The fall sports season is well underway as October approaches. Let’s take a lot at two Hampton sports in particular who have underwent a very strong season.

Girls Cross Country

With a successful season last year, the Hampton girls were looking to take a big step forward for 2022. Last season, Hampton placed 17th in the 3A WPIAL Championship with then-junior Ava Vitiello (20:00) and then-freshman Kevyn Fish  (20:07) placing in the Top 15 at the meet. This year, Hampton is making the drop down to 2A and has the opportunity to make a big statement in WPIAL competition.

Senior Kendall Solkovy mentioned how “One of our major goals that we’ve talked about as a team since moving to 2A has been to be section champs, which would be the firs time in girls cross country history for that to happen. One of our bigger goals is to qualify for team states at WPIALS.”

Challenges are still ahead. The Hampton girls have a very small 8-runner roster this year, despite numbers usually in the 15-20 range in past years. Even with Vitiello’s and Fish’s strong efforts, there has been a need to rely on the other six runners to finish strong under head coach Heather Dietz’s leadership. Those six runners are: seniors Adrianna Grimm, Teresa Grimm and Kendall Solkovy, junior Lydia Bailey and sophomores Abby Hall and Cara Herock. Head coach Heather Dietz has been leading the team from the start. At the Boardman XC Invitational, Hampton had a very strong showing. Kevyn Fish placed 5th out of 322 runners with a time of 19:32, and Teresa Grimm, Abby Hall, Lydia Bailey, and Adrianna Grimm made the Top 100. Hampton capped off of their regular season by winning the Section Title.

Girls Volleyball Don’t Miss a Beat

After a season so strong, Hampton doesn’t just belong, they believe their time has come again. Last season the Hampton volleyball team went on an unprecedented journey to the PIAA State Championship. The year was filled with the excitement of their best season in program history. Now, the focus shifts towards this season.

Entering 2022, the Talbots have some big drawbacks, and were even snubbed from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Top 5 pre-season rankings for 3A. Head coach Annie Bozzo left the Hampton volleyball program to coach for Shaler. Hampton lost four talented players at the end of last season: Claudia Braun, Taylor Fiscus, Kai Herchenroether, and Abby Stevens. Still, the Talbots retained Emmy Schrom (All-State junior), Addison Gindlesperger (Second-team all-section senior), and Emma Rick (Third-team all-section junior). Bozzo’s head coaching replacement is Dainen Holler, who has led the Talbot pack to a strong start thus far.

Senior Kaitlyn Laffin outlined the team’s goals. “We want to make a strong playoff run in both WPIAL and state brackets. Coming off of a season like last year when we made it to the State Championship game has definitely encouraged everyone to work hard and hopefully make it back to states again this year!”

Hampton had a good start to the season. They took down Armstrong 3-1 and then Thomas Jefferson 3-2. Then, what was good turned to great as Hampton had a sweep in their next 13 matches to start 15-0 in the regular season.