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WBS Penguins in unfamiliar territory as postseason looms

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Your view: Article a reminder to be thankful for veterans

Senior Kirah Koshinski was named Big 12 Conference co-Event Specialist of the Week on Monday after another big performance for the West Virginia women&#8217;s gymnastics team.Koshinski, a Berwick grad, posted a career-best score of 9.975 on floor exercise to help the 26th-ranked Mountaineers score 195.575 points to defeat Pitt and Cornell while losing a close match with Utah State in a quad meet last Saturday in Morgantown, W.Va.One judge gave Koshinski a 10.0, helping her become the eighth gymnast player in school history to hit 9.975 on floor, the last to do so coming in 2002. She also finished third on vault with a 9.825.&#8220;The reward was well deserved and a long time overdue,&#8221; coach Jason Butts said. &#8220;Kirah has shown amazing consistency throughout her entire career.&#8221;The coach said that floor exercise is Koshinski&#8217;s favorite event.&#8220;She makes sure to put on a show-stopping performance in every meet,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m very proud of her and I can&#8217;t wait to see her keep climbing.&#8221;The latest national rankings have Koshinski listed at No. 12 (9.907) in floor and No. 22 on vault (9.861). She&#8217;s fourth on vault and fifth on floor in the Southeast Region and fourth on floor and ninth on vault in the very competitive Big 12.West Virginia travels to Pittsburgh for a tri-match with Pitt and Ball State on Friday.Lindsey Oremus (St. Joseph&#8217;s) The senior captain had a big effort for the women&#8217;s indoor track team at the Fastrack Last Chance Invitational last Friday at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, N.Y.The Dallas grad finished third in a field of 22 in the mile with a time of 4:56.77. It was the first sub-five minute mile of her career and she bettered her personal record by 3.68 seconds. The time is an ECAC Division I qualifier.Oremus and the Hawks head to Fairfax, Va., this weekend for the Atlantic 10 Championship. She&#8217;s seeded seventh in the mile after her latest performance.Lydia Lawson (Elizabethtown) The 5-foot-4 junior has been solid all season long for the women&#8217;s basketball team but she&#8217;s really hit her stride in the last six games for the Blue Jays heading into Thursday&#8217;s league semifinal game against Catholic in Elizabethtown. The Holy Redeemer grad has averaged 18.8 points a game in the six Blue Jay victories.On the season, she leads the team in scoring (16.6), assists (136) and steals (78). Lawson has hit 25 of 83 3-point attempts (30.1 percent) and has scored in double figures in 21 of 24 games.Lauren Finnegan (Cabrini) The women&#8217;s swim team captured the Atlantic East Conference Championship with 992 points last weekend in Scranton and the junior had a lot to do with the outcome. The Dallas High grad finished first in the 200 freestyle (1:57.62) and second in the 500 free (5:17.09) and 1650 free (18:32.55).She also swam the anchor legs on four relay teams, all four finishing second &#8211; the 200 free (1:42.82), the 400 free (3:45.75), the 800 free (8:16.25) and the 400 medley (4:08.57).Nick McGuire (Bloomsburg) The senior is heading into this weekend&#8217;s PSAC Indoor Track Championships in Edinboro having posted personal bests in two events earlier this month. The Crestwood grad finished 12th in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:53.32 at the Youngstown Mid-Major Invite on Feb. 2. He was the fourth Division II finisher.On Feb. 8 at the Bucknell Tune-Up, McGuire finished eighth in the mile with a time of 4:34.78. He was the second Division II finisher.Madisyn Hawkins (Lehigh) The sophomore finished third in the pole vault at the Patriot League Indoor Track Championships last Saturday and Sunday in Annapolis, Md. The Coughlin grad cleared 11 feet, 11 &#190; inches. She took three shots at 12 feet, 5 &#189; inches but came up short on all three attempts.Hawkins&#8217; best performance in the pole vault &#8211; 12 feet, 7 &#189; inches &#8211; came when she finished fifth in last year&#8217;s Patriot indoor title meet. Hawkins finished third in the Patriot outdoor meet last May with a height of 12 feet, 1 &#189; inches.Kaylin Augustine (Widener) The senior was a key performer for the women&#8217;s swim team which finished second to Messiah at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships last weekend in York. The Dallas grad finished second in the 100 freestyle (52.72), third in the 50 freestyle (24.65) and sixth in the 200 freestyle (1:58.32).She also swam either the leadoff leg or the anchor leg on four relay teams. The 200 free (1:38.11), the 400 free (3:38.32) and the 800 free (7:52.03) all finished second and the 400 medley finished fifth (4:03.60).Katie Kravitsky (Cincinnati) The sophomore posted a personal-best and finished 11th in the high jump for the women&#8217;s indoor track team at the Music City Challenge Feb. 8-9 in Nashville. She was the ninth collegiate finisher with a height of 5 feet, 5 &#188; inches.She was 13th in the same meet last winter with a height of 5 feet, 3 &#188; inches. Up next for the Dallas grad will be the America East Conference Championship this weekend in Birmingham, Ala. She was 14th at the league&#8217;s outdoor meet last May when she cleared 5 feet, 3 inches.Mason Kimbell (Salisbury) The sophomore, a Berwick grad, helped the men&#8217;s indoor track team finish second in the Capital Athletic Conference Championships last Saturday in Newport News, Va. Kimbell finished sixth in the 5,000-meter run in 15:51.46 and was 11th in the 3,000-meter run in 9:13.59.He prepped for the league meet by finishing third in the 5,000 at the Vince Brown Invitational with a personal best time of 15:42.92.John Porter Luksic (Widener) The senior finished third in the 200 breaststroke with a school-record time of 2:08.81 to help the Widener men&#8217;s swim team finish second out of 12 teams at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships last weekend in York.The Dallas grad finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke (59.62) and was 12th in the 200 IM (2:02.62). Luksic also swam legs on the 400 medley relay which finished second (3:29.69) and the 200 medley relay which finished seventh (1:39.41).Ronnie Grevera (Muhlenberg) The freshman wrestler finished sixth at 165 pounds at the Northeast/Mideast Futures Tournament Sunday in Allentown. The Crestwood grad won his opening match 9-4 but was beaten 6-1 in the second round. In the consolations, Grevera posted a pin (1:45) and a technical fall (16-3) before losing 9-4 and then dropping the fifth-place match 9-8.Competing at both 157 and 165 he finished the regular season with a 9-9 overall record with two pins and two technical falls.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Berwick grad Kirah Koshinski was honored by the Big 12 this week for her performance in a quad meet for West Virginia gymnastics. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Kirah_Koshinski21-Dale-Sparks-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Berwick grad Kirah Koshinski was honored by the Big 12 this week for her performance in a quad meet for West Virginia gymnastics. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Bill ArsenaultFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div>

College Corner: Berwick’s Koshinski enters elite company for West Virginia gymnastics