South Fayette, Ambridge claim 1st WPIAL competitive spirit championships
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Saturday, January 4, 2025 | 5:00 PM
South Fayette celebrates its WPIAL Class 3A competitive spirit championship Saturday at Hempfield.
South Fayette competes during its WPIAL Class 3A competitive spirit championship routine Saturday at Hempfield.
Ambridge completes its winning routine at the WPIAL Class 2A competitive spirit championships Saturday at Hempfield.
Ambridge completes its winning routine at the WPIAL Class 2A competitive spirit championships Saturday at Hempfield.
Five Class 2A teams qualified for the PIAA championsihps — Neshannock, Ambridge, Hampton, Central Valley, Elizabeth Forward — at the WPIAL Class 2A competitive spirit championships Saturday at Hempfield.
The WPIAL Class 3A teams that qualified for the PIAA championships pose for a photo at the competitive spirit championships Saturday at Hempfield.
It was a day of firsts at the 2025 WPIAL competitive spirit championships Saturday at Hempfield Area High School.
Ambridge and South Fayette each won their first district championship, with the Bridgers capturing the Class 2A title and South Fayette the Class 3A championship.
“Finally!” exclaimed South Fayette coach Maggie Conoscuito. “We’ve been so close so many times, so the fact that it finally happened is amazing.”
The Lions’ competitive spirit team had finished second three times in the past five years and even has a state championship trophy, but never had brought home district gold.
“Everyone just worked so hard,” South Fayette assistant Amanda Furgiuele said. “We’re so proud of them. Our seniors this year are electric. They work hard every day. They tell the girls how much they want it. The big joke is wearing gold at graduation. I couldn’t be happier that they get to do that.”
Earlier in the day, the Bridgers’ “build up” brought home a gold medal for the first time.
“We have worked a long, long time for this,” Ambridge coach Jennifer Phillips said. “We have never gotten the gold. We came close last year by going to states for the first time ever, and now this year we surpassed that.”
Added assistant coach Amanda Palshaw: “Our tagline is ‘Build Up.’ Our team, we build up each other, we build up our community, we build friendships. Our community and our school district are behind us 100%.”
South Fayette won the Class 3A small squad championship and finished ahead of 3A large squad champion North Allegheny in the overall rankings. Four-time defending WPIAL champion Hempfield finished third. Butler was the coed champion.
“They (Hempfield) don’t have bad days,” Conoscuito said. “They are good all of the time. To know that we came out and had the best day is even better.”
Ambridge and South Fayette “hit zero” with no deductions in their routines to secure their championships, to the delight of happy coaches.
“That feels incredible,” Furgiuele said. “We were questioning a few things (if there would be a deduction) here and there, as you always do, but it’s official.”
After competing last year with no seniors on the squad, this one meant a little bit more for South Fayette’s five seniors.
“These seniors are some of the hardest-working girls,” Conoscuito said as the team posed for a championship photo. “They’ve come close so many times. This group is just a different team from normal.”
The Bridgers edged Central Valley for the 2A crown by less than a point. Ambridge also took home the 2A small squad title, whereas defending 2A champion Neshannock won the 2A large squad division.
“The teams that moved on are all good teams,” Phillips said.
“I’m so proud of this area for putting out the teams that we are able to.”
Palshaw said the difficulty of the routine was the edge they needed to get gold.
“Every year our athletes get better and better,” she said. “We have worked so hard on execution and stamina this year. We finally have a routine that keeps up with the big dogs. Now we are a big dog.”
In Class 2A, Hampton and Elizabeth Forward also secured automatic bids to the PIAA championships set for Jan. 30-31, at Santander Arena in Reading.
A total of 12 teams from Class 3A qualified for the state championships. In addition to South Fayette, North Allegheny, Butler and Hempfield, eight more teams received bids to the PIAA finals — Seneca Valley, Penn-Trafford, Plum, Thomas Jefferson, Mars, Baldwin, Franklin Regional and Norwin.
For Conoscuito and South Fayette, the celebration will continue, but it’s back to work quickly for the next goal.
“Monday,” she said matter-of-factly. “The girls get the weekend (to celebrate), but we start on Monday.”
Tags: Ambridge, Baldwin, Butler, Central Valley, Elizabeth Forward, Franklin Regional, Hampton, Hempfield, Mars, Neshannock, North Allegheny, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Plum, Seneca Valley, South Fayette, Thomas Jefferson
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