North Allegheny junior ready to make another playoff run

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Caroline Wrigley wasn’t an unknown when she won the 2016 WPIAL Class 3A individual girls golf title.

She did, after all, finish in a tie for second in the tournament as a freshman.

Now, however, things get a little tougher as the North Allegheny junior makes the distinctive move from challenger to player to beat.

“I am definitely a lot more confident,” Wrigley said. “I know all of my competition in Western Pennsylvania, I’m a lot more experienced and, yeah, I definitely have a lot more confidence.”

It’s a much different scenario for Wrigley as compared to last year when she nearly blew a three-shot lead on the final hole with a double-bogey en route to a 3over 75 to beat Mia Kness of Peters Township.

After winning the WPIAL, however, Wrigley failed to qualify for the PIAA individual finals at Heritage Hills in York. Instead, it was Kness who closed out her high school career with a state title.

This year, though, is different. Wrigley has been working nearly nonstop on her game and has a keen sense of what she needs to do to get back to the WPIAL finals.

“I would say my short game and putting have been my biggest improvements,” Wrigley said. “I wasn’t a great putter last year. I definitely missed a lot of putts last year and I’ve been working on that, which has dropped my scoring average a lot.”

She will certainly have her fair share of challengers, most of whom she won’t see until the WPIAL finals. Pine-Richland junior Lauren Freyvogel has been knocking at the door the past two years and could be ready to make a big move up, while Taylor Waller of Canon-McMillan cannot be discounted.

North Allegheny needs to have Wrigley at her peak if it wants to win a third consecutive WPIAL team title and unseat Shady Side Academy as state champion. The Indians pulled out a 330-338 win against the Tigers a year ago.

“I know that we have improved our play from last year,” Wrigley said. “Our top four are pretty solid and I think we’ll do good again.”

Class 2A

Kiaria Porter might have pulled off the biggest upset in WPIAL Class 2A golf history last year when she knocked off two-time defending champion Olivia Zambruno of Greensburg Central Catholic to win the title.

Now the Central Valley junior will have a whole new set of expectations — as well as a new coach — when she hits the links for her attempt at a repeat.

“She practices a lot and played in a lot of junior tournaments and she’s basically a golf-a-holic,” Central Valley first-year coach Craig Morris said. “Any of the girls that have had success, when it was when I coached Center or here at Central Valley, it’s golf all the time and she’s specifically looking for a scholarship.”

Both Porter and Morris have huge expectations. Not only is Porter the defending WPIAL champion, but Morris had taken over the helm of the defending PIAA Class 2A team champions and a program that has won state titles in four of the past five seasons in two classifications.

“I’ve been around the program for a long time and, basically, it was a smooth transition for me,” Morris said. “As a golf coach, you really don’t add very much.”

One of the things Morris will hope to do is unseat two-time defending champion Greensburg Central Catholic.

Though Olivia Zambruno is gone, her younger sister Abby, a junior and also a state finalist, will take the mantle of leadership for the team.