South Hills Record notebook: Thomas Jefferson gymnasts wear WPIAL crown

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, February 22, 2026 | 11:01 AM

Thomas Jefferson won the WPIAL team championship in gymnastics for the second year in a row.

It marked the second time the Jaguars captured back-to-back titles as they also were WPIAL champions in 2019 and 2020.

The TJ girls posted their best final score since 2020 with 142.209 total points to finish ahead of Central Valley (140.887), North Allegheny (140.525), Baldwin (153.733) and West Allegheny (135.567).

The WPIAL finals took place Jan. 7 at Moon, highlighted by TJ winning its fourth team championship since 2019 and placing the Jaguars in a group of three schools with at least four district titles along with North Allegheny (18), Moon (8) and Pine-Richland (4).

The TJ girls were led by four advanced gymnasts in sophomore Victoria Coughenour, senior Riley Barna, freshman Evelyn Coughenour and sophomore Adam Wison, who took first place in the vault with a 9.90 score. Victoria Coughenour and Barna placed ninth and 10 in the all-around scoring.

The Jaguars were represented by two athletes in the Intermediate I division — Cam Noderer, a sophomore, and Danielle Parsons, a freshman. Noderer finished third all-around with a 35.242-point total, placing fourth on the vault, sixth on the beam and seventh on the uneven bars and floor exercise.

TJ freshman Maggie Handshue competed in the Intermediate II division and won the balance beam with score of 8.700.

In the team scoring, the Jaguars racked up a 37.634 on the vault, 33.825 on the uneven bars, 35.175 on the beam and 35.575 on the floor. TJ posted the day’s highest team totals on both the vault and uneven bars.

Barna set the pace for the TJ girls on the bars with a score of 8.7225.

Wilson and Victoria Coughenour led on the vault, Barna and Coughenour tied for the team lead on the beam, while Coughenour and Barna ended up first and second for TJ on the floor.

Spell recognized

Thomas Jefferson hoopster Maggie Spell, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, was lauded as the Trib HSSN girls basketball player of the week following the Jaguars’ first-round playoff win over Penn Hills.

Spell’s basketball resume was spelled out after she earned the honor.

In her first two years of her high school career at Shady Side Academy, she helped lead the Bulldogs to a WPIAL Class 3A runner-up trophy in ninth grade and a district championship as a sophomore.

In the 2024 finals against Avonworth, Spell scored 31 points as SSA beat the Antelopes, 52-45.

This season, Spell has scored 416 points in 23 games and is averaging 18 points per game.

She has made a habit of hitting milestone baskets in the postseason. As a sophomore, Spell hit the 1,000-point mark in the playoffs, and she was about to reach 2,000 points for her career in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

Spell entered the Jaguars’ playoff game against Fox Chapel needing only seven points to become the 48th district athlete in girls basketball to reach the 2,000-point mark.

Spell made her college decision last summer to continue her academic and basketball career at Division I Campbell in North Carolina.

Winning note

Junior guard Evan Golvash led all scorers with 30 points, senior forward Nico Macurak accounted for 17 and senior guard Max Marzina added 11 to power Baldwin to a Section 3-5A win over Bethel Park in boys basketball.

Mike Bruckner, a senior forward, netted 22 points and Joe Parisi, a junior forward, had 11 for the Black Hawks.

Top bowlers

Four members of the Thomas Jefferson bowling program — sophomore Annalise Williams, seniors Joey Nix and Xavier Lyle and junior Jordan Crisp — were qualifiers for the WPIBL singles tournament.

Did you know?

Did you know that it was nearly 40 years ago that the Thomas Jefferson boys basketball team reached the WPIAL finals? The Jaguars lost to Aliquippa, 79-59, in the 1988 Class 3A championship game.

And did you also know that there are three players with the first name Emily on the Thomas Jefferson girls basketball team? Emily Hritz is a junior guard, Emily Garcia a freshman guard and Emily Myers a freshman forward.

Tags: Baldwin, Thomas Jefferson