Three local athletes will be inducted into the University of
Pittsburgh at Bradford Athletic Hall of Fame at the Oct. 7 ceremony
in the Sport & Fitness Center.
Volleyball player Laura Guncheon of Port Allegany, baseball
player Eric Haynoski of Bradford and softball pitcher Heather
Nelson of Smethport are the 2006 inductees.
Guncheon played volleyball from 1998 to 2001 and is the Lady
Panthers’ career leader in kills (1,566), aces (207) and digs
(1,595), and ranks second in games played (411) and is fifth in
blocks (171). She holds the single-season record for kills (480)
and aces (68) in 2001. In 1999 Guncheon set the school mark for
kills with 31 in one match.
Guncheon was the 1998 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
Newcomer of the Year and was named to the AMCC First Team all four
years. In 2001 she was honored as the league’s Most Valuable Player
and was named Pitt-Bradford Female Athlete of the Year her junior
and senior seasons.
Haynoski was a pitcher and left fielder on the baseball squad
from 2000 to 2003. He was named AMCC Honorable Mention as a
freshman, co-MVP in his sophomore year, First Team as a junior
pitcher and Second Team his senior season.
Haynoski holds career school records for batting average (.381),
on base percentage (.447) and fewest walks allowed per nine innings
(2.51) on the mound. He is fifth in career runs scored with 85 and
logged the third-lowest pitching ERA at 4.94.
His .475 batting average in 2001 is the highest in school
history.
Nelson played from 2000 to 2003 and pitched every inning of
every game in her first three years, and then registered 150 of the
247 total innings in her senior season.
Nelson holds Pitt-Bradford career marks in pitching appearances
(74),
complete games (73), innings pitched (462) and strikeouts (315).
She is second in wins (42) and third in ERA (3.50).
At the plate, Nelson is first in career walks (38), fourth in on
base percentage (.430), and also ranks fifth in average (.341),
slugging percentage (.439) and games played (93).
She was First Team AMCC as a freshman, Honorable Mention as a
sophomore, Second Team her junior season and Honorable Mention in
2003.
