Parkland's Ottinger to join Horan at Central Michigan

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Parkland's state championship wrestler Mike Ottinger has committed to Central Michigan University, where he will join Zach Horan, Nazareth's state wrestling champ, with a program that finished tied for 13th at the NCAA championships in March.

The Chippewas won their 10th straight MAC title last season and 15th overall.

Ottinger, who won the PIAA Class 3A 160-pound championship in March, is expected to compete at 165 pounds for Central Michigan.

"I like their coaches a lot on my visit, and it'll be good having Zach Horan there," Ottinger said in an interview with TakeDown Radio. "The facilities are nice. … they have a brand new arena and wrestling room. … and it's a good school for education.


Ottinger said he wants to be a math teacher and possibly a wrestling coach.

Ottinger is also a two-time all-area soccer player and a two-time District 11 wrestling champ.

Keeping in touch

• East Stroudsburg University sophomore outfielder Eric Boyer (Southern Lehigh) was named to the Capital One Academic All-District first team. The secondary education and earth and space science major has a 3.67 GPA. He is the only sophomore on the College Division first team in District 2.

He is the first ESU baseball player to earn first team recognition since the creation of the all-district teams and will advance to the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration.

• Rider sophomore David Hightower II (Easton) helped his school win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men's track championship — ending 13 years of dominance by Manhattan — by winning the 110-meter hurdles. Hightower posted a time of 14.39, breaking the championship record. He also finished second in the 400-meter hurdles (53.69).

Sophomore Ashley Hunter (Northampton) helped the Rider women finish third by placing third in the 400-meter hurdles (1:03.58) and fifth in the 100-meter hurdles (15.18).

• At the same meet, the Loyola (Md.) women's team finished fifth with help from local products.

Sophomore Noreen Petrash (Central Catholic) set a school mark in the pole vault by clearing 2.95 meters. Freshman Courtney Willeford (Easton) was part of a 4x100 relay team that finished fourth; she finished third in the javelin with a throw of 33.1 meters. Freshman Gabrielle Cocco (Central Catholic) was part of a 4x800 relay team that notched a fourth-place finish in 9:32.48.

• Marist sophomore Philip Krupka (Central Catholic) was 10th in the 400 meters and was part of a 4x400 relay team that finished fourth at the MAAC Championships.

• Moravian Colleges' Craig Arner (Freedom) finished fifth in the 55-meter hurdles and sixth in the 110-meter hurdles at the Landmark Conference Outdoor Track Championship meet. Moravian captured both the league's indoor and outdoor team championships.

• Steve McGeary (Northampton) just returned from Canada where he played Junior A ice hockey in the Greater Metro Hockey League. McGeary played for the Elliott Lake Bobcats, who won the Russell Cup and league championship for the first time in more than 30 years. The team was made up of players from Canada, the United States, Czech and Slovak Republics and France.

McGeary played defense, scoring 27 points. Last year he played for the Manitoulin Islanders on Lake Huron coached by former Flyers great Reggie Leach. McGeary will play college hockey for Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., in the Minnesota Interstate Athletic Conference.

Sizzling Sinai

Natalie Sinai of Bethlehem won the Pennsylvania "Little Mo" Tennis Championship for 11-year-olds last weekend at the Aronimink Golf and Tennis Club in Newtown Square.

She defeated Lilijana Semak of Pine Grove Mills 6-3, 6-4 in the title match and was also successful in two additional rounds in winning the title.

For her efforts, the Spring Garden Elementary School student received a trophy about half of her height.

She earned a berth in the "Little Mo" national tournament in Chicago in July.

Past "Little Mo" winners include Andy Roddick, who also won when he was 11.

Behind several key performances including first-place finishes from junior Hank Miller and senior Pete Moreni, the DeSales University men's track & field team took home its first MAC championship May 7 at Messiah.

Miller, who won the 400-meter hurdles, and Moreni, who won the discus, were the only two Bulldogs to earn individual titles.

The Bulldogs finished with 183 total points, 13 ahead of second-place Widener. Coach Al Weiner was named the MAC Coach of the Year for the first time in his 25-year career.

The championship came down to the second-to-last event, the 5,000-meters, where the Bulldogs pulled away when three DeSales runners finished among the top eight, including freshman Bryan Megee (Notre Dame-Green Pond) who took third (15:29.07).

Sign language

• Upper Perkiomen High's Cassidy Arner will continue her field hockey career at Princeton University.

Arner was a four-year varsity starter at Upper Perk, missing the early part of her senior year due to an ACL tear in her knee before bouncing back. She is a two-time all-state honoree and was named to the 2009 NFHCA All-Academic Team. Arner's sister Candice was a two-time All-Ivy field hockey selection at Princeton and graduated in 2009.

• Bethlehem Catholic had a signing ceremony this past week with many seniors announcing their college choices.

The signees included: Ronald Armstead (football, Ursinus); Taylor Beck (volleyball, Elizabethtown); Michael Boures (football, Lycoming); K.C. Carpenter (softball, Moravian); Ronald Check (football, Moravian); Kyle Dehaut (wrestling, Maryland); Kim Garcia (cross country and track, DeSales); Nicholas Gray (football. Wilkes), Caitlin Kessler (basketball, Misericordia); Nicole Morin (volleyball, DeSales); Taylor Overby (baseball, Penn State Behrend); Luke Petro (football, Shippensburg); Jaydon Rice (wrestling, Lycoming); Collin Roszyk (soccer/track, Haverford); Christopher Stianche (volleyball, Elmira); Christopher Van Natta (golf, Alvernia); Patrick Walshe (baseball, Lehigh).


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