Track and Field 2025
She's not a household name in Venango County track circles, but Isabella Peterson made her presence felt Saturday in the District 10 track meet, capturing the girls 3A discus.
Now Peterson was seeded second in the disk -- but with a modest throw of just around 100 feet -- yet still emerged as one of three champions for Franklin, the others being household names Logan Knight and Isabel Griffin.
Region king Oil City had no champions, but showed off its depth and qualified a four athletes in five events for states in 2A.
Beatrice Kolesar and the girls 3200 relay won titles for Cranberry in the District 9 meet Friday. Click on the links for more.
​
(Photo by Christy Fackler)
Around the horn 2025
Kelly Malek/Berries celebrate 2-0 decision over Redbank
The 13-game winning streak over -- done, compliments of St. Marys -- Cranberry is still in the midst of another successful softball season as it heads into post-season next week.
The Berries are 14-4, KSAC champions and the top seed for the District 9 2A playoffs as they seek their third straight title and their sixth overall.
The lineup includes sophomore Ashlynn McWilliams who is hitting .510, five .400 hitters (these stats are posted on MaxPreps) and four more players who are batting .300 or better.
The .400 hitters: Avery Coe .479, Keelie Schneider .462, Cassie Scarbrough .451, Lexi Reisinger .440 and pitcher Gracee Hess .413.
The .300 hitters: Danica Wenner .397, Haylie Gregory .383, Kennedy Stewart .375 in limited action, Jadyn Shumaker .358 and Emma Morrow .300. Team batting average its .420.
Seven players are above 1.000 in OPS, McWilliams, a sophomore leading, with 1.527. She's also one of four players with 20 or more RBI.
Hess has been solid in the circle (4.14, 15/52) with help mostly from Wenner (2.74, 2/33). Hess has been named KSAC MVP.
Cranberry lost its first two games of the spring to DuBois and St. Marys, were 1-1 during a trip south in early April and didn't lose again until May 16 when a three-run homer erased a two-run lead in the fifth. St. Marys is the top seed in the D-9 3A tournament.
Bring on those playoffs
No-hitter
Elizabeth Mawhinney hurled a five-inning no-hitter May 12 against Forest Area.
​
The playoff-bound Orioles won, 14-0.
​
Mawhinney struck out 11. Only a third-inning error kept Mawhinney from a perfect game.
​
The third-seeded Orioles (7-11) and with only three seniors will take on second-seeded Cambridge Springs (13-2) Wednesday in the D-10 semifinals.
​
(Christy Fackler photos)
Some big sticks here
The Franklin and Oil City softball teams might have walked softly this season, but they did carry some big sticks as can be seen in the charts below.
Franklin was 5-13 and hit .263. But the ERA was 8.30.
Oil City was 1-17, defeating only Eisenhower, before ending the season on a 16-game losing streak. The Lady Oilers hit. 241, but pitched to a 9.76 ERA and averaged 4.6 errors per game.
Franklin photos by Christy Fackler; Oil City photo by Kelly Malek
(Photo by Kelly Malek)
(Photos by Christy Fackler)
D-10 baseball playoffs
Class 1A
Thursday's Games
1 seed West Middlesex vs. 4 seed ROCKY GROVE
2 seed Youngsville vs/ 3 seed Cochranton
​
Championship Monday, May 26.
Winner advances to interdistricts and will play the fourth place team out of the WPIAL on June 2.
​
Class 3A
Today's Games
1 seed Titusville vs. bye
4 seed Girard vs. 5. seed FRANKLIN, 4:30 p.m., Mercyhurst
2 seed Sharon vs. 7 seed North East, 2 p.m., Slippery Rock
3 seed Fairview vs. 6 seed Corry, 2 p.m., Mercyhurst
​
Semifinals Friday, May 23, championship Monday May 26.
Winner advances to interdistricts and will play the third seed out of the WPIAL on June 2.
D-10 softball playoffs
Class 1A
Wednesday, May 21
1 seed West Middlesex vs. 4 seed Youngsville, TBA
2 seed Cambridge Springs vs. 3 seed ROCKY GROVE, TBA
​
Championship Monday, May 26. Winner advances to interdistricts and will play the third seed out of the WPIAL on June 2.
D-9 softball playoffs
Class 2A
Today's Games
5 seed Brookville vs. 4 seed Central Clarion, C-L Sports Complex
6 seed Moniteau vs. 3 seed Redbank Valley, Redbank Valley Primary School
Thursdays Games (semifinals)
1 seed CRANBERRY vs. Brookville-Central Clarion winner, TBA
2 seed Brockway vs. Moniteau-Redbank winner, TBA
Championship May 26 at Heindl Field, DuBois
Top two teams advance to interdistricts. Champion will play District 6 runnerup , runnerup will play either District 5 or 8 champion on June 2.
Batting and pitching stats for local baseball players.
Blurbs
Franklin's Jay Prettyman signed a letter-of-intent to continue his running/academic career at Memphis (the basketball school). Prettyman's older brother, Caleb, is a freshman at Penn State where he is listed on the cross country roster. The Prettymans have given Franklin a powerful 1-2 punch in the distance races for the past five years. Jay added to his resume by running a meet record 9:42.06 at the Redbank Valley Invitational on May 8. (Photo here by Christy Fackler).
​​​
Oil City's Jackson Dilks (photo here by Kelly Malek) reached the D-10 semifinals where he lost to eventual three-time champion Gavin Ferretti of Cathedral Prep. Jaxon Klapec and Carter O'Dell beat a team from Titusville May 8 to advance to the quarterfinals of the D-10 doubles tournament before losing.
Saw in the paper where erstwhile star wrestler Dane Wenner of Cranberry is class valedictorian and headed to Penn State where he plans to major in electrical engineering. In addition to his many accomplishments in wrestling and track (school record 13-7 pole vault last year), Wenner is a four-time state qualifier in cross country and golf. Didn't realize that. The salutatorian is none other than Kayla Hanna, one of the stars of the state championship cross country team. She's plans to attend Slippery Rock where she will be in the accelerated physician assistant program -- with a minor in Spanish.​
​​​
Will McMahon has signed a letter to attend Penn State-Behrend. Last fall it was announced that he was going there for golf, now it's baseball......Nikki Petro, a jumper on the Oil City girls track team, is headed to Mercyhurst, according to a "tweet"" on X. The university launched its Division I track program (for both men and women) in November.​
​
Roman McFall, former Oil City High School football/basketball prospect whose family moved away after his freshman year, received the outstanding male athlete award at Canyon High, a 6A school in New Braunfels, Texas. He also received the coveted Spirit of Canyon award, which is given at the end of the night.
​
The Cranberry Super Berry logo finished in the top eight in the country and the top four in its region in a recent contest. The Berry eventually lost out to the Hampton, Va., Crabbers. And to think about 40 years ago the school was thinking about changing its nickname from the Berries -- to the Cougars or something if memory serves.
Football 2025
Three months to go...
(Photos by Richard Sayer)