Trib HSSN top 24 stories of 2024 (24-21): Mt. Pleasant’s Lily King reigns in pool

By: Don Rebel
Wednesday, December 25, 2024 | 6:01 AM

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The year 2024 in WPIAL sports saw a lot of history and unusual happenings that kept all three sports seasons exciting.

There was a sense of been there, done that on the hardwood and in the pool during the winter sports season, exhausting action and perfection on the diamonds, hardcourts and tracks in the spring and greatness on the gridiron, the pitch and around the district hills and valleys in the fall.

Some individual and team records ended while others rolled on.

Join us all week as we look back at the moments that stood out in a fun-filled high school sports ride throughout 2024.

In our year end tradition, Trib HSSN winds down the year with a daily countdown and a look back at the top 24 WPIAL stories from 2024.

Here is a look at district stories No. 24 through No. 21.

No. 24 – Ram tough

Pine-Richland didn’t have any superstars or eye-popping statistics on their 2024 football team. All they did was win a lot of games and earn another district championship.

In a battle of the last two WPIAL Class 5A champions, Pine-Richland knocked off Peters Township to claim a second district crown in the last three years.

The win in the WPIAL finals moved Pine-Richland into a tie for fifth place on the all-time football championship winning list, and it was the Rams sixth title in the last 11 seasons.

No. 23 – Single-handed repeats

There have been plenty of WPIAL girls tennis singles champions who have repeated title runs over the years, but it has been two decades since both classifications featured the same winner in back-to-back years.

Meriweather McCargo of Shady Side Academy in 3A and Gabriella Dusi of Belle Vernon in 2A captured a second straight WPIAL girls tennis singles championship in September.

It was the first time that rare double repeat occurred in the district since Michaela Kissell of Latrobe and Annie Houghton of Quaker Valley pulled off the double title win in the fall of 2003 and 2004.

No. 22 – Impressive runs are done

While several long team championships continued in 2024, four in particular came to an end this fall.

• In WPIAL girls golf, Greensburg Central Catholic had its nine-year reign of Class 2A championships end when Shady Side Academy took home gold.

• In WPIAL boys cross-country, Norwin won the Class 3A cross-country team championship, ending a six-year run of gold by North Allegheny.

• In WPIAL field hockey, one PT ended another P-T title run when Peters Township won the Class 2A crown, ending an eight-year run of championships by Penn-Trafford.

• In WPIAL girls soccer, the three-year run as state champions in PIAA Class 3A girls soccer ended for Moon. The Tigers were ousted by Plum in the WPIAL quarterfinals and did not qualify for the state playoffs.

• In WPIAL girls tennis, the Quaker Valley duo of Kirsten Close and Avery Allan captured the 2024 doubles championship. It ended a unique five-year run of duos from Knoch consisting of five different players from 2019-2023.

No. 21 – King is queen of the pool

It was a record-breaking year in the pool for junior Lily King of Mt. Pleasant.

The North Carolina State commit won the 100 and 200-meter freestyle in both the district and state championships.

King finished with a record time of 48.93 seconds in the 100-freestyle in the PIAA championships.

For her career, she has six WPIAL and six PIAA individual championships and four team relay titles.