Westmoreland County high school notebook: Mt. Pleasant’s Lily King highlights WCCA swim meet

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, January 20, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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The Westmoreland County Coaches Association will host its final event of the winter with the swimming and diving championships Friday and Saturday at Derry.

Last year, several meet records fell.

Returning standout Lily King of Mt. Pleasant, a North Carolina State commit, is worth the price of a ticket.

King, a junior and an Olympic hopeful, set marks in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles (1 minute, 49.27 seconds and 1:54.27), anchored the 200 medley relay, another record breaker (1:45.52), and helped the 400 freestyle relay to a title.

Other returning champions include Mt. Pleasant junior Joe Gardner (100 breaststroke) and Franklin Regional senior Holden Thomas (100 backstroke), both of whom broke county records last year.

Thomas is a George Washington commit.

Senior Patton Graziano of Penn-Trafford will swim at West Virginia.

Senior Eliza Miller of Kiski Area is another girl to watch. She was a two-time winner last year.

Returning team champions are the Latrobe (3A) and Mt. Pleasant (2A) girls and the Franklin Regional (3A) and Kiski Area (2A) boys.

The meet begins with diving at 5 p.m. Friday. Swimming events start at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

FR soccer coach

According to board agenda for Monday’s meeting, Franklin Regional will vote to hire Nick White as boys soccer coach.

White most recently was an assistant at Fox Chapel under Erick Ingram, a former Franklin Regional girls soccer coach.

He would replace Lukas Petersen, who resigned after two seasons.

Two more for Wetzel

Latrobe junior football player John Wetzel grabbed a pair of Division I scholarship offers last week, a day after he helped the Wildcats basketball team to a 63-60 upset of No. 1-ranked Gateway.

Akron and Lehigh joined a list that is now five strong. West Virginia, Boston College and Cincinnati also have offered Wetzel, who is being recruited as a safety.

He also is a talented quarterback for the Wildcats.

MSU offers Tatsch

Michigan State is the latest Power 5 football program to offer Latrobe junior linebacker Alex Tatsch. The Spartans made him an offer last week, days after Syracuse joined the conversation with an offer of its own.

Tatsch’s offers include Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Stanford, USC, Maryland and South Carolina.

Knight, Levi commit

Brennan Knight, a senior football player at Hempfield, committed to play at Cal (Pa.), saying he is “1,000-percent committed” to the Vulcans.

Knight (5-foot-10, 225 pounds) played tight end and linebacker for the Spartans. He had 32 tackles and two sacks this season.

He also had an offer from West Virginia State.

Another county player, Dane Levi, a two-way tackle and two-time WPIAL and PIAA champion at Belle Vernon, committed to Millersville, a Division II program in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

Levi (6-3, 280) lists himself as a “people mover” in his X bio. He helped open running lanes for a potent rushing attack led by Penn State commit Quinton Martin.

Metcalfe to SRU

Penn-Trafford senior wide receiver and defensive back Carmen Metcalfe announced a verbal commitment to Slippery Rock of the PSAC.

Metcalfe (6-2, 185) led the Warriors this season with 47 receptions for 574 yards and two touchdowns. He tied for third in the team in tackles with 49 and had one interception.

Johnson to Millersville

Belle Vernon senior tight end and defensive end Aiden Johnson was up to nine offers, most of them from Division II programs, when he decided to pick a favorite.

He, like Levi, will play at Millersville.

A pass-rushing talent, Johnson (6-3, 215) blew up running plays before they even began, totaling 10 tackles for loss and seven sacks for the WPIAL and PIAA 3A champion Leopards. The self-proclaimed “QB killa” had 48 total tackles.

Gannon, Virginia-Wise, Edinboro, John Carroll, Shippensburg and Pikeville were among his other suitors.

Parade postponed

Belle Vernon’s football championship parade for Sunday was postponed because of the snowy weather. The event to celebrate the Leopards’ back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA titles will be rescheduled for some time late in the spring.

Soccer trip

Belle Vernon junior Grace West is headed overseas for a high-level soccer event.

West, a midfielder who also plays defense, was selected for the Exact 11 team that will play in England for nine days in March.

Exact 11 camps are held around the country with a goal of identifying the top rising players for a final all-star team that also will play abroad.

West plays for the Century Soccer club.

Last fall, two other county players were selected to play in London with Exact 11. Annalyse Bauer of Latrobe and Jiana Patterson of Greensburg Central Catholic, both Pittsburgh Riverhounds academy players, also will go against top European talent in March.

Exact Sports is a training and showcase organization that helps athletes prepare for the college recruiting process.

Recruiting

With National Signing Day approaching Feb. 7, some last-minute offers are rolling in for local football players.

• Division II Shippensburg offered Penn-Trafford senior two-way lineman Riley McCaw (6-2, 280).

• Hempfield’s Keiran Lippman, a versatile senior who played quarterback, wide receiver and safety, has a Division II offer from Edinboro.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, Penn-Trafford