Three Norwin girls qualified for the PIAA girls wrestling championships March 5-7 at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Josephine Dollman, a 142-pounder, advanced with a second-place finish at the West Regional tournament at Mt. Lebanon. Dollman lost to Kiski Area’s Ava Golding, 2-0, as Goulding scored a third-period reversal.
Two Norwin girls finished in third place to qualify: Karsyn Champion at 155 and Octavia Walker at 170.
Klingensmith takes silver at WPIALs
Norwin junior Amber Klingensmith captured a silver medal in the 100-yard backstroke and fifth-place finish in the 100 butterfly at the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships last month at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
She swam to a time of 56.38, almost a full second better than her 100 back time last year as a sophomore. Freshman Delaney O’Toole set a Fox Chapel school record in taking first with a 54.13.
“I felt pretty good going into my race,” Klingensmith said. “I knew that I would be racing Delaney, who is one of my teammates (at Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics). I knew it would be fun. I knew it would be a good race between the two of us and with the rest of the competition.
“I didn’t have any expectations going into it because you never know what could happen. I just wanted to work on my own race, my own underwaters and my own techniques. I was excited to see where I would be at this point in the season. This is one of my bigger meets, but not one I am fully tapered for. My goal was to see how I was executing my race, and I was happy with how that went.”
Klingensmith will compete at the PIAA championships this week at Bucknell.
State track standouts
Alexander Irwin, Myla McCabe and Annie Czajkowski led a strong Norwin contingent at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association championships at Penn State’s Ashenfelter Indoor Track in State College.
Irwin cleared 14 feet to take sixth in the pole vault, while McCabe was seventh in the 400-meter dash in 57.28 seconds, a personal record.
Czajkowski finished 11th in the mile run with a time of 5 minutes, 1.50 seconds.
Czajkowski will leave the Knights’ program as the program record holder in the 800, mile, 1,600, 3,000, 3,200 and as part of the distance-medley and 3,200 relays.
The girls’ 4,000-meter distance medley relay came in sixth in 12:13.03. The time ranks No. 12 in the nation.
Football all-stars
Two Norwin football players were selected to play in the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association East-West senior big-school all-star game.
The game kicks off at 5 p.m. May 17 at Cumberland Valley in Mechanicsburg.
The pair of Knights will play for the West.
Tight end Josh Lenart and punter Evan Pfeifer made it from Norwin.
Lenart and Pfeifer have signed with Division I programs. Lenart is going to Lehigh, Pfeifer to Buffalo.
Lenart had 56 tackles and six sacks this season for the Knights. Pfeifer averaged 41 yards per punt this year.
Hanging up his cleats
Norwin football lineman Lucas Altier, who overcame injuries to play his senior season and help Norwin reach the WPIAL 6A playoffs, has decided to stop playing the sport.
Altier (6 foot 5, 315 pounds) returned this season after suffering a broken leg as a junior.
In October, he developed a blood clot in his lung and missed the playoff game against North Allegheny.
Altier plans to attend Penn State.