Michael Love stories, Page 118

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In the latter stages of the third quarter of a at WPIAL power North Allegheny on Dec. 20, the Fox Chapel girls basketball team led the Class 6A No. 2 Tigers, 31-25, and had designs on finishing off a key early-season Section 1 victory. However, North Allegheny battled back and...

In the latter stages of the third quarter of Friday’s game at WPIAL power North Allegheny, the Fox Chapel girls basketball team led the Class 6A No. 2 Tigers, 31-25, and had designs on finishing off a key early-season Section 1 victory. However, North Allegheny battled back and used a...

Two years ago Friday, the Springdale girls basketball team defeated Yough, