EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of recaps of the winter and spring college sports seasons for athletes from the Greater Pittston area.
Abby Norwillo has been part of three Ivy League championship efforts by the University of Pennsylvania women’s track and field team in her three seasons there.
Norwillo, a sophomore from Pittston Area, helped Penn win consecutive Ivy League indoor titles for the first time since 1987 and 1988 with her fourth-place finish in the pole vault.
Penn also won last year’s Ivy League outdoor championship. This year’s outdoor season was canceled as one of the many athletic seasons altered because of the coronavirus epidemic.
The Quakers compiled 136 points in the Feb. 23-24 meet. Host Harvard was second with 102 points, followed by Dartmouth 85, Cornell 80, Princeton 79, Brown 62, Columbia 55, Yale 21.
Norwillo cleared 3.91 meters (12-10) for her second straight fourth-place finish.
As a freshman, Norwillo was also fourth in the Penn Relays.
Norwillo has the third-best indoor pole vault height in school history and the eighth-best outdoors with a 3.75 meters (12-3½).
Outdoor track and field
The coronavirus forced schedule adjustments before many northern schools could begin their outdoor track and field seasons.
That meant two of the area’s top college athletes did not get to compete this season because javelin throwers, including Marc Anthony Minichello and Taryn Ashby, do not get to participate in the indoor season where there is not enough room to conduct their event.
The two multi-sport athletes became specialists in the event when they reached college.
Minichello, a Wyoming Area graduate, qualified for Division I nationals as a freshman at Penn.
Ashby, a Pittston Area graduate, is a two-time Big East champion and the Villanova school record-holder in the event.
During his freshman college season, Minichello was an Ivy League champion and a second-place finisher at the Penn Relays. He qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships where he finished 17th to earn honorable mention All-American status.
Following the college season, Minichello won the title at the USA Track & Field Under-20 Championships with a career-best throw of 77.15 meters (153-1).
Ashby reached the NCAA East Preliminary, the qualifier for nationals, in each of her first two college seasons. Her throw of 48.03 meters (157-6½) is the school record under the equipment regulations that have been in place since 1999.
Women’s indoor track and field
Ashton Ashby matched a career, indoor personal best when she cleared 5-1 in the high jump while competing for Saint Joseph’s University at the Atlantic 10 Championships.
The sophomore from Pittston Area finished tied for 15th out of 24 entries.
East Stroudsburg University’s Jalen Rhodes, a sophomore from Wyoming Area, qualified for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships in the 60-meter dash where she finished last among 21 entries.
Last season, Rhodes was part of the fastest, all-freshman, 400-meter relay time in school history.
Abbie Sheerer won a Middle Atlantic Conference high jump championship at Widener University by clearing 1.62 meters (5-3¾).
The senior from Pittston Area was also seventh out of 21 entries in the triple jump with 10.66 meters (34-11 5/8).
Sheerer competed at the Atlantic Regional, but fell short of reaching nationals.
Baseball
Cole Keating from Wyoming Area was off to a strong start to his junior season at King’s College where he had hits in eight out of his nine games and was batting .375.
Keating made two pitching appearances last season, working three scoreless innings.
Brendan Mozeleski, a freshman outfielder/pitcher from Old Forge, was making an impact with the Monarchs (6-4).
Mozeleski was 8-for-17 (.471) in five games with two doubles, six runs scored and five RBI. In three pitching appearances, he had a 1.29 earned run average while striking out five and giving up five hits and four walks in seven innings.
Softball
The King’s College team included two Pittston Area and one Wyoming Area graduate, all in the starting lineup.
Kristi Skok had the team’s only home run, along with a double and triple.
The sophomore infielder from Wyoming Area had started all eight games and was second on the team with a .435 batting average.
Mindina Lieback, a junior outfielder from Pittston Area, led the team in hits (11) and doubles (three).
Lieback also started every game and was batting .367.
Bailey Loyack, a freshman infielder/outfielder from Pittston Area, played in seven games, starting in six. She was batting .235 when the season was halted.
King’s was 5-3.
