Plum, Riverview track and field athletes cap season on PIAA medals podium

By: Michael Love
Saturday, May 31, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Plum junior Owen Proskin took a big-meet understanding into the PIAA Class 3A track and field championships May 23-24 at Shippensburg.

Having competed at states last year as a sophomore and also at several prestigious USA Track and Field meets, Proskin was ready to go after it in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and also the high jump.

His two days were highlighted by a trip to the medals stand in the 110 hurdles.

“Owen was able to draw from last year’s experience,” said Matt Proskin, Owen’s father and Plum’s head coach.

“Last year, he was kind of caught up in the excitement of the entire meet and the crowd. This year, he was able to focus on what he needed to do one race at a time.”

Proskin won his 110 prelim heat on Day 1 and landed third overall with a time of 14.42 as he edged Norwin senior Ryan Schiller by eight one-hundredths of a second.

He then went to the finals on Day 2 and ran a 14.45 for fourth overall. He was the top underclassmen finisher.

“He made it easy on himself by winning his prelim heat,” coach Proskin said. “That gave him an automatic trip to the finals. He didn’t have to wait around to see if he made it on time.

“He knew the finals would be fast. The top kid set the state record (13.63). He knew the other guys from the WPIAL and what they could do. Fourth was a great finish for him.”

Proskin was one of a select number of area athletes to compete in three individual events at states. He placed 20th overall in the 300 hurdles (40.52) on Day 1.

He then took 19th in the high jump on Day 2 with his best leap on the third attempt at 6-2. He went for 6-4 but was not successful in his three attempts at that height.

Sloan Humphries made his PIAA debut in the triple jump, and the Mustangs sophomore won his flight with a best leap of 44-7.5.

That was good for 10th overall, just a couple of inches away from the top nine for the finals.

“Sloan had a really good day,” coach Proskin said. “He barely fouled his first two jumps of his flight, so it came down to his third jump, and he executed it well. We were really hoping he could get to the finals to have three more jumps to improve his place.”

Senior Gabrielle Layne capped her high school career at states in the 100- and 200-dash prelims.

The WPIAL silver medalist in both events, Layne was fifth in her 100 heat (12.69), and that put her in 21st overall.

A couple hours later, the Pitt commit ran to fifth in her 200 prelim (25.82) and landed in 16th.

Riverview athletes claim PIAA medals

Senior Micah Ivy knew the feeling of winning a state medal.

He did it twice with the boys cross country team.

Now, he owns individual state hardware as he finished eighth in a Class 2A boys 800 race where all eight medalists were separated by 2.16 seconds.

Ivy, who improved from 27th in the 800 last year, ran a time of 1:58.33, just seven one-hundredths of a second faster than the ninth-place finisher.

Places six through 12 were separated by less than a second.

Riverview seniors Cailey Trosch, Katerina Tsambis and Lily Bauer capped their varsity track careers with a PIAA medal as part of the girls 1,600 relay.

Sophomore Blake Huffman joined the trio in securing a state medal in windy conditions on the first day with a second-place finish in their preliminary heat in a time of 4:06.65.

It placed them as the No. 7 seed for the finals. The quartet wasn’t able to duplicate or surpass their prelim time, but their finals finish of 4:09.35 landed them on the podium as the eighth best Class 2A 1,600 relay in the state.

The relay, which set a school record at WPIALs at Slippery Rock, improved 10 spots from 18th last year at Shippensburg.

Riverview had athletes in four other events at states.

Sophomore Juliette Brun made her PIAA debut and placed 11th in the javelin as she also battled the wind throughout the competition. Her best distance was 111-5.

Brun broke out at the WPIAL championships with a school-record throw of 124-1.

Senior Matt Orbin represented the Raiders in the javelin. The WPIAL runner-up took 13th at Shippensburg with a best throw of 158-8, just off his personal best of 160-10 from WPIALs.

Sophomore Ashton Saunders played a WPIAL Class 2A semifinal baseball game the same day as the first day of the PIAA meet and then joined his Riverview track teammates for a Day 2 run in the 3,200 relay.

Saunders, along with Ivy, Holden Deasy and Chris Barnes, earned the 11th-place spot in 8:18.79.

A Riverview boys distance relay ran at states for the fifth straight season. The four runners now own a combined 13 state medals from track and cross country.

The boys 1,600 relay of Trenton Johnson, Levi Roupas, Braden Longtreth and Prince Govan ran a 3:39.05 in the preliminaries on Day 1. That landed them fifth in their heat and 27th overall.

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.

Tags: Plum, Riverview