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Thursday, May 15, 2003

-- By Mike White

Mat Carver

SCHOOL: South Park

	Mat Carver of South Park. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette)

WHO IS HE? Although he is only 5 feet 5, 140 pounds, Carver carries one of the biggest sticks in the WPIAL. He finished the regular season as the league leader in home runs.

SEASON: Carver, a junior shortstop-pitcher, hit nine home runs in 77 at-bats. He also finished second in the WPIAL in runs scored (31) and tied for fourth in RBIs (29). He had a 3-0 pitching record with 40 strikeouts and helped South Park win the WPIAL Class AA Section 4 championship. The Eagles were 8-2 in section and 13-7 overall and begin the playoffs next week.

POWER SURGE: What makes Carver's home run total so hard to fathom is he never hit a home run in his first two years at South Park. As a freshman, he was on the junior varsity. Last year, he was a part-time varsity starter.

"I don't know where the power came from. That's what everybody keeps asking me," Carver said. "I really have no clue. I just try and make solid contact with the ball, and I've just been lucky to hit home runs this season."

HE'S MIGHTY: Carver laughs because he is smaller than his younger brother, Tim, an eighth-grader. But size doesn't seem to deter Mat Carver. He is called "Mighty Mouse" by his teammates.

PITCHING CHANGE: Through the first half of the season, Carver saw a steady diet of fastballs. But word of his home run prowess apparently spread. Lately, he had been seeing many more curveballs.

"People see a short kid batting third and think he's not going to do anything. They just try to blow everything by you," Carver said. "Then, towards the end of the game, I don't get much to hit."

THE OTHER SPORT: Carver also is a standout soccer player who scored 36 goals this past season.

"But I like baseball a lot better than soccer. It's always been that way for me," he said.

-- By Mike White

Kim Markel

SCHOOL: North Allegheny

WHO IS SHE? A senior and one of the top track and field athletes in the WPIAL.

LAST WEEK: Markel helped the North Allegheny girls' team win its third team championship in a row a week ago. She won the 100- and 300-meter intermediate hurdles and also tied for first in the high jump.

HIGH MARKS: The WPIAL Class AAA individual championships are tonight at Baldwin, and Markel has a chance to win three championships. She has the best time (14.5 seconds) this season in the 100 hurdles and the second-best (44.3) in the 300. She also is tied for first in the high jump at 5 feet, 4 inches. Markel's times in the hurdles events are school records.

GYMNAST'S TOUCH: Markel also was a gymnast for North Allegheny as a freshman and sophomore. Both years, she placed second in the vault at the WPIAL championships. But she gave up gymnastics after her sophomore season.

"Just because you're too prone to injuries in gymnastics," Markel said. "Gymnastics definitely helped me in track and field. It was easy for me to pick up the form in the hurdles and the high jump because my back already was so flexible."

SILVER LINING: Markel has never won a WPIAL championship in any sport, but she has three second-place finishes in the hurdles and two in gymnastics.

"I think I have the most silver medals of anyone you'll ever meet in the WPIAL. It's like a curse," said said. "But I don't want to sound like a brat, saying 'Oh my gosh I have all these seconds.' Because I might be sitting next to a person who has never made it to the semifinals of a meet."

ON THE MOVE: Markel was born in Pittsburgh, but moved to Avon, Ohio, near Cleveland when she was 3. She moved back to the Pittsburgh area in seventh grade.

THE FUTURE: Markel will compete in track and field next season at Penn State.

-- By Mike White