College notebook: Latest distinction for Solorio: national champion
College notebook
Valarie Solorio has the distinction of being the first girl to win a gold medal at the PIAA Wrestling Championships. The former Canon-McMillan standout pinned her way to the championship at 100 pounds in the inaugural PIAA girls tournament in 2024.
Solorio can add another milestone to her list of accomplishments: national champion.
A sophomore at Iowa, Solorio won the championship at 103 pounds last weekend at the NCAA’s first Women’s Wrestling Championships that were held in Coralville, Iowa. The tournament was open to wrestlers from all three NCAA divisions.
Solorio opened the tournament as the No. 2 seed and began with an 11-0 technical fall over No. 15 Rebekah Jean-Baptiste of Emmanuel. Shye advanced to the semifinals with a 7-1 decision over No. 7 Genesis Ramirez of Aurora.
In the semifinals, pinned No. 6 Trinity Pendergrass of Quincy in 40 seconds and won the national championship with a 13-1 technical fall over No. 4 Rayana Sahagun of Grand Valley State.
She was one of three champions from Iowa as the Hawkeyes finished second in the team standings. McKendree won the team title with North Carolina Central finishing third.
Indoor track
Former Canon-McMillan standout Rose Kuchera became the first Duquesne University women’s track and field athlete to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Kuchera qualified in the long jump.
The NCAA Championships will be held this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark. The lone jump competition will be held this afternoon.
Kuchera earned her spot with a Duquesne-record leap of 6.52 meters (21-4 3/4) on Jan. 30 at the YSU Mid-Major Invitational. The mark ranked No. 8 on the NCAA entries list, securing one of just 16 qualifying positions.
A Canonsburg native, Kuchera broke her own school record by more than 17 inches with the jump. She had previously set the record at 6.08 meters in the season opener.
The program record holder in both the long jump and triple jump, Kuchera scored in three events at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships, placing sixth in the long jump (19-0), fourth in the triple jump (40-5) and sixth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.78).
Wrestling
Several former Waynesburg Central wrestlers have qualified for the NCAA Championships that will be held March 19-21 in Cleveland.
Among the former Raiders qualifying are Lock Haven’s Wyatt Henson (141), Virginia Tech’s Mac Church (165), Pitt’s Luca Augustine (174) and Penn State’s Rocco Welsh (184).
Another Waynesburg graduate, Fairmont State’s Colton Stoneking, won the Mountain East Conference title at 141 pounds and was named the event’s Outstanding Wrestler. He will be competing in the NCAA Division II Championships that begin today in Sioux Falls, S.D. Stoneking is the No. 4 seed.
Henson won his third straight Mid-American Conference championship at 141 and is second in school history in MAC individual titles. After winning two bouts to get to the conference finals, Henson secured a takedown in overtime and defeated top-seeded Elijah Griffin of Rider, 4-1. Henson is headed to the NCAA Championship for the third straight season.
Welsh was the top seed at 184 at the Big Ten Championships and faced No. 4 Max McEnally of Minnesota in the finals. After a scoreless first period, Welsh chose down to start the second and quickly escaped to a 1-0 lead that he took into the final period. An escape by McEnally tied the score and the bout went to sudden victory. Neither wrestler scored so it went to tiebreakers. Welsh quickly rolled out of control and escaped just three seconds into the first tiebreaker. Welsh chose neutral to start the next tiebreaker and defended McEnally’s late efforts and won his first Big Ten championship with a 2-1 victory.
With a record of 20-0, Welsh is the top seed in his weight class for the NCAA Championships and will face the winner of the No. 32 vs. No. 33 match between Sam Goin of Indiana and Caleb Uhlenhopp of Utah Valley in the first round.
Welsh is one seven No. 1 seeds from Penn State as the Nittany Lions attempt to defend their team title.
Andrew Binni, a former standout at Canon-McMillan, also qualified for the NCAA Championships. A freshman at the Naval Academy, Binni placed second at 125 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Association Championships.
Softball
Slippery Rock freshman center fielder Maddie Cavenaugh is off to a stellar start to her collegiate career.
Cavenaugh, a South Fayette graduate, has been named the PSAC West Division Player of the Week in each of the last two weeks. It’s the first time in four years that a player from The Rock has won PSAC awards in consecutive weeks.
Last week, Cavenaugh hit .400 (6-for-15) with five RBI and five runs in four games. Two of Cavenaugh’s six hits were home runs, leading her to finish the week with a .438 on-base percentage and .800 slugging percentage.
Cavenaugh has a team-high .44 batting average with seven extra-base hits, 14 RBI and three stolen bases in 10 games.
Baseball
Allegheny freshman infielder Zach Miner was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Week on Monday.
A Peters Township graduate from Venetia, Miner had seven hits last week, batted .389 and had a three-inning pitching save. Miner hit two doubles and scored four runs.
Miner went 2-for-3 with one run and an RBI in a 14-13 win over Dubuque and tossed three scoreless innings for the save. He went 2-for-4 with two RBI in a 9-6 victory over Rose-Hulman, and had a season-high three hits in a 14-1 victory over Fredonia in the Gators’ home opener.
Basketball
Penn State Altoona senior forward Avana Sayles was named to the All-Allegheny Mountain College Conference first team.
Sayles started all 28 games for the Lions during a season in which she became the program’s all-time lead scorer with 1,700 career points. She is also the all-time leading rebounder with 1,001.
The Peters Township graduate and Venetia native led the AMCC in field goals made (195) while ranking second in defensive rebounds (211), total rebounds (295), rebounds per game (10.6) and points (437). Sayles earned AMCC Player of the Week honors three times this season.