This site is about the sports doings of the high schools in Venango County, Pa. Contact: pennyweichel@gmail.com
The Cup is ours
FALL 2025
(Photo by Kelly Malek)
Rocky Grove golfers claimed the Venango Cup for the second straight year in 2025. The Orioles totaled 23.5 points, compared to 17.5 for Cranberry, 16 for Franklin and 14 for Oil City. The all and annual Venango County event was held Sept. 8 at Lucky Hills. Pictured from left are: Danny McCullough, Dillon Hamilton, Haydon Bevier, Aiden Focht, Axel Myers and Jayden McMillen.
A different scoring format was used this year. Instead of individual scores, a format was used similar to the Ryder Cup -- 24 matches each of scrambles, alternate shots and best ball, rotating opponents throughout play.
"It made it more competitive for the kids and gave them a taste of pressure they might feel at districts," Grove coach Geoff Sanner told The Derrick/The News-Herald.
Bevier and Dalton Wenner of Cranberry were co-MVPs.
Rocky Grove Linksters reign in Region 4
Haydon Bevier shot 79 at Wanango on Sept. 22, leading Rocky Grove to a mega match victory and the Orioles' second straight Region 4 crown.
The Orioles finished with 349, four strokes ahead of second-place Corry. Aiden Focht tied for seventh with 87. Danny Briggs-McCullough was at 91 and Dillon Hamilton shot 93.
Conneaut was third and Oil City fourth followed by Franklin and Titusville.
Low scorers for the Oilers were Bryce Davis (84) and Bryce Stewart (88).
Alex Johnson led Franklin with an 84.
Johnson was medalist with 80 at Lucky Hills in the final mega match of the season, and led Franklin to a second-place finish behind Corry. Oil City was third and the Grove settled for fifth.
Final standings: Rocky Grove 31 points, Corry 26, Conneaut 22, Titusville 20, Oil City 15, Franklin 14.
The Orioles qualified for the District 10 tournament as a team.
Those advancing to the individual D-10 tourney were Bevier, Hamilton, McCullough, Johnson, Stewart and Davis.
Rocky Grove's Haydon Bevier was runnerup for medalist honors and Dillon Hamilton fired a hole-in-one in the Bill Mook Invitational Sept. 18 at Wanango. The Grove was second to Sagertown in the 11-team event. The Panthers' Mason Gjovik was medalist with 75, three strokes better than Bevier.
ACES
Oil City's Ryan Jackson and Rocky Grove's Axel Myers and Dillon Hamilton made holes-in-one this season. Jackson used an 8 iron to ace the No. 8 hole at Wanango on Aug. 29. Myers' ace was on the No.3 hole at Lucky Hills on Sept. 15. Hamilton aced the 168-yard No. 17 hole at Wanango on Sept. 18
Wenner D-9 gold; Berry ; Girls KSAC, D-9 Champs
Pictured with the District 9 championship plaque are Racquel Knight, Kallie Mong, Mackenzie Kennedy and Darien Wenner.
Darien Wenner was medalist in the District 9 2A golf tournament Oct. 6 and led Cranberry to the team title and a berth in the state tournament.
Wenner was 33rd out of 36 golfers at states, shooting 95 each day. The event was Oct. 20-21 at Penn State.
Led by Wenner's 40 at Hi-Level, the Berries earlier won the final mega match of the season and wrapped up the KSAC title.
The Berries won the event by seven strokes over Brookville, coming home at 140. Brookville's Sami Neil was medalist with 137.
Backing Wenner were Racquel Knight with a 49 and Brooke Scrivens with 50. Also on the team: Mackenzie Kennedy, Kallie Mong, Addison Karns, Abigail McCain and Bethany Novicki.
Dalton Wenner qualifies for states
Dalton Wenner finished fourth in the District 9 2A golf tournament Oct. 4 at Punxsutawney Country Club and qualified for the state golf tournament. But that was just the beginning of a big year for the Cranberry senior.
He later won the 139-pound championship in the 2A state wrestling tournament, and then capped the year off with a District 9 crown in the 800 meters in track. He was also in on two school records: the open 800 and the 1600 relay where he teamed with Cole Findlay, Blake Marchinke and Ben Baker.
