North Allegheny track star commits to Southern Cal

Tri-State Sports & News Service

North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens stood in an office 2,500 miles away from home, chatting it up with some of the most coveted track and field recruits in the country.

That’s when a Pittsburgh sports legend introduced himself — Steelersgreat Lynn Swann, now the athletic director at Southern California.

“Everybodytold him their name andwhere they were from,” Owens said. “When I told him where I was from, he said, ‘Whoa. Take my chair. Take the Pittsburgh chair. Andput these rings on.”

Meeting Swann and seeing those four Super Bowl rings was cool, but it was only a small part of the fun Owens had on his official visit to USC. The trip made so much of an impact on Owens that he verbally committed to the schoollast week.

Owens, a senior, is one of the top hurdlers in Pennsylvania and one of the best high school decathletes in the nation. He was recruited by USC to compete in the decathlon. He chose the Trojans over offers from Michigan, Stanford and Virginia. He made official visits to all four schools. The visit to USC was the final one, and it stood out in a bigway.

“I was trying to look at them all equally. After three of the visits, I couldn’t tell which one was my favorite, but when I went to USC, I knew that was the place,” said Owens. “It felt awesome there. The campus was great, and I loved everythingabout the program: the academics, the environment and the atmospherewithin the team.”

As a junior, Owens won titles in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles at the WPIAL and PIAA championships. He went on to win the decathlon at the New Balance OutdoorNationals.

Owens said that Sheldon Blockburger, who coaches the decathletes at USC, told him he has only begun to tap his potential. “He wants me to become an NCAA championand help me get to my future goal of being on the Olympic team,”Owens said.

Track star picks Tulane

Hunter Robinson has made wavesin Pennsylvania high school track. The Avonworth senior will try to do the same with the Green Wave. Robinson committed to Tulane last week. Robinson had a huge junior season, sweeping the sprints (100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes) at the WPIAL Class 3A championships and winning both the100 and 200 at the PIAA championships. Her time of 54.49 seconds in the 400 ranks second in WPIAL history.

Mars to OSU

Mars junior pitcher Will Bednar attended the Ohio State-Penn State game last Saturday. It was understandably a happy night for Bednar,who has elected to become a future Buckeye. Bednar, one of the WPIAL’s best pitchers, helped Mars reach its first WPIAL championship game his sophomore season when he went 5-1 with a 1.09 ERA. He struck out 48 and walked fivein 32 innings.

Commitments

• Mt. Lebanon senior football player Colby Sorsdal to William & Mary.

•Southmoreland senior wrestler TylerGriffiths to Seton Hill.

• Hempfield senior softball player Maddie Uschock to Dominican.

• Shaler senior baseball player EvanDonovan to Clarion.

• Norwin senior baseball player NickZona to Seton Hill.

• Greensburg Central Catholic senior baseball player James Rice toMount Aloysius.