Canonsburg, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) hosted its WPIAL/UPMC Sports Medicine Rifle Team Championships at Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club in Canonsburg on Tuesday afternoon. The championship field featured 10 teams that finished either top two in their section or qualified as a wild card selection, and at the end of the day, Woodland Hills emerged as the WPIAL champion for the first time in nine years, topping Hempfield Area by an 800-53x to 799-63x margin.
Woodland Hills (8-6, 6-4 Section III) is now a seven-time WPIAL champion, joining Munhall (23), Trinity (18), and Mt. Lebanon (7) among the schools with at least seven championships. The Wolverines also won in 1992, 1998, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and are the first non-section champion to top the WPIAL field since Butler did so in 2020. Woodland Hills accomplished that same feat in its 2012 run to gold.
All eight of Woodland Hills’ scorers registered tallies of 100, with Avery Thomas and Shamira Pennell recorded perfect scores of 100-10x. Elizabeth Geyer (100-07x), Owne Kozlowski (100-06x), Anthony Nemanic (100-06x), Lillian Divelbiss (100-05x), Leila Nestico (100-05x), and Renee Kilpatrick (100-04x) all posted 100s to round out the scoring, with Ben Hill (99-06x) and Brycen Filus (97-02x) serving as the Wolverines’ additional competitors.
Hempfield Area (12-2, 9-1 Section III) saw seven of its student-athletes reach the 100-point mark to finish as the WPIAL runner-up with a total score of 799-63x, with Aiden McVicker, Taylor Miller, and Brooke Fanala all leading the Spartans at 100-09x. Two-time reigning champion Butler (14-0, 10-0 Section IV) finished third with a tally of 799-61x, and its top performer was Brooke Schramm, who was the third of three student-athletes to register a perfect 100-10x on the day.
Mt. Lebanon (797-60x) earned the final state qualifier spot with a fourth-place finish. The remainder of the field was made up of Armstrong (796-45x), Trinity (794-55x), McGuffey (794-51x), Upper St. Clair (793-50x), West Greene (792-43x), and Bethel Park (788-42x) in that order. There were 46 student-athletes in all that recorded scores of 100.
Prior to announcing the results, section plaques were distributed to Butler (Section IV champion), Hempfield Area (Section III champion), Mt. Lebanon (Section II champion), and Trinity (Section I champion).
The WPIAL Rifle Individual Championships will be held on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 10:00 a.m. from Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club in Canonsburg.
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