Michael Love stories, Page 121
Plum limits section rival Gateway to win battle for first place
The Plum girls basketball team got defensive Monday against rival Gateway in a battle for first place in Section 2-5A. The Mustangs held the Gators 24 points under their season scoring average in a 41-27 victory at Gateway’s Furrie Sports Complex. “We knew this was a huge game, and we...
Knoch swimmer Braden Zukowski takes nothing for granted in WPIAL title quest
Knoch’s Braden Zukowski finished third overall in the boys 100-yard breaststroke at last year’s WPIAL Class AA championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool. He is the top returner from that race, as both the champion, Belle Vernon’s Robert Spekis, and the runner-up, Greensburg Salem’s William Crites, graduated. While Zukowski figures to...
St. Joseph grad Bowman wants to cap swim career at St. Francis (Pa.) in style
Sabrina Bowman won multiple WPIAL swimming championships during her days at St. Joseph. When she arrived at St. Francis (Pa.) in the summer of 2016, she set her sights on winning more gold. The decorated, Division-I performer immediately established herself and has made an impact at numerous meets and invitationals....
A-K Valley high school bowlers score big
Kristin Womeldorf capped 2019 with one of the highest girls averages in all of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League. The seasoned Apollo-Ridge senior produced a 211.83 score over 12 games through four weeks of play and upped it to 212.13 Wednesday after a 640 series, including a pair of...
McKeesport’s Swin Cash named finalist for Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame
Former McKeesport basketball standout Swin Cash-Canal, who went on to star in college at Connecticut, in the WNBA and for Team USA in the Olympics, is one of 12 finalists for induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. The list of finalists, announced Thursday evening during the ESPN broadcast...
Kiski Area tops Burrell in annual mat battle between neighboring rivalsVideo
Kiski Area senior Jared Curcio understands the rivalry. He appreciates the close matches each time the Cavaliers and Burrell Bucs get together, and he sees the respect the two championship programs have for each other. “It’s a grind every time, a battle year in and year out,” the 195-pounder said...
Trib HSSN girls swimmer of the week: South Fayette’s Abbie Duncan
Abbie Duncan sees the potential for a memorable final season with the South Fayette swim team. The Lions senior committed to swim in college at Ohio University, and she finalized her decision during the national letter of intent signing period in November. Now, with six weeks of preparation remaining until...
Trib HSSN boys swimmer of the week: Indiana’s Isaac Griffith
Isaac Griffith finished all alone at the top in the boys 100-yard butterfly at the West Allegheny Invitational on Dec. 28. The Indiana junior swam to a time of 53.22 seconds, a new pool record. He was five seconds clear of the rest of the field. The time also was...
Players selected for PIHL all-star games
The players selected for the PIHL all-star games Jan. 26 at the Robert Morris University’s Island Sports Center have been released. The selections for each of the four games — Class AAA, Class AA, Class A and Class B — feature 24 forwards, 12 defensemen and six goaltenders. The Class...
A-K Valley girls basketball notebook: Knoch, Freeport set for key section game
The Knoch and Freeport girls basketball teams took care of business in their respective Section 1-4A games Monday evening. Now, the rival Knights and Yellowjackets will clash for the first time this season with a lot on the line in the first cycle of section play. Thursday’s game is scheduled...
Prolific Plum playmaker Kennedie Montue growing her game
Kennedie Montue has not slowed down in the new year. In three games in 2020, the Plum junior forward scored an average of 25.7 points to help the Mustangs to victories over Armstrong, West Allegheny and Hampton. Plum finds itself 6-4 overall and 3-1 in Section 2-5A, and Montue said...
IUP, Cal U (Pa.) women’s basketball teams move in national Division II rankings
The Indiana University of Pennsylvania women’s basketball team moved up three spots to No. 8 in the latest Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division II Top 25 poll released Tuesday afternoon, while Cal U slipped six spots to No. 15. The poll is the first released since Dec. 17 because of...
Deer Lakes rolls to section win over East Allegheny
The Deer Lakes girls basketball team plays three Section 3-3A games this week, and the Lancers got off to a good start Monday with a 62-41 victory over East Allegheny. “I told the girls that it’s one game at a time at this point,” said Lancers coach Dave Petruska, who...
