Plum notebook: Mustangs swimmers advance to PIAA championships

By: Michael Love
Sunday, March 9, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Members of the Plum girls swim team fared well at the WPIAL swim championships Feb. 27-28 at Pitt’s Trees Pool and earned berths in five events to the PIAA championships at Bucknell University.

The Class 3A state meet starts Friday morning and concludes Saturday evening.

The girls 200-yard medley relay of junior Brooke Price (backstroke), senior Kalleigh Smith (breaststroke), senior Giuliana Ricciuti (butterfly) and junior Dom Massie (freestyle) is seeded 23rd out of 32 for its race at states after placing fifth (1:50.42) at WPIALs. The quartet trimmed nearly four seconds from their seed time (1:54.06).

Ricciuti earned a seventh-place medal in the 200 free (1:55.66), cutting five seconds from her seed time. She will swim at states Friday as the 28th seed for the preliminaries.

The 200 free relay of freshman Olivia Miller and juniors Delaney Hunsinger, Charlotte Faust and Elle Irwin will cap the first day at states as the 28th seed. They punched their ticket to states with an eighth-place finish at WPIALs in 1:40.74.

Massie will open Saturday’s preliminaries in the 100 free (28th seed). She reached the medals podium in the event at WPIALs with an eighth-place finish in a time of 53.53.

Plum is part of a select number of girls teams from WPIALs to have all three of its relays qualify for states.

The Lady Mustangs’ 400 free relay of Faust, Ricciuti, Hunsinger and Massie captured the team’s fifth WPIAL medal taking seventh overall. The time of 3:38.41 was nine seconds better than their top finish from the regular season.

As the 22nd seed for Saturday’s preliminary races, they will attempt to land among the top 16 teams that will return for the evening’s consolation and championship final heats.

Bowling teams secure trips to states

Plum was one of two schools (Hempfield) at the Western Regional bowling championships Feb. 28 and March 1 to have both its boys and girls teams qualify for the state championships set for this weekend.

The Plum girls team of Callie Schimmer, Addison Then, Brooklyn Then, Alexandria Fulmer and Bobbie Meli secured one of the six berths to states in the qualifying rounds and then captured its third straight regional championship.

They received a bye to the semifinals where they rallied from a loss to McDowell in the first game of the match to score a 2-1 victory. Plum again rallied in the championship match against Hempfield, scoring 210 in each of the final two games to clinch the title.

Schimmer earned a spot on the girls regional all-star team with her 608 series in the team qualifying rounds.

Addison and Brooklyn Then also qualified for the state singles tournament with top-12 finishes in the regional singles qualifying rounds.

The boys team of Cade Schimmer, Vince Rossetti, Brian Krall, Grayson Byass-Rascoe, Tim Ellefson and Grayson Koontz combined to help Plum place sixth after the team qualifying rounds.

As the sixth seed for the regional playoffs, the Mustangs upended No. 3 Hempfield in the first round and No. 2 Armstrong in the semifinals before falling in two games to No. 5 Thomas Jefferson in the finals.

Claassen, Davis return to PIAA championships

Juniors Alaina Claassen and Saphia Davis were set to represent Plum in their return to the PIAA girls wrestling championships last Thursday through Saturday at Hershey’s Giant Center.

They punched their tickets with top-four finishes at the West Regional on March 1 at North Allegheny.

Claassen finished runner-up at 190. She lost for just the second time this season with a surprising 16-1 technical-fall loss to Canon-McMillan’s Natalie Rush.

Claassen had defeated Rush, 9-5, earlier in the season.

She scored a pin and a technical fall in her first two regional matches to reach the finals. Her 2-1 overall record at regionals put her at 29-2 for the season.

Davis bounced back from a loss in the championship semifinals at 130 with a pair of consolation wins, including a 4-1 victory over Greenville’s Kelley Enterline for third place.

The third-place finish — her 2-1 regional record put her at 19-5 on the season — followed a runner-up placement at last year’s regional tournament.

Sophomore Addison Claassen capped her season at 24-14 with pinfall losses at 124 pounds to eventual runner-up Anna Duncan from South Park in the first round and to Burrell senior Bella Stewart in the consolation bracket.

Campbell caps season at regionals

Plum’s Owen Campbell wrapped his junior wrestling season at the PIAA Class 3A West Regional on Feb. 28 and March 1 at Canon-McMillan, the site of his fourth-place finish at 139 pounds at the WPIAL championships one week earlier.

He picked up his 33rd win of the season with a technical fall victory over Carrick’s Kevin Macias (18-1, 2:26) in the first round before suffering a 7-2 loss to Mifflin County’s Kamden Everly in the quarterfinals.

Campbell saw his successful season conclude with a close 2-1 defeat at the hands of Punxsutawney’s Jordan Rutan in Round 2 of consolations.

With a 33-11 record this season, which included 10 pins, nine technical falls and two major decisions, Campbell heads into his senior season just six wins away from joining the 100-win club at Plum. He is 94-31 over three varsity seasons with the Mustangs.

Layne, Proskin fare well at indoor states

Senior Gabrielle Layne and junior Owen Proskin are in the midst of preparation for their outdoor track and field seasons, but the Plum duo put their talents to the test one last time in the indoor season at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association championships March 2 at Penn State.

Layne, a sprinter, placed 10th out of 20 competitors in the 200-meter dash with a finals time of 25.28 seconds. She also was second out of three who represented the WPIAL.

In the 60-meter dash, Layne ran to a time of 7.87 in the preliminaries which landed her in 14th overall.

Proskin followed his runner-up finish in the high jump (6 feet, 1.5 inches) at the Tri-State championships with ninth place in the 60 hurdles at states.

His time of 8.21 was a season-best, surpassing his previous best of 8.35 recorded at a Youngstown State meet Feb. 15.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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