Headlimg the fall sports scene was Oil City capturing its fifth District 10 title in football. Findlay quarterbacked that team.
State X country: top finishes all-time
cross country state medalists
Cranberry's Beatrice Kolesar, Rocky Grove's Isabel Griffin and Oil City's Corabel Shiley came home from Hershey with state cross country medals. Click here for more. (Photos by Connor Malek)
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Cross country history lesson
Cranberry's Beatrice Kolesar, Rocky Grove's Isabel Griffin and Oil City's Corabel Shiley medaled in the state cross country meet this morning, earning medals by finishing in the top 25.
Kolesar took fourth place in 19:50, while Griffin was 18th in 20:34 in the 1A girls. Shiley was 23rd in 20:04 in the 2A girls. The meet was held at Hershey's Parkview course.
The Berries, last year's state champions, did not repeat after graduating some talented runners, but finished 11th with six of their seven entries being underclassmen.
Mercer's Maggie Jewell won the race in 19:28, and Shady Side Academy -- one of the teams that was "supposed" to win last year, did take first place this time around. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), another pre-meet favorite in 2024, was second to Shady Side on Saturday.
Mercer was fifth, District 9 champion Central Clarion, settled for eighth, and Lakeview was 10th.
There were 22 teams and 250 runners.
Elena Ishman was 38th for Cranberry, followed by Darien Wenner 115, Ava Earp 167, Marina Mourchian 202, Karli Schneider 211 and Zofia Earp, the only senior, 241. Cranberry qualified its whole team after finishing second to Clarion in the District 9 meet last week.
Franklin's Alayna Gahr was 115th in the 2A race. Her time was 22:04. Both Shiley and Gahr are juniors. Meadville's Megan Puleio, a senior, was 11th.
Cathedral Prep won the 2A team title. Grove City was 11th among the 21 teams.
Saucon Valley's 5-foot-tall Virginia Kraus was the 2A state champ, rounding the course in 17:48 to become the first four-time state champion in the history of the meet. The winning time in 3A girls was 18:17; seven runners were under 19 minutes in that classification.
Girls history
Shiley is Oil City's first state medalist since Marty Marczak finished 18th in 1987. Carol Winger (1976) also took 18th place. Shiley was 32nd in each of the last two years.
Griffin, who was 22nd last season and 23rd in 2023, was Rocky Grove's first state medalist since Maggie Prorock came in 12th in 2013. The Orioles had one other state medalist, Shanelle Peters, 18th in 1998.
Kolesar was 17th last year. Before that Kelsey Hanna was 22nd in 2023. McKenna Spence was a four-time state qualifier, taking sixth in 2012, 17th in 2011, 12th in 2010 and 32nd in 2009. The late Melanie Ishman finished 12th for the Berries in 1991. Sandwiched around her were Amy Straub, 23rd in 1997 and Kathy Clark, 20th in 1986. Franklin's most prolific state performer was Savannah Carr, ninth in 2016. She was also 23rd in 2015 and 24th in 2014. More recently, Nadalie Latchaw was 26th in 2023.
Boys results
Rocky Grove's Gauge Gierlach was 48th in 1A boys, which had two more local entries in Cranberry's Dalton Wenner, who was 79th, and sophomore teammate Daniel McCain, 124. Gierlach ran 18:08. Wenner 18:28 and McCain 19:07.
There were 257 runners in 1A, and finshing dead last was the aptly named Achilles Fitzpatrick of Marian Catholic. His time was 24:31.
Michael Fritz of Northwest Area won the race in 15:59. Team champion was Elk Lake. Lakeview was third, Central Clarion fourth, Wilmington ninth and Elk County Catholic 10th.
In 2A boys, Oil City's Rilee Matalino was 84th in 18-minutes flat and Keegan Kirkwood was 113th in 18:19.
Hughesville won the 2A state title. Grove City was third and Brookville fourth. Harbor Creek was eighth.
Jonah Montagnese of Quaker Valley ran 16:00 to win individual honors.
Boys History
Oil City's Henry Winger owns the top finish locally in the boys state cross country meet. He took third place in Class A in 1973. The year before he was 24th. Another Oiler, Mike Renninger, placed fifth in the 1982 3A meet. Renninger also took 10th in 1983 and 14th in 1984.
