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Zach Kovell

Hopewell Athletics

Former Hopewell Standout Zach Kovell Continues to Shine

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

Plenty of former Hopewell Vikings athletes continue to shine following their graduations and one of them is Zach Kovell.

The former Hopewell basketball and track and field standout has gotten off to a great start in his freshman year at Westminster.

For the second time this year, Kovell has been honored by the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

On Tuesday, Kovell was named the conferences Newcomer of the Week. While competing last weekend at the Myrtle Beach Collegiate Challenge, Kovell finished 11th in the 200 meters with a personal-best time of 22.31 seconds. He also ran the second leg of Westminster’s 7th-place 4×100-meter relay (43.59).

Back in February, Kovell was named the PAC’s newcomer of the week during the Titans’ indoor season.

Best of luck to Zach and his teammates next weekend (March 27-28) as they split its team and compete in both the Carnegie Mellon Invitational and the Tim Weaver Invitational, hosted by West Liberty.

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Hopewell Athletics

Former Hopewell Track Standout Zach Kovell Receives Honor

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

It has taken long for former Hopewell Track and Field standout Zach Kovell to make his mark at his new college.

Yesterday, the freshman at Westminster College was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Men’s Indoor Track and Field Newcomer of the Week.

Kovell received this award following his performance at the Youngstown State Last Chance meet.

Kovell finished 26th in the 200 meters with a career-best time of 22.61 seconds. He also anchored Westminster’s eighth-place 4×400 meter relay, which set a new school record time of 3:23.49. Their time finished over 2 seconds better than the previous school record (3:23.49). That time is the No. 7 time in the conference this season.

The 3 other members of the relay are all Pennsylvania natives: junior Jake Mull (Apollo-Ridge), junior Dennis Jones (West Middlesex) and freshman Aaron Stebick (Butler).

Kovell and the Westminster Track team will be back in action this Saturday when they participate in the WGH PAC Tune-up, which will take place in Warren, Ohio.

Congrats Zach and best of luck the rest of the season!

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Hopewell Track and Field

Hopewell Track and Field Breaks 40-Year School Record at Robert Morris Meet

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 3 minutes read

The Hopewell Track and Field team took a break from FID days and doing homework with no power or internet to make a short trip to Neville Island on Thursday and compete in RMU’s inaugural Bobby Mo Don’t Run Slow Invitational. This new meet gave the team a bonus chance to hit new personal records and improve their qualifying times and marks for the upcoming WPIAL Championships.

Though the meet started slowly, it ended with a bang when the Hopewell Boys 4x400m relay team broke a school record that been set in the 1980s. The relay team had high expectations of breaking the 40-year record of 3:32 entering the season, but an injury to one of their top sprinters forced their focus to shift to just qualifying for the WPIALs.

As Zach Kovell led off the race with a 49.7 second split, it looked like the team would have a good chance of improving on its season best time of 3:39. Aaron Dickhart ran a solid second leg and kept the Vikings in range of Central Valley’s excellent relay team. Julian Baldwin ran his best relay spit (53.03) ever on the third leg, closing the gap with CV, and setting up Jack Biega’s epic anchor leg. A little stumble on the handoff opened up CV’s lead slightly, but Jack quickly recovered and immediately started reeling in CV’s anchor – an excellent sprinter who had won the 200m earlier. As Jack made his move to pass on the backstretch, most watching thought the freshman had gone too early and would not be able to hold on, but the strength from his 800m training carried him through, and he won going away with an incredible 50.2 split.

As he crossed the finish line, and the scoreboard read 3:30.92, he was mobbed by his teammates. They had dropped 9 seconds off their best time and were now school record holders. This is the second school record held by Kovell, who is also on the record 4×100 relay, and the first for Baldwin, Dickhart and Biega. The time also puts them in solid position to qualify for the WPIAL Championship meet.

The Girls 4×400 team also ran their best time of the season. Freshman Harley Hample started the relay with an impressive 1:02 split, and Madi Inderelst, Reese Murray and Emma Palmieri ran some of their strongest legs of the year to take the victory with a season best time of 4:14.44.

Mike DiNardo threw a big personal best of 133’7″ with the javelin – his first time over the 130′ mark. Vinny Boris (134’4″) and Marlee Page (96’0″) also had strong days.

Emma DiCicco threw 2 big personal bests in the shot put (26’11”) and the discus (71’6″). And Brody Rock led the Vikings in the shot put (40’6″) and discus throw (112’5″0.

Bryce Ray was 3rd overall in the long jump, leaping 19’6″ into a tough headwind, and Avry Boyd hit a new PB with a 15’0″ jump.

Emma Palmieri won the 100m (12:82) and 200m (26.06) with her second-best times of the season. Tessa Burgess (13.97) and Reese Murray (13.96) ran personal best times in the 100m, and Avery Boy ran a huge PB 28.28 in the 200m.

