Westmoreland Campus Clippings: Hempfield's Burns rewriting record book

Michelle Burns came back for a fifth year at Point Park, which basically rendered the women’s basketball program’s record book defenseless.

The grad point guard out of Hempfield topped the 1,500-point mark for her career during an 86-84 loss to Washington Adventist. She had 29 points in the game and moved into fourth place on the Point Park scoring list.

Five days later, she became the Pioneers’ all-time leader in assists with 419.

She went into Sunday’s game against Washington Adventist tied for the record but dished out three helpers to go with 18 points in an 85-69 loss.

The assists record belonged to Alisa Favero and had stood since 1993.

Burns is only the fifth player in team history to reach 1,500 points.

Westminster: Freshman Mackenzie Powell (Penn-Trafford) played soccer in the fall, but she is clearly back to basketball form.

Powell scored a career-high 15 points, handed out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds to power the Titans to a 102-80 victory over Geneva.

Senior Magen Polczynski (Norwin) added 14 points, four steals and four rebounds in the win for Westminster (3-3, 1-2).

Men’s basketball

Allegheny: Sophomore forward Mike Noonan (Latrobe) has played in nine games, with three starts, for the Gators, averaging 2.8 points and 1.6 rebounds in 10.4 minutes.

He had eight points and three rebounds in an 80-79 loss to Thiel.

Senior teammate Josh Ratesic (Norwin) has eight appearances and is averaging 3.1 points over nine minutes a game.

West Liberty: Sophomore guard Bryce Butler (Latrobe) scored 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds to help led the Hilltoppers (8-1, 4-1 Mountain East) to an 89-79 victory over Charleston.

Butler is averaging 16.3 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting over 60% from the field. He has topped the 20-point mark three times this season.

Wrestling

Pitt: Micky Phillippi (Derry) scored a 14-3 major decision at 133 pounds, but the No. 22-ranked Panthers fell to No. 7 Ohio State, 30-7.

Phillippi, ranked No. 6 in his weight class, moved to 11-3 on the season.

Pitt-Johnstown: Redshirt sophomore Nate Smith (Franklin Regional) and freshman Isaiah Vance (Hempfield) picked up wins as the 19th-ranked Mountain Cats toppled No. 8 Ashland, 21-15. Smith won a 7-5 decision at 157 pounds, and Vance won 8-3 at 285.

Football

Seton Hill: Three former Seton Hill football players are headed to Germany to play professionally together.

Quarterback Christian Strong, wide receiver/running back Jarvis McClam and defensive back Fardan Allen are joining the Cologne Crocodiles of the German Football League. Strong, a record-setting passer at Seton Hill, returns to the Crocodiles after an all-star season where he threw for 3,470 yards and 33 touchdowns. He was the team MVP.

McClam spent last season with the Langenfeld Longhorns of GFL2. He rushed for 338 yards and four touchdowns while had 797 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. Allen played last season for the Sioux City Bandits in the Champions Indoor Football League. He was named the league’s defensive rookie of the year.

Strong passed for 9,305 yards for the Griffins and also holds program records in attempts (1,289), completions (741) and passing touchdowns (62). McClam, a four-year starter for the Griffins, was an all-region and all-conference selection. He has the Griffins’ single-game rushing record of 291 yards.

Washington & Jefferson: Sophomore Justin Huss (Derry) was named to the D3Football.com All-Region 2 Second Team as a specialist.

An All-PAC First Team pick, Huss led the conference with three return touchdowns and was the NCAA Division III leader in kick return average (38.0 ypr). He had two touchdowns on kick returns and finished with 1,296 all-purpose yards.

Men’s soccer

Seton Hill: Senior defender George Demetriades was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Region Third Team. Also an All-PSAC West first-team selection, Demetriades helped the Griffins post seven shutouts this season.

Women’s field hockey

Shippensburg: Coach Tara Zollinger (Hempfield) and her assistants were named the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division II Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year for a third time.

The assistants are Jordan Page and Alexandra Pennington and volunteer Mary Spisak.

A national powerhouse, Shippensburg went 20-0 for its first undefeated season since 1977 and won its sixth NCAA Division II National Championship. The Raiders have won 11 straight NCAA Tournament games, including eight in a row under Zollinger, a graduate of Maryland, where she won two national titles as a player.

She also coached at Syracuse, where she won a third national crown.

Baseball

Seton Hill: Assistant baseball coach Tyler Sullivan is taking over as field manager of the Johnstown Mill Rats of the Prospect League.

A Cleveland native, Sullivan played in the Prospect League in 2015-16 for the now-defunct Butler Blue Sox.

Sullivan began his playing career at Evansville (Ind.) before he transferred to Seton Hill after two seasons and won two PSAC titles across three seasons. He was the conference MVP in 2018.

He has been an assistant with the Griffins for three years.