Freeport swimmer Lexi Schrecongost on track for impressive second act
Lexi Schrecongost is hoping for an encore and more after a freshman swimming season that saw her earn four WPIAL medals, including an individual bronze in the girls Class AA 100-yard breaststroke. The Freeport sophomore said her motivation to come back and build on last year was strong in the...
WPIAL athletes shine at 1st Tri-State Coaches indoor meet
Temperatures outside were cold Saturday, but inside at the Edinboro’s Sports and Recreation Center, competition quickly heated up as some of the top track and field athletes in the region gathered for the season’s first Tri-State Track Coaches Association meet. The meet involved participants from more than 60 schools, and...
Gateway’s Whiteside ready to earn trip to state tournament
Evan Whiteside has designs on competing at the PIAA wrestling championships in March. The Gateway senior came close to achieving that last year as he placed fifth at 113 pounds at the Class AAA WPIAL/Southwest Regional tournament at Canon-McMillan. But as exciting as the prospect is for Whiteside to finish...
Trib HSSN’s girls swimmer of the week: Mt. Lebanon’s Maddie Dorish
Maddie Dorish has picked up where she left off last March for the Mt. Lebanon girls swim team. The senior breaststroke standout who has committed to swim in college at Division I Lehigh said she is encouraged by her performances so far this season. Dorish, a three-time WPIAL Class AAA...
Trib HSSN’s boys swimmer of the week: North Allegheny’s Josh Galecki
Josh Galecki knows the feeling of winning gold in relay events at both the WPIAL and PIAA swimming championships. The North Allegheny senior freestyler helped the 400-yard free relay capture the WPIAL Class AAA crown the past two seasons. Last March, he joined the 200 free relay at states and...
North Catholic tops Freeport in matchup of section leaders
Despite facing a 21-point deficit after three quarters of Thursday’s Section 1-4A contest at North Catholic, the Freeport girls basketball team didn’t wave the white flag. The Yellowjackets opened the final quarter with an 11-2 run to trim the Trojanette lead to 12. But the margin was too large to...
A-K Valley girls basketball notebook: Deer Lakes leaning on defense
The defense is not resting for the Deer Lakes girls basketball team. The Lancers, 5-3 overall, lead Section 3-3A in scoring defense at 37.3 points per game. They limited Riverview and South Side Beaver to 39 and 29 points, respectively, last weekend in winning the St. Joseph Tournament. Deer Lakes...
Knoch girls basketball team refuses to get complacentVideo
The Knoch girls basketball team found itself in a dogfight last season for a spot in the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. It came down to the wire in Section 1, and despite a 1-4 mark in their final five section games, the Knights finished in a three-way tie for third...
Top 10 A-K Valley sports moments of 2019
As the sun sets on another year in local sports, it’s time to look back on the best stories of 2019 in the Alle-Kiski Valley. There were championship streaks, returns to glory and records broken. The final year in the second decade of the 2000s featured comeback victories, long playoff...
Deer Lakes boys basketball tournament to begin Saturday after postponement
The Deer Lakes boys basketball tournament will begin Saturday evening after Friday’s first-day doubleheader was postponed because of water leakage in the high school gymnasium. Athletic director Chuck Bellisario said because of the warmer-than-usual temperatures for late December, the air conditioning system kicked on, causing condensation to fall to the...
Trib HSSN girls swimmer of the week: Mt. Pleasant’s Heather Gardner
Heather Gardner put pen to paper last month on the first day of the National Letter of Intent signing period for swimming and finalized her commitment to Division I Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The Mt. Pleasant senior, last year’s PIAA runner-up in both the Class AA girls 50-yard freestyle...
Trib HSSN boys swimmer of the week: Belle Vernon’s Ian Shahan
Ian Shahan entered the 2019-20 high school swimming season as the hunted. The Belle Vernon standout set a gold standard at the close of his sophomore season in March with championships in both the 100-yard butterfly and 100 freestyle at the WPIAL championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool and the state...
