held in Danville, Va.
A four-time Presidents’ Athletic Conference Wrestler of the Week, Orbin completed his sophomore season with a 42-6 record. He won the PAC championship at 174.
Compiled by sports editor Chris Dugan