Zach Kovell ran his best time of the season in the 400m with 50.99, and his second best in the 200m with 22.72. Rameer Reeves ran big person bests of 12.62 in the 100m and 25.98 in the 200m. Julian Baldwin (24.46) and Mike Gargiulo (25.95) also ran personal bests in the 200m.

Zach Lucas and Luke McGrail finished 1-2 in the 100m hurdles with 15.99 and 16.10.

The Vikings have 2 more chances to improve their qualifying marks for the WPIAL Championship next week. They will go to Pine-Richland on Thursday, and Montour on Saturday for Last Chance meets.

The WPIAL Championship meet is May 14th at Slippery Rock University.

 

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Hopewell Track and Field

Track and Field: Hopewell Girls Extend Winning Streak; Boys Drop Close Meet at New Castle

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

The Hopewell Track and Field teams traveled to New Castle Tuesday to open competition in their new AAA section.

After 8 years in AA, and 15 sections titles (8 for the girls and 7 for the boys)- the Vikings will be facing stiffer competition, and New Castle was certainly a tough matchup.

The Hopewell Girls were able to handle business and come away with a 72-54 victory. The Lady Vikings have not lost a section meet since 2016!!

Hopewell’s Emma Palmeri

Emma Palmeri led the way with victories in the 100m (13.08), 400m (62.80), and anchored the winning 4×100 and 4×400 teams. Also taking victories were freshman Skylar Elias in the 1600m (7:09), Caylee Sundy in the 800m (3:14), and Marlee Page (80’2″) with the javelin, and Mia Blakeslee in the high jump (4’6″). Mia was joined by Tessa Burgess and Lahna Murray, who both cleared the bar at 4’4″ to combine for a sweep of the Hurricanes.

The Hopewell Boys had a number of strong performances, but also a few near messes, and dropped a close decision (87-63).

The highlight on the track was senior Zach Lucas’ commanding victory in the 110m hurdles with a fantastic personal best time of 15.89 seconds. Sophomore Luke McGrail also ran a massive personal best to finish second in 16.54. Zach also won the 300m hurdles with a smooth 44.94, and Julian Baldwin took second in his debut over the intermediate barriers with 46.18.

Hopewell’s Zach Kovell

Other event winners were Zach Kovell in the 400m (52.82), and freshman Jack Biega in his 800m debut (2:19).

The Boys 4×400 relay also won (3:39) with their best time in many years.

The strong performances show a lot of promise, but there is still a lot of work to do for this talented team to meet the high expectations they have for themselves.

The Vikings team will spend the next week doing the necessary work to be at their best for their first home meet on April 1 against Blackhawk.

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Hopewell Track and Field

Hopewell’s Zach Kovell Commits to Westminster College

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 2 minutes read

Hopewell’s Zach Kovell has three more months of high school before graduating and heading off to college.

Kovell is fortunate and talented enough to have the opportunity to continue his athletic career in college as he’s already received various Track and Field offers. Last night, Kovell made what was likely the biggest decision of his life up until this point as he made his college decision.

Kovell has decided to accept the offer to attend Westminster College as a member of their Track and Field program. Westminster was the first program to extend Kovell an offer.

Vikings Sports Now caught up with Kovell and asked him about his decision along what’s left for him to accomplish while at Hopewell High School.

“I really fell in love with the campus, environment, and the coaches when I took my first visit,” Kovell tells Vikings Sports Now. “Coach McNeil, Coach Emma, and Coach Amon have the program headed in the right direction and I see myself being a big part of that process.”

“It’s a huge day for us (family) as my dream since second grade was to compete in a sport at the collegiate level. I’ve now accomplished that dream and made second grade Zach so proud. I will be running sprints at Westminster including the 60, 100, 200, and 400.”

Hopewell’s Zach Kovell

Kovell and his teammates on the Hopewell Track and Field team accomplished a ton in 2024 including:

-Was part of Hopewell Boys first WPIAL Team Championship appearance in school history.
-Beaver County Championships Co-Track MVP and Co-Overall MVP
-Beaver County Championships winning the 100m, 200m and 400m.
-Silver Medal at WPIAL Team Semifinal in 100m (11.41)
-5th at WPIAL Individual Championships in 200m (22.49)
-Bronze Medal at WPIAL Individual Championship in 400m (50.20)

If you think Kovell is satisfied and content with these lofty accomplishments and knowing his college future is set, you don’t know Zach Kovell. The fire still burns as strong as ever as he has a few more things he’d like to accomplish before graduating from Hopewell.

“In my final high school season, I want to break school records, win a WPIAL title in the 200- and 400-meter dashes, and have a state medal around my neck by the end of the year.”

If I was a betting man, I’d lean towards Kovell accomplishing at least one of these goals.

Good luck and congratulations Zach!

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