Mount Pleasant鈥檚 King, Gardner earn awards
Submitted photo
Mount Pleasant seniors Joseph Gardner (left) and Lily King (right) pose with former Pittsburgh Pirates closer and guest speaker Jason Grilli while displaying the plaques awarded to them for winning the Scholar-Athlete Excellence Awards recently at the Westmoreland County Scholar-Athlete banquet. It was the first time in the history of the awards that the boy and girl winners were from the same school. King, a North Carolina State swimming recruit, had a high school career sweep with eight WPIAL and eight PIAA individual gold medals while leading the Lady Vikings to the team state swimming title for the third consecutive year this past season. Gardner repeated as PIAA champion in the 100 breaststroke, breaking his own state record he set a year ago, and also won gold in the 200 IM while helping the boys claim their first team state gold medal. There were 12 finalists for the awards, including Kole Doppelheuer of Belle Vernon and Southmoreland’s Elliot Premus and Alexis Ohler.