Scranton Prep swimmer Lauren Schofield, Abington Heights swimmer Jarred Ocweija and the Abington-area members of the unbeaten Scranton Prep girls basketball team remained on hold Monday when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association issued its latest update on the status of high school sports in the state during the restriction of public activity because of the coronavirus.
Spring sports athletes at Abington Heights, Lackawanna Trail and everywhere else in the state also remained in a holding pattern after Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement that the closing of state schools, already in place through Friday, would be extended for at least two weeks.
A series of steps in reaction to the pandemic brought a halt to sports on the professional, college, high school and youth levels over the past two weeks.
When the PIAA interrupted winter sports championships March 12, wrestling had been completed, swimming was in the second of four days of its last competition and basketball was, for the most part, through two of its five rounds.
Spring sports preseason, with much of the competition outside and preparations taking place in most cases without mixing students from more than one school, continued for one more day before shutting down when schools around the state were ordered to close.
The PIAA posted a press release on its website and social media Monday after Wolf directed the closing of schools and non-essential businesses to be extended for two more weeks.
“The start of spring sports is postponed another two weeks and the possible restart of the winter championships will continue to be on hold,” the PIAA release stated. “No date has been determined to restart any sports activities at this time. PIAA will continue to receive information from the Governor’s office, the Department of Health and the Department of Education to provide updated information.”
The PIAA had clarified its position last week that teams should not be meeting on their own for voluntary group workouts, including those sometimes known as captains’ practices.
“As we navigate through this difficult time, we need to remember the lessons that interscholastic athletics have taught us: cooperation, patience, sacrifice, responsibility, respect and perseverance,” the PIAA said in the release.
The PIAA said it will provide more information as it becomes available.
Ocweija is the only Abington Heights winter athlete still in competition.
The PIAA Swimming Championships at Bucknell University were interrupted March 12, sending the reporting Class 2A athletes home before they started competition. The second half of the Class 3A championships were streamlined, turning scheduled qualifying heats into the official times used to decide final finishes so that the event could be considered complete.
Ocweija will represent the Comets in Class 2A boys swimming if the event gets held.
The District 2 champion in the 50-yard freestyle, Ocweija is seeded 17th out of 32 swimmers, based on his district time of 22.06 seconds.
Under normal state meet conditions, all swimmers are timed in qualifying heats with the top eight going to the finals and earning state medals. The ninth- through 16th-place finishers swim in a consolation final and join the top eight in scoring points.
The Scranton Prep girls swimming and girls basketball teams are both state contenders.
Scranton Prep finished fourth in the state in swimming last season and this season’s team scored 64 more points at the district meet while winning the title by 117 points, compared to a 43-point margin a year ago.
Schofield, a junior, is one of the leaders of the team’s title hopes as the state’s second seed in the 100 breaststroke and third seed in the 200 individual medley after winning district titles in both events. Her time of 1:03.91 in the breaststroke is just 41/100ths of a second behind top seed Jordan Park from Donegal and 89/100ths ahead of the third seed.
Shamokin’s Abigail Doss is the clear top seed in the 200 IM with a time of 2:02.99. Quaker Valley’s Isabel Huang is second at 2:06.04.
Schofield’s time of 2:07.03 is third best and two other swimmers came in under 2:08.
Seniors Elisa Kopicki and Grace Stampien and junior Maggie Kosierowski are the Abington-area residents who are members of the Scranton Prep girls basketball team.
The Lackawanna League Division 1 and District 2 Class 4A champion Classics are third in the state in their class, according to top-five rankings determined by TribLive HSSN. They are scheduled to play next against second-ranked Bethlehem Catholic in the quarterfinals in the only match-up between unbeaten teams in the state basketball tournament in any class, gender or tournament round.
The other remaining Class 4A girls teams are: District 12 champion Lansdale Catholic (24-3), District 12 third-place team Bonner-Prednergast (10-16), District 3 champion Lancaster Catholic (27-3), District 3 third-place team Northern Lebanon (24-4), District 6 champion Forest Hills (26-1) and District 7 champion Pittsburgh North Catholic (26-1).
