North Hills sent a wide variety of track and field athletes to the WPIAL championship meet last month.

Despite not taking gold, the Indians had success in both individual and relay events at Slippery Rock University.

The Indians placed two athletes on the podium in boys triple jump, as seniors Brody Diehl and Logan Berry each set personal best marks at 14.03 meters and 13.86 meters respectively. The two finished just behind Plum senior Sloan Humphries, who topped out at 14.08 meters.

The duo competed in the boys long jump, as well. Berry placed 11th and Diehl 19th.

Also on the track, seniors Cody Miller and Jack Mayer hit personal bests in the 400 meters, with Miller posting a time of 48.91 and Mayer at 51.97.

The Indians had three runners in the boys 800 meters, with juniors Avery Dixon and Quinn Lightner placing in the top 20, while senior James Dunlap ended up 22nd.

Ben McCarty and Jackson Hill finished 19th and 22nd in the boys 3,200-meter run.

In the team relays, North Hills’ boys narrowly missed out on gold with a silver medal finish in the 3,200-meter relay, as Butler’s team clipped the Indians quartet of Dunlap, Dixon, Lightner and Alex Neidhardt by under one second.

Miller, Mayer, Dixon and Dunlap finished fourth in the boys 1,600-meter relay as well. And the Indians finished 11th in the 400-meter relay with a time of 43.65.

On the girls side, the Indians got their strongest individual performance from sophomore Emerson Schall, who collected seventh-place finishes in the javelin and shot put. Schall also shined on the gridiron this year as the quarterback of the Indians’ flag football team.

Kayla Flanigan posted a very respectable mark in the girls 800-meter run, as the senior ended up eighth.

And North Hills capped a strong showing on the track with a fourth-place mark in the girls 3,200-meter relay, as the team of Flanigan, Franz, Barkovich and Werner got the Indians onto the podium.

Baseball struggles

Before the season, North Hills baseball coach Jon Pedrosky acknowledged the challenges his team faced in Class 6A.

Those hardships got magnified a bit this spring, as North Hills finished 3-15 overall and 2-10 in Section 1-6A.

In addition to sporting a young team, the Indians battled multiple key injuries, such as an ACL injury for starting pitcher Kaden Cutler, all while struggling to generate offense throughout much of the season.

Following a 15-0 opening game win over Gateway, the Indians scored just 27 runs the rest of the season.

However, North Hills did have a positive finish to the season, knocking off eventual WPIAL Class 6A runner-up and rival North Allegheny, 6-1, in the regular season finale.

The Indians are set to lose only four seniors from this year’s team to graduation.

Playoff season

The North Hills girls lacrosse team used strong defense to reach the WPIAL playoffs this season.

Allowing 8.6 goals per game in section play but just 6.5 per game overall, North Hills finished 9-5, clinching the fifth playoff spot in Section 2-3A.

After a back-and-forth start to the season, the Indians found a rhythm in April, winning five straight games before falling to Bethel Park, 16-5, in the Class 3A first round.