Franklin's Caleb Prettyman, was sixth in the 3A 2023 meet. Still another Oiler, Dave Bender, was 12th in 1970. Jacob Eshelman took 18th for Franklin in 2018.
Three Cranberry runners finished in the teens in either Class B or, later, 1A: Mark Preaster was 15th in 1973 and then Harrison Keenan was 16th in 2015 and 23rd in 2016. Teammate Sam Lander was 18th in 2016 and 23rd in 2015.
For Rocky Grove, Dave Mora was 19th in 1980 and Easton Adamczyk was in 2023.
Volleyball 2025
Region co-champs
(Photos by Christy Fackler)
Fourth-seeded Erie First Christian blanked Rocky Grove, 3-0, Oct. 21 in the first round of the District 10 1A playoffs. Senior Olivia Faust did reach 500 career kills in the loss.
The Orioles, who shared the Region 1 title with Lakerview and Wilmington, finished the season with a 13-6 record.
The Grove swept West Middlesex, 3-0, on Oct.14 to gain a share of the region title for the second straight year. All three were 7-1 in the region.
Last year, the Grove shared the championship with Reynolds.
The win over West Middlesex came on the heels of a 3-1 road victory over Lakeview on Oct. 10.
The Orioles won the Silver Bracket championship in the Franklin tournament on Sept. 6. They topped Mercer in the finals. Pool play dropped them into the Silver bracket.
Final Grove stat leaders: Olivia Faust 238 kills, Jillian Cratty 428 assists, 305 points; Kaidlynn Burger 37 aces; and Anna Rodgers 221 digs. Faust finished her career with 504 kills.
Big year for the Oilers
Not only did Oil City win its fifth District 10 football title since 1998, but the school claimed double titles in basketball and track.
Boys basketball won its first league title in 55 years and the girls, and the last day of the season, finished in a three-way tie first first with Titusville and Conneaut for girls honors. Then in the spring, the boys track team extended its league winning streak to 34 straight meets and with it a fifty consecutive championship. The girls, meanwhile, won their first title since 2021.
Cranberry and Rocky Grove also finished the winter sports season with hardware. The Berry boys repeated as District 9 3A champions and the Grove boys tied Saegertown for a region title in District 10.​
Four players reached 1,000 career points -- two in the same game. That would be Rocky Grove's Landen Carter and Noah Baughman. Oil City's Payton Liderbach was the only girl to get there, and later on in the season, Cole Findlay etched his name among Cranberry's all-time leaders.
In swimming, there were two state place-winners in Oil City's John Lander and Natalie Wilson (both Cranberry students), while Franklin's Jordan Stumpf, was a two-time all-stater. Another all-stater, Dani Erdley, was a member of Franklin's regional championship team.
...And In one corner...
Hailey hanna
Franklin outlasts Oil City, 74-71, in OT in a Region 5 battle for first place as stat sheet heavyweights collide. Hanna followed up her seven-trifecta effort with six against Oil City. Payton Liederbach countered with 39 points for the Lady Oilers.
Hanna was voted female Athlete of the Week in an Erie Times News poll for her seven triples game.
But injuries weren't kind to the Lady Knights this season, and a few too many of them hurt them in the end. LINK
(Photos by Tammy Curry and Kelly Malek)
Payton Liederbach
Spring 2026: The End
Cranberry again was pretty good in softball, what with a fourth straight PIAA playoff appearance, but the story of the season was Cranberry senior Shane Clark coming out of nowhere to medal in the javelin the the state track meet. And Darien Wenner garnered her second straight medal in the pole vault. Also on the diamond, Rocky Grove's Haydon Bevier fired a no-hitter.
Cranberry thinclads happily pose for the photographer -- well, except for the young lady with her nose in the phone, tsk, tsk. Sign of the times. My personal fave of the season. It's just a nice picture.
Franklin's Logan Knight gets the big sendoff to the state track meet from his mom, the former Jackie Craft of OCHS hoops fame back in the '90s. Logan stars in the shot and discus.
This is how the Burns and Allen Show ended in the 50s.
Cranberry thinclads happily pose for the photographer -- well, except for the young lady with her nose in the phone, tsk, tsk. Sign of the times. My personal fave of the season. It's just a nice picture.
Click on photo to get full effect.