Headlee wins EWL title & other notes

Ethan Headlee (pictured), a redshirt junior for the University of Pittsburgh, won the 165-pound championship at the Eastern Wrestling League Championships held last weekend at Bloomsburg.

A former Waynesburg High School standout, Headlee’s title earned him a spot in the NCAA Championships to be held March 17-19 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Headlee’s brother, Drew, also was an EWL individual champion for Pitt.

After receiving a first-round bye, Headlee decisioned Bekzod Abdurakhmanov of Clarion, 3-2, in the semifinals. In the finals, Headlee decisioned top-seeded Donnie Jones of West Virginia, 6-0.

Headlee had a third-place finish at the CWL meet in 2008 and redshirted last year.

Headlee’s victory helped Pitt earn its first EWL team title. The Panthers finished with 132.5 points, 16 more than second-place West Virginia.

In swimming
Two area athletes are among the five swimmers from Grove City who have qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships, to be held March 23-26 in Knoxville, Tenn. Sophomores Angela Palumbo of South Strabane Township and Kaitlin Riesmeyer of McMurray each will make their second consecutive trip to the national championships.

Palumbo, a Trinity graduate, has qualified in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter freestyle. Riesmeyer, a Peters Township product, will compete in both the 100- and 200-meter butterfly (2:04.59). Riesmeyer also has qualified in the 200 individual medley (2:15.37).

Palumbo and Riesmeyer earned Division III All-America honors as freshmen. Palumbo was a five-time All-American and Riesmeyer received three All-America citations.

Connecticut’s Matthew Connor, a junior from Venetia and a Peters Township graduate, had the 22nd-best time this year among Big East Conference swimmers in the 400-meter individual medley. Connor swam 4:04.80 at the Terrapin Cup Invitational.

The Connecticut men finished fifth at the recent Big East Championships.

In basketball
Tommy Kelly, a junior from Washington, has helped Slippery Rock to its first appearance in the NCAA Division II men’s tournament in 20 years. The Rock (21-10) is the No. 8 seed in the Atlantic Regional and will play Saturday (6 p.m.) at top-seeded West Liberty.

Kelly has played in 30 of The Rock’s 31 games and is averaging 4.4 points per game. A key reserve, Kelly came off the bench Saturday night to score 12 points in only 16 minutes in the PSAC championship game, an 82-75 win for IUP over Slippery Rock. Kelly was 2-for-2 from three-point range in the game and is shooting 47 percent (23-for-49) from behind the arc for the season.

Emily Correal, a former three-time Observer-Reporter Player of the Year while at Peters Township, finished the season as William & Mary’s second-leading scorer. The 6-3 Correal averaged 10.1 points per game and was the leading rebounder for the Tribe at 5.0 per game. She also led the team with 25 blocked shots.

Megan Stuvek of Carmichaels ended a successful career at Wheeling Jesuit by leading the Cardinals in rebounding. Stuvek, who never missed a game in high school or college, averaged 7.4 rebounds per game, and her 10.3 scoring average was second-best for Wheeling Jesuit. Stuvek had a pair of 21-point games this season.

In track & field
Brianna Liebold of IUP had a successful meet at the PSAC Indoor Championships held at Edinboro.

A former two-time state champion in both the long jump and triple jump while at Chartiers-Houston, Liebold won each event at the PSAC meet. On the first day of competition, Liebold won the long jump with a leap of 18-101⁄2, and followed the performance a day later by winning the triple jump at 39-71⁄4. Liebold also placed fourth in the 60-yard dash in 7.92.

In wrestling
West Virginia’s Matt Ryan, a redshirt junior from Eighty Four, placed third at 184 pounds at the EWL Championships. A former two-time state finalist at Canon-McMillan, Ryan pinned Corbin Boone of Cleveland State in 4:15 in the opening round before losing a 5-2 decision to top-seeded Chris Honeycutt of Edinboro. Honeycutt is the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 184.
In the consolation round, Ryan pinned Scott Joseph of Clarion in 4:42 and decisioned Nate Graham of Bloomsburg 7-0 to finish third.

Former McGuffey wrestler Tyler Sim placed fourth at 125 pounds at the Southern Conference Championships at the Holmes Convention Center in Boone, N.C. Sim was seeded fourth and earned two wins, beating fifth-seeded Luke Todd of VMI, 16-3, and sixth-seeded Brett Boston of Appalachian State, 12-6.

In baseball
It’s still early in the season but J.J. Jankowski has been busy on the mound for Catawba College. The former Peters Township standout who transferred to Catawba from Miami (Ohio), already has logged 35 2⁄3 innings and six starts, compiling a 3-0 record. Jankowski has struck out 47 batters and has a 3.53 ERA for the Indians, an NCAA Division II school in Salisbury, N.C.

In softball
Waynesburg junior Lauren Minor has been named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week. Minor, a Waynesburg High School graduate, won her first start of the season by tossing a complete-game shutout Sunday as the Yellow Jackets defeated Emmanuel 8-0.