Teams bring Mercer County notoriety

It’s been some time since three Mercer County teams have made it to the PIAA Western Regional basketball finals.

Sadly, all three were turned back in heartbreaking fashion. The boys teams of Kennedy Catholic and Farrell dropped real heartbreakers as did the Farrell girls. Only several points separated the winners and losers of these games and Kennedy lost in overtime. Like the saying goes, the contests could have gone either way.

Not able to make all of the playoff games, we tuned into WPIC-AM to pick up all of the action from broadcasters Bob Greenburg and Mark Slezak. These two guys know their stuff and give a first-class presentation of the action. They seldom miss anything.

Once again, it can be pointed out the quality of Mercer County coaches and the excellent job they do year after year. This year we’re putting the emphasis on Roland Shannonhouse, Farrell’s boys coach; Kennedy Catholic boys coach Marlon McGaughy, and Farrell girls coach Ed Turosky. One again gentlemen, congratulations on a job well done.

And all of the fans who attended the games should be commended for the way they conducted themselves during the heated action. There were very few incidents reported and nothing major.

Farrell’s boys lost to North East, Kennedy’s boys were ousted by Serra Catholic and Farrell’s girls bowed to Mount Alvernia. Serra went on to grab a one-point decision in the state title game.

One of Kennedy’s players nailed down the title of top scorer in Mercer County. Kyle Randall, a junior, scored 798 points this season to finish well ahead of runner-up Russ Conley of Reynolds who scored 542 points.

Other top scorers were Marsell Holden, Farrell, 534; Donald Jackson, Farrell, 492; Chris Laverty, Reynolds, 450; Troy Mild, West Middlesex, 414; Traphael Stubbs, Farrell, 403; Dustin Snyder, Mercer, 391; Maxx Stutz, Grove City, 345; Jordan Blatt, Greenville, 324; Adam Braymaker, Mercer, 321, and Dylan Bertin, Lakeview, 319.

The Presidents’ Athletic Conference named Emilee Ackerman and Chris Lehberger of Westminster College as its Student-Athlete Advisory Committee scholar-athletes of the month for February.

Ackerman, a senior guard for the women’s basketball team, helped Westminster reach the PAC championship for the second straight year. She averaged 23.5 points and became the Titans’ all-time leading scorer with 1,483 points. Off the court she maintains a 3.53 grade-point average as an elementary education major. She was also selected as an ESPN The Magazine Women’s Basketball College Division Academic All-American. In addition, she is also a Dean’s List student, SAAC secretary and a volunteer for the Westminster pre-school and Habitat for Humanity.

Lehberger, a junior on the swimming team, won both the 100 and 200 breastroke and took third in the 200 individual medley at the PAC Championships. He also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships. Lehberger is a public relations major and carries a 3.4 GPA. He volunteers as community swimming lesson instructor and volunteers for the First Assembly of God Group Worship Team. He is also a member of the Lambda Signa Honor Society.