Westmoreland County campus clippings: Franklin Regional grad runs to All-American honors

Westminster senior Ryan Beard and his teammates ran circles around opponents during the outdoor track and field season.

A Franklin Regional alum, Beard was a U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Region Mid-Atlantic honoree as part of the 400-meter relay team.

The foursome ran to the first NCAA All-American honor in program history.

The team, which also included seniors Amon Sams and Jacob Patton, and junior Shamar Love, finished seventh at the NCAA Division III Championships with a time of 41.38 seconds.

Football

Robert Morris: Junior Hayden Baron (Belle Vernon) was named to the Big South Preseason All-Conference First Team. Baron (6-foot-3, 280 pounds) started 13 games over the past two seasons at right guard.

Men’s basketball

Seton Hill: First-year coach Ben Wilkins is filling out his staff. He recently hired Jamaal Stokes as an assistant.

Stokes comes from William Peace University, where he served as an associate head coach. The Birmingham, Ala. native played at high school power Central Park Christian, where he was 88-1 in his prep career.

Stokes accepted a preferred walk-on spot at Alabama A&M before transferring to Wiley College.

He began coaching as a grad assistant at Virginia Commonwealth before joining William Peace in 2019.

Women’s basketball

Seton Hill: Double-double producing center Katie Nolan is going from Seton Hill to the pros.

The recent grad signed to play for the Newcastle Eagles of the Women’s British Basketball League.

The Eagles are based in Tyne, England.

An All-PSAC West First Team selection last season, Nolan, who hails from Yorkville, Ill., averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds in 2022.

She scored 1,285 career points and pulled down 903 rebounds. She made over 55% of her shots.

Nolan is the fourth Seton Hill women’s player in the past five years to turn professional, joining Courtney Cecere, Jenna Kaufman and Tiana Stewart. The WBBL begins play next month.

Men’s soccer

Seton Hill: Jesse Urquhart was named an assistant coach in a dual role, joining the staffs of head coaches Dilveer Chaggar (men’s team) and Adrian Blewitt (women’s team).

Urquhart was the head women’s coach at St. Mary’s College (Ind.) for six seasons.

His other stops include Neumann as a men’s assistant from 2008-14 and as a grad assistant at Defiance (Ohio) with the women in 2014-15.

He was a standout player at Camden County College (N.J.) and at Neumann.