Abington Heights Comets soccer, 2025 PIAA Division 3 state champions.
Buck Norton-Jennings | For Abington Journal
MANCHESTER — When Abington Heights defeated Conrad Weiser 2-0 in the Class 3A boys state soccer final Nov. 14 at Northeastern York High School, it represented the third straight decade in which a Comets team won a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association boys state team championship.
The baseball team won the Class 3A title 3-2 over Chartiers Valley in a game at Altoona on Graduation Day in 2009, and the boys basketball team won the Class 5A state championship in Hershey with a 67-55 victory over Mars in 2018.
Prior to that, the only state team titles by Abington Heights came in boys’ cross country in 1965 and 1981. John Lesniak led early in the race and finished third overall in 1981.
Future Major Leaguer Cory Spangenberg and Tony Castellano delivered long home runs in the 2009 baseball final. Steve Mills started and worked 5 2/3 scoreless innings, and Pete Doggett came out to get the final two outs with runners on the corners after Chartiers Valley had scored twice in the seventh.
George Tinsley scored 19 of his 29 points in the second hal,f and Abington Heights held off Mars by going 14-for-18 from the line in the fourth quarter. Tinsley surpassed 1,000 points for his career in the win while also grabbing eight rebounds, blocking two shots and making two steals. Jack Nealon added 13 points while Corey Perkins and Jackson Danzig scored 11 each.
Other facts about the state championship history:
Individual champions
Abington Heights also has a repeat wrestling champion in its history; five individual and one relay PIAA track and field title in its history; and one cross country champ.
Evan Craig won heavyweight wrestling titles in Class 3A in 2009 and 2010.
The boys track team produced two state titles in Class B in 1966. Skip Brinkley won the long jump with 22-1¾ while the two-mile relay team of Frank Tilley, Brian Egan, Tom Sallom and Jim Keisling won in 8:10.80.
Since then, Doug Davis added a Class 3A shot put win with 58-3 in 1980 and Kyle Burke won the 1600 in 4:16.93 in 2018.
The girls track program had two gold medalists – Kim McGreevy won the Class 3A 1600 in 1991 in 4:59.77 and Jordan Hoyt won the Class 3A 200-meter dash in 24.64.
Tessa Barrett won the Class 3A girls cross country championship by completing the 3.1-mile Hershey Parkview Course in 17:30 in 2013.
Soccer history
Abington Heights is the first Lackawanna County state champion in soccer, but not the first from the Lackawanna League.
The Mountain View boys won the state title in Class A in 2012 and made it back to the final in 2013.
In the 53 years of PIAA boys soccer champions, the Eagles, this year’s Comets and the 1997 Wilkes-Barre Coughlin team are the only state champions from District 2.
Successful fall
The soccer championship by Abington Heights was the last of the fall, capping the most successful sports season, in terms of PIAA championships, in Lackawanna League history.
Scranton Prep won Class 2A titles in boys team golf and individual golf by Cole Powell as well as in girls team tennis and tennis doubles with Lily Lengyel and Emma Cuck.
Montrose’s Cara Evans won a Class 2A girls tennis singles title and Elk Lake captured the Class A boys cross country championship.
