This site is about the sports doings -- mainly football -- of the high schools in Venango County, Pa. Contact:
State medal for Wilson
Oil City's Natalie Wilson earned a third-place medal in the para 50 free Thursday at the state swimming meet. Wilson and Grove City's Miles Gardner were the first from District 10 to participate in the para swimming. This is the second year for para swimming.
State Swimming
Lander, Wilson medal;
stumpf 2X All-Stater
Erdley joins Lander,
Wilson, Stumpf IN
D-10 winners' circle
Jordan Stumpf was all-state in the 200 and 500 freestyles at states.
John Lander
5th in 100 free
Lander 1st OC
state Medalist
in 20 years
Oil City's Johnathan Lander took fifth place in the 100 free in the 2A state meet March 14 at Bucknell, giving the Oilers two state medalists for the weekend.
The Oilers last had a medalist in 2006 when Zak Clifford was third in the backstroke.
Meanwhile, Jordan Stumpf of Franklin earned all-state status in a second event after taking 10th in the 2A 500 free. He was ninth in the 200 free on Friday.
Lander's time was 47.04. Josh Reed of Indiana won in 46.16. Six of the top eight were underclassmen, including Lander and third-place Kyle Koslowski of Tunkhannock, both sophomores.
Lander's seed time was 46.72.
Stumpf's time in the 500 was 4:44.69. Sam Cavanaugh of Northgate won in 4:30.08 and Sam Dorsch of Sharon (Hickory) was third.
Twelve of the top 16 are underclassmen, including Stumpf, a junior.
Stumpf's seed time was 4:43.08.
Dani Erdley and Evelynn Highfield both finished 15th in the finals and were all-state honorable mentions.
Erdley was clocked in 1:01.31 in the back,and Highfield was timed in 1:7.55 in the breast.
Erdley was seeded sixth at 58.77.
Friday's results
Stumpf (1:44.9) was ninth in the 200 free and earned all-state status.
Evelynn Highfield was 17th (2:17.28) in the IM, Lander was 18th in the 50 free (22.1) and the Franklin girls were 27th (1:45.18) in the 200 free relay.
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Franklin's Jordan Stumpf qualified for states in two open events -- as did Dani Erdley -- and Evelynn Highfeld and Jacksen Clark made the cut in the breaststroke.
Franklin relays that advanced were the girls medley (Erdley, Highfield, Sammi Smith and Ellie Coyer) and the 200 free (Smith, Coyer, Erdley and Chloe Switzer) FHS photos/
Christy Fackler Madyson Kissell of Oil City was runnerup in the 500 and a third alternate for the state meet. (Photo by Kelly Malek)
(Mike Crocker began compiling various Oil City lists.)
Colleges
Mcmahon freshman
pitcher at Behrend
Also contributing to PSU-Behrend athletics is Will McMahon, freshman right-hander from Oil City.
The 6-3, 195-pounder has seen action in three games, giving up four earned in eight innings. He's fanned 12.
Brown solid
at Cleve State
Alaina Brown is a veteran backstroker for the Cleveland State swimming team.
The junior from Rocky Grove (swam in high school for Franklin) was sixth in the 200 back in the Horizon League meet. Her time (2:01.84) was fourth fastest in school history. She was also fifth in the 100 back (56.5).
Franklin graduates Easton Fulmer and Camdon Bashor finished their senior seasons of college basketball. St. Vincent (Bashor) was 21-7 and Chatham (Fulmer) was 18-8 but neither team made the NCAA Division III playoffs. Chatham played to a share of the PAC regular season title. Bashor received an honorable mention on the Presidents Athletic Conference all-stars. Photos from their school web sites. Final stats:
Caleb Prettyman has only been out of high school for two years, but he's already well traveled.
Prettyman, a Franklin grad, and a former state level distance runner for the Knights, was at Penn State last year.
This past fall he ran cross country for Kansas State, and made the All-Big 12 academic team. He also ran a 26:20.8 8k at the Pre-National Invite among other things.
Now he's at Youngstown State, where he hopes to have found a home. Stay tuned...
FRankliin's
Prettyman:
Glbetrotter;
now at YSU
Keep an EYE out this spring
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Franklin's Luke Guth (pictured), was touched up Saturday for three runs in two-thirds of an inning in a 16-9 loss to LSU. But before that he sported an 0.87 ERA over 10.1 for Vanderbilt.
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Another Franklin grad, Drew Kockler, is playing second base for Bryant and Stratton College in Buffalo. Kockler, who was sixth in the state in batting last year, is hitting .276 so far in college.
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And still another FHS grad, Trinity Edge, is pitching and playing CF for Bethany softball. She's 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA in 14 IP and batting .429. Edge was Newcomer of the Year for Waynesburg in 2024, and then took a year off.
Football
Franklin finds
its man
Austin Ion was introduced as the new Franklin football coach at a school board work session on Jan. 19. He officially became Franklin's 26th paid coach at the board's Jan. 26 meeting.
Ion succeeds Matt Turk, a former Knight all-star, who resigned after six years at the helm.
Ion is a 2017 Keystone High School graduate who played football, basketball and baseball for the Panthers.
He played wide receiver at Grove City College, where he majored in accounting.
He has coached at Keystone for eight years and most recently served as jayvee coach under coach Todd Smith.
The commiittee to select a new coach at Franklin consisted of athletic director Becky Barnes, high school co-principal Tom Holoman, Central Elementary principal Joe Keenan and assistant AD Chris Romanowski.
Ion was the choice among "nine good applicants," according to Barnes.​