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Central Mountain Sports Week-In-Review

Father time needs to have a heart-to-heart talk with old man winter. The old guy is flat out cranky and needs to get a grip on reality. Even the rodent said that spring was to begin about a month ago. However, the old man just refuses to relent. Enough already! Due to that crankiness, Central Mountain High School sports action was extremely limited by poor weather last week. What action there was is reported below.

Wednesday was in the mid-to-upper 50’s and the baseball, softball and track and field teams were each in action at home. The baseball team took on a strong Montoursville team that entered the contest with a 4-0 record. The Wildcats got some solid pitching from the combination of Aaron Swartz, Caleb Shade and Zane Probst to limit the visiting Warriors to three runs, while seeing their own offense score two runs each in three separate innings to walk away with a solid 6-3 win. On Friday, Coach Mike Kramer took his Cats on the road for a contest at Altoona. Tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the 6th, CM surrendered three runs to the home team and despite scoring a run of their own in the top of the 7th, dropped a tough one by a score of 4-2. With the 1-1 week, the Wildcats overall record now sits at 6-2. Coach Kramer continues to get solid pitching performances from the trio of Swartz, Shade and Probst. Shade and Probst are just sophomores, so they could potentially form a solid tandem down the road as well. The Cats will see heavy action this week as they travel to Shamokin today and Shikellamy on Wednesday for PHAC contests. On Friday, they will host Selinsgrove at Mill Hall Community Park and then hit the road again on Saturday as they travel to Hollidaysburg. The depth of the pitching staff will begin to get a test this week assuming the weather holds.

At Central Mountain Middle School, the CM track and field teams were in action against Shamokin and St. Joseph’s Academy. Both the boys and girls teams earned their first victories of the season as the girls defeated Shamokin, 73-69, and St. Joes, 95-52, while the boys defeated St. Joes, 111-31, but lost to Shamokin, 97-49. From an individual standpoint, multiple event winners for the Lady Wildcats were Allyssa Laughner (800M and 1600M), Jonna Diehl (100M Hurdles and Long Jump), Hunter Barger(100M and 200M), and Sadie McCaleb (Pole Vault and Javelin). Barger also teamed with Riley Phillips, Macy Ackley and Ashley Kline — who was a winner in the 300M Hurdles to win the 400M Relay. On the boy’s side, Kenny Jones sprinted to victories in the 100M and 200M, jumped to victory in the Long Jump, and teamed with Austin Confer, Seth Andrus and R. J. Shaffer to win the 400M Relay. Other multiple event winners for the boys were Jacob Watson (110M Hurdles), Vincent Kopysciansky (Shot Put and Discuss), and Caleb Porter (Long Jump and High Jump). Coach Katie Bidwell spoke highly this week of several of her athletes who she felt deserving of praise. Specifically, she mentioned the following:

-Jadyn Genua: 11th grade, thrower: Very hard worker, and pushes herself to do better

– Carlie Hall: 10th grade jumper and sprinter. Has a tenacious attitude, and makes every situation fun.

– Zoe Eck:10th grade jumper and sprinter. Willing to try new events, and brings a positive attitude everyday.

– Jacob Watson: 9th grade jumper and hurdler. Extremely hard-worker, helps the team out in whatever event needs done, is always looking to get better

– Caleb Porter: 9th grade jumper. Is always helping his teammates, and works hard to improve himself.

Coach Bidwell recognizes that this week is a big one as she states, “We’re excited to go against Altoona this week because that’s where Districts are held. Saturday, April 28 is the LHU invitational.”

The Lady Wildcats Softball team got back into action against Shikellamy and pounded the Lady Braves to the tune of 16-1 in a three inning, 15-run rule shortened game. It was just what Coach Ben Trew’s team was looking for as it was coming off of two losses the previous week that had them undoubtedly shaking their collective heads just a bit. With the victory, the Lady Cats improved to 3-3 on the season with a big week ahead. Today, they travel to Selinsgrove and tomorrow return the favor by hosting the Lady Seals in a fairly unusual back-to-back. On Thursday, they will travel to Shamokin before returning home to host their annual Thunder on the Mountain Tournament on Saturday. Dubois, Hempfield and Seneca Valley will join CM for the tournament. We should learn a lot about the Lady Cats this week.

The Tennis team was pretty quiet last week playing on Friday only, as they traveled to Lewisburg to take on a powerful Green Dragons squad. Unfortunately, the locals struggled to generate much offense as they dropped the match by a 5-0 score. With the loss, the Cats fell to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the PHAC. Coach Pete Wert’s net men will be busy this week. Today they will host Shikellamy, tomorrow they’ll travel to Milton, and Friday entertain Altoona. In between, the Cats will participate in district singles tournament at Altoona Area HS on Wednesday.

So indeed, assuming that the weather cooperates, there will be a lot of action upon which to report next week. However, as for now, here is the announcement that you all have been waiting for: Athlete and Team of the Week. This week my choices are:

TEAM OF THE WEEK: The Lady Wildcats Track and Field team on the basis of their first two victories of the season, and some outstanding individual performances.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Speedster Hunter Barger. She sprinted to victory in numerous events to help lead the Lady Cats to their wins on Tuesday over Shamokin and St. Joe’s Academy.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Evan Prough and Asher Corl of the Wildcats Baseball team who each went 4-for-6 at the plate in their two games last week. Corl announced his intention to attend Pitt-Johnstown along the way as well.

So Wildcats and Lady Wildcats, let’s have a solid week. We’re watching and cheering you on. Let’s get it done. Until next week, enjoy the events.

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