Sports briefs
W&J wins PAC wrestling title
Washington & Jefferson had six champions and won the school’s first Presidents’ Athletic Conference wrestling championship since 1999 at the conference tournament Saturday at Salvitti Family Gymnasium.
The Presidents won the title by the slimmest of margins, edging out second-place Waynesburg 106.5 to 106. Thiel finished third with 91.5 points. W&J’s Tommy Prairie was named the PAC Coach of the Year.
Despite bringing a conference-high six top-seeded wrestlers to the tournament, W&J sat in third place entering the championship round, 10.5 points behind Waynesburg and two points behind Thiel.
W&J and Thiel each placed six wrestlers in the finals, while Waynesburg had eight.
Manny Dovshek won his first PAC crown at 125 pounds with pins in the semifinals and championship round. He gave the Presidents their first champion by pinning Waynesburg’s Austin Ryan.
Michael Heinl won his third championship, picking up a few bonus points along the way. The top seed at 149 pounds, Heinl won an 8-4 decision over the Waynesburg’s Jace Guy in the finals.
Hunter Neely made program history as the fifth W&J wrestler to be a four-time PAC champion, doing so at 165 pounds. Neely matched Dovshek with 16 team points. He pinned won a 16-6 major decision in the finals against Zach Mackall of Waynesburg.
Jared Walker, wrestling for the first time since Jan. 10, won at 174 pounds, his third PAC title. Walker scored a 16-4 major decision in the finals.
The PAC title was clinched by sophomore Alex Donahue at 197 pounds. won a 9-2 decision over Thiel’s Landon Westover in the final.
Daniel Florentino made the finals at 141 pounds, dispatching defending PAC champion Matt Lascola 3-1 in the semifinals before losing 8-5 to Thiel’s Jason Baker.
Waynesburg freshman heavyweight Rocky McGeary was voted both the PAC Newcomer of the Year and the PAC Most Outstanding Wrestler. McGeary won the title with a 15-3 major decision over Thiel’s Khalil Messai in the semifinals and a pin in 6:30 over Thiel’s Gavin Colligan in the title bout.
Waynesburg’s other champions were Colby Morris at 157, Anthony Welsh at 174 and Dan Verhovsek at 184.
Men’s lacrosse
Senior goalkeeper Noah Cohen made 28 saves but Washington & Jefferson dropped its season opener Sayurday to Kenyon, 11-2.
Cohen’s 28 saves are the most for a Presidents goalie since he made 33 stops against Wooster as a freshman in 2017.
College softball
California University split two games Saturday afternoon during the second day of the Cactus Classic in Tuscon, Arizona, gaining a 5-3 victory over Western New Mexico before suffering an 8-4 loss against Fort Lewis (Colo.).
With the split, the Vulcans’ record is 1-3.
Against Western New Mexico, freshman pitcher Ellie Lobdell had a complete-game victory while making her first career start. She yielded three runs (one earned) while scattering nine hits and three walks. Lobdell has a 1.14 ERA over 12.1 innings over two appearances in Arizona.
Cal took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after six straight batters reached base safely. Sophomore third baseman Makayla Munchinskistarted the rally with a single before later scoring on an RBI double by Sierra Besser-Paul . Izzy Farmer followed with an RBI single before Alexa Pastor delivered a two-run single.
In the NHL
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots and the Tampa Bay Lightning set a franchise record for consecutive home wins in a 5-3 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Cedric Paquette and Carter Verhaeghe all scored for Tampa Bay, which won its 11th game in a row on home ice. The Lightning also won their 10th consecutive game overall to become the third team in NHL history to have two separate winning streaks of at least 10 games in the same season.
- Martin Jones stopped 39 shots for his first shutout of the season, and Dylan Gambrell scored his third goal for San Jose in a 2-0 win against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Melker Karlsson added an empty-net goal.
- Adam Larsson scored his first goal since last February, Leon Draisaitl added an insurance goal seconds into the third period and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 4-1.
- Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal early in the third period after St. Louis had rallied from a two-goal deficit to forge a tie and the Nashville Predators held off the Blues, 4-3.
- David Pastrnak scored his 42nd goal of the season to lead the Boston Bruins past Detroit 4-1, giving Bruce Cassidy of the Bruins his 200th victory as an NHL coach.
Brad Marchand scored his 25th goal and assisted on Pastrnak’s goal for Boston, which has won eight of its last nine games. Charlie McAvoy added a goal and an assist and Charlie Coyle had his 13th goal. Tuukka Rask finished with 25 saves to improve to 14-0-6 at home this season, tying the overall home points streak by a Bruins goaltender. Tiny Thompson started the 1929-30 season 20-0-0.
Darren Helm scored for the Red Wings, who have lost three straight and have the fewest points in the NHL. Jonathan Bernier finished with 37 saves.