South Hills sports notebook: Baldwin’s Ramil Islamov celebrated after setting school record

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, April 20, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Purchase Photo Options

The Baldwin wrestling program experienced history this season.

Ramil Islamov capped a brilliant four-year career at Baldwin with a 47-3 overall mark, giving him a school record 148-24 career mark.

Not only did the 145-pound senior break the record for career wins, he shattered it.

The only other grapplers in school history with at least 100 career victories prior to this season consisted of 2004 graduate Anthony McCarvey (111), 2005 product Rick Haarbauer (107), and Owen Klodowski (103) and Keith Mincin (101), both 2024 graduates.

Islamov started out 27-7 and 34-9 in his first two seasons at Baldwin, followed by a 40-5 mark as a junior.

This year, he reeled off 44 consecutive victories before finishing with the best individual record for one season in school history.

Islamov had 72 falls and 25 technical falls in his career, including 21 and 18 in 2024-25. He was a section and WPIAL champion, regional runner-up, and ended up seventh in the state in Class 3A.

Islamov wasn’t pinned once in his junior or senior season and suffered only two falls in each of his first two years at Baldwin. He also lost just once in his career via a technical fall during his initial freshman season.

He started out as a 113-pound freshman, grew to a 127-pound sophomore, competed at 133 pounds as a junior, then began his senior season in the 152-pound weight class before settling in at 145.

Islamov started 2024-25 with five pins in a row, and also registered eight consecutive pins from Jan. 22 to Feb. 8. He followed up that impressive stretch with seven victories via technical falls from Feb. 15-28.

Islamov won by a major decision in the final match of his high school career, defeating Ian Longenberger of Boiling Springs, 9-1, in the PIAA postseason.

• There were 15 sophomores in the Baldwin wrestling program in 2024-25.

Two of the top underclassmen were sophomores Mike Griffiths, who posted a 28-17 record at 133/139 pounds, and Mahbobullah Amini, who was 21-17 with 17 falls in the 215-pound weight class.

Two other sophomores with double-digit victories were Ayden Miller, with 12 wins at 114 pounds, and Jason Alex, with 11 at 121/127.

Aiden Guthrie, a 121-pound freshman, also chalked up 15 victories.

Thomas Jefferson all-stars lauded

Five senior members of the WPIAL Class 4A champion Thomas Jefferson football team have been chosen to compete in all-star competition this spring.

The 68th annual Big 33 Football Classic will take place May 25 at Cumberland Valley. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.

Pennsylvania’s all-stars will compete against an all-star team from Maryland.

The Pennsylvania roster includes TJ offensive lineman Shep Turk (6-foot-5, 285) and long snapper Justin Schmidt (6-1, 220).

Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association organizes two East-West all-star games each year, one for small schools (Class A to 3A) and another for big schools (4A to 6A).

This year’s contests are set for May 18 at Cumberland Valley. Kickoff for the big school clash is 5 p.m. The small school game starts at noon.

Three TJ players were selected on the West big school team — Luke Kosko (QB), Brayden White (WR) and Kooper Kamberis (TE).

Jaguars swimmers find success

High school athletes that compete in swimming and diving are disciplinarians, annually tackling the long grind of a winter pool season.

The first practice date for the 2024-25 season was Nov. 15. The WPIAL swimming championships took place Feb. 27-28, followed by the PIAA championships in mid-March.

The following Thomas Jefferson athletes qualified for this year’s WPIAL Class 2A swimming finals:

Girls — seniors Genevieve Cody (50 free, 100 free), Wynter Olsen (200 free, 500 free), Brooke McGrew (100 fly) and Natalie Rowland (100 breast); junior Shannon Chalfont (100 free, 500 free).

Boys — juniors Danny Matusz (200 free), Chris Geitner (50 free), Gavin McBurney (500 free), Gavin Mahan (500 free, 100 back) and Julian Rambharose (100 breast); freshmen Eval Willmer (200 IM), Nick Palmer (500 free) and Johnathan Renk (100 back).

All six relay teams at TJ also advanced to the WPIAL meet.

Baldwin baseball rolls past McKeesport

Baldwin’s baseball team exploded offensively in back-to-back section games April 8 and 9, trouncing winless McKeesport by the lopsided scores of 16-1 and 24-0 in Section 4-5A.

Trey Alario threw three no-hit innings, doubled twice and drove in two runs in the first victory. Nick Berg went 3 for 3 with four RBIs, Nick Macurak doubled and knocked in three runs and Aiden Robinson doubled and drove in two.

