Six boys and two girls from West Hills area schools qualified for the PIAA Wrestling Championships March 6-8 by virtue of their performances at various regional tournaments that concluded Saturday. Two girls -- Kristen Walzer of Montour and Haley Smarsh of Moon -- both came home with gold medals.
Two West Hills area competitors -- Moon Area's Madison Puthoff and Cornell's Noah Pickett each collected a pair of two-five individual finishes at the WPIAL Swimming and Diving Championships, which concluded Friday at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Moon Area boys basketball team used a big second half to pull away from Penn-Trafford in the battle for seventh place in the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball tournament. The OLSH boys and Bishop Canevin girls both came up short in their fifth-place games.
The Bishop Canevin girls basketball team edged Serra Catholic, 54-50, Monday night in WPIAL Class 1A consolation bracket play to earn a berth in the PIAA tournament. Moon Area's boys team, meanwhile, lost 62-53 to Greater Latrobe in a Class 5A WPIAL consolation bracket game.
Eight West Hills area wrestlers -- four from Moon Area, three from Carlynton and one from Montour -- placed among the top seven in their weight classes at the WPIAL Tournament. All seven will advance to regional action Feb. 28-March 1.
Chartiers Valley used a strong defensive effort to defeat Moon, 51-44, Friday night in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball tournament. The victorious Colts now move on to play Montour in one of two semifinal games Monday.
Seventeen wrestlers from three West Hills area high schools will compete at this weekend's WPIAL Tournament, scheduled to begin Friday at Chartiers Valley and Canon-McMillan high schools.