Seven of the 27 athletes in the Quaker Valley swim program attend Sewickley Academy as part of the WPIAL’s cooperative sponsorship program.
They are senior Marcus Zhan, sophomores Augustin Zhan and Zak Sharara and freshman Kilian Rodemeyer on the boys team; along with juniors Lydia Kilpela and Anna Fiedler and freshman Kristen Fiedler on the girls squad.
“Everyone gets along well,” QV junior Alexa Westwood said. “You would never know we didn’t all go to school together. Coach Mercy (McCarthy) does a good job of building team camaraderie.”
Marcus Zhan and Austin Young are serving as senior captains of the boys team.
“Our season has been going great so far,” Zhan said. “The co-op has been working well. The boys have been doing great. We have a lot of new freshman swimmers this year, but they’ve been swimming really well.
“I want to have a great championship season, for sure.”
Zhan has committed to California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he plans to continue his swimming career.
“It’s been a pleasure watching myself and my teammates grow, mature and get faster and stronger alongside one another,” Zhan said, “and I’m grateful to have been able to be on this high school swim team.”
Young, meanwhile, has been accepted into Penn State’s civil engineering program.
“I’ve known most of the Sewickley Academy swimmers for a while now, so it’s been pretty smooth for us,” Young said. “This is by far the biggest team we’ve had and even though they might be beginners, I think in a year or two, it should be a very competitive team.”
Young would like to wrap up his days in the QV pool with medal-worthy performances.
“My season has been going fairly well,” he said. “I want to get a few medals at MACs and go to WPIALs.”
Westwood and senior Kendra Hines are captains on QV’s girls squad.
“The co-op between QV and Sewickley Academy has been great,” Hines said, “as it expands the size of both the girls and boys teams.”
SA boys top Brentwood
Five players reached double digits for the Sewickley Academy boys basketball team in a 92-30 section win Jan. 21 at Brentwood.
Sophomore guard Connor Tull scored 15 points, sophomore forward Mamadou Kane and junior forward Adam Ikamba added 14 points apiece, sophomore guard Drew Steals followed with 13 and sophomore forward Ja’mere Guyton had 10 for the Panthers in the Section 2-2A win.
Deng Mu finished with 17 points for Brentwood.
All-star games canceled
The PIHL canceled its five all-star games Jan. 25 because of the severe winter storm that engulfed Western Pennsylvania.
In a statement from the league: “This decision was not made lightly. All options were considered, and we waited as long as possible moving forward. Ultimately, the safety of our players, families, officials and staff must come first.”
Among the players selected to participate were Quaker Valley’s Luke Koehler, Max Modrovich, Jace Vasbinder, Matthias Lezama and Ian Lorang in Class A; and Sewickley Academy’s Arjun Kathju and Jacob Stanislaw in Division 2.
QV’s Koehler is a senior defenseman, Modrovich and Vasbinder are senior forwards, Lezama is a sophomore forward, and Lorang is a senior goaltender.
Kathju and Stanislaw of Sewickley Academy are both junior forwards.
Five games were scheduled at Robert Morris beginning at noon with Division II all-stars and concluding with the final game starting at 7:30 p.m. with Class 3A all-stars.
QV hockey takes down Freeport
The trio of Ben McHenry, Max Modrovich and Matthias Lezama led Quaker Valley to a 9-1 win Jan. 26 over Freeport in PIHL Class A action.
McHenry, a senior forward, had two goals and three assists. Modrovich, also a senior forward, added two goals and two assists. Lezama, a sophomore forward, chipped in with two goals and one assist.
Senior forward Jace Vasbinder also scored once and tacked on two assists while senior defenseman Tristan Bemis added one goal and one assist. Junior defenseman Jack Watson netted the first goal of the game.
Rounding out the QV scoring, junior forward Kieran Cain was credited with two assists while Luke Koehler, a senior defenseman, and Ian Lorang, a senior goaltender, had one assist apiece.
Lorang and sophomore goaltender Neil Dwyer shared QV’s netminding duties and had 17 saves between them.
Lezama padded his team lead in scoring and ended the game with 21 goals and 25 assists, or 46 points. He is the leading scorer in Class A by a wide margin.
Vasbinder leads in goals-scored for QV with 24 to go along with 10 assists. Modrovich also had 17 goals and 16 assists, McHenry was next with 15 goals and 17 assists, and Koehler contributed seven goals and 19 assists.
The Quakers accounted for 41 shots on goal against Freeport. With the win, QV boosted its record to 15-1-1.
SA girls best Western Beaver
Emma Eannarino, a junior guard on the Sewickley Academy girls basketball team, connected for 22 points Jan. 27 to power the Panthers past Western Beaver, 55-23, in Section 1-A.
Freshman guard Nina Caputo added 13 points while freshman forward Athena Ameredes had 11 for Sewickley, which improved to 7-4 in the section and 10-8 overall.