The next day, winning pitcher Tyler Dingus struck out nine in a four-inning no-hitter while Berg doubled twice and drove in three runs.

Alario and Matt Musial each knocked in two runs.

Area players picked for Roundball Classic

The 21st Roundball Classic all-star weekend will be May 24-25 at North Allegheny. There will be seven all-senior games over two days — four boys and three girls — with players from the WPIAL, City League and District 10.

Baldwin’s Caden Cherico and Nate Wesling were chosen to the Class 5A North boys all-star team. Baldwin’s Mary Vargo was selected to the Class 5A West girls all-star team.

Two Brentwood hoopsters, Forrest Betz and Colton Rosing, were named to the Class 2A boys all-star team.

There will be four games May 24 and three May 25. Tickets are $10 per game or $15 for the weekend.

There also will be undergrad games – the Rising Stars Challenge — on May 19, 20 and 21 at RIZE Sports in Leetsdale. Rosters for those games will be announced later.

Revisiting spirit championships

Thomas Jefferson outdueled a WPIAL rival to win its first competitive spirit title at the PIAA championships in Hershey in the winter season.

The TJ girls captured the Class 3A Small Varsity division title with a score of 88.50, finishing just ahead of two-time state champion South Fayette which finished with an 87.10 score.

The Jaguars were led by seniors Asha Das, Kesso Doramodou, Chrestiane Tekola and Julia Zherdetski.

The junior class was represented on the squad by Hasvika Challa, Myra Clark, Penelope Clark, Rachel Du, Amelia Hicks, Bellana Pachon, Hannah Ryu, Ahana Sekhar and Chenxi Xu.

Faith Barbour, Amy Gomez Espinoza, Iryene Jackson, Amy Nam and Samantha Taylor were the sophomores on the team, and three freshmen, Reem Mohamed, Christina Oh and Amber Richards, rounded out the group.

Terrific 10 honors

Thomas Jefferson’s Maggie Spell, a 5-foot-9 junior guard, was named to the Trib HSSN Terrific 10 all-star team in girls basketball.

Spell helped TJ reach the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals and PIAA second round in her first year with Jaguars, who finished 22-6 overall. She averaged 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals per game.

Spell won a WPIAL title at Shady Side Academy as a sophomore.

Good day at the ballpark

Three area high school baseball teams were victorious April 14 as Thomas Jefferson blanked Montour, 1-0, Baldwin beat Gateway, 4-0, and Brentwood outslugged Carlynton, 9-5.

Dominic Metz threw a complete-game seven-hit shutout with seven strikeouts for TJ and Noah Kazer doubled and drove in the game’s only run in the Section 4-5A win. Luke Kosko had two hits for the Jaguars.

Aiden Robinson went 2 for 4 with a double and Nick Burg drove in two runs to lead Baldwin its Section 4-5A victory.

And in Section 3-2A, Michael O’Leary went 4 for 4 with a triple and three RBIs for Brentwood while Blaize Diaz had three hits in four at-bats. Winning pitcher Aidan Barker also doubled.

TJ tops Albert Gallatin

Aubrey Shaffer threw a six-inning one-hitter and struck out 10 to propel Thomas Jefferson’s softball team to an 11-0 win April 2 against Albert Gallatin in Section 4-5A.

Morgan Alisesky and Allie Chalovich hit a home run apiece for the Jaguars and Adalina Bracco tripled.

Brentwood edges Northgate

Carma Coberly and Shayla Leach sparked the Brentwood softball team to its first victory in a recent 8-5 decision against Northgate.

Coberly went 4 for 4 with a double and three RBIs while Leuch doubled and drove in two runs.

The Spartans improved to 1-2 in Section 3-3A and 1-4 overall.

Section singles success

Baldwin’s Nikita Petruk advanced to the Section 3-3A boys singles tennis championship match won by the tournament’s top seed, Shady Side Academy’s Sai Chaudhry.

Petruk, the No. 6 seed, defeated second-seeded Rylan Barr of Thomas Jefferson in the semifinals. The section tournament took place in early April.

Call to the Hall

Four individuals and one team recently were inducted into the Baldwin Athletic Hall of Fame.

Baldwin graduates Taylor Dadig (softball), Paul DeGregorio (track), Jodi Lombardi (bowling) and Wendy Werner-Lutz (swimming) led the list of 2025 inductees and were joined by the 1975 ice hockey team.

WPIAL honor roll

Brentwood sophomore Daysaun Spencer was the early WPIAL leader in the Class 2A boys triple jump event by reaching a mark of 46 feet, 2.25 inches.

Tags: Baldwin, Brentwood, Thomas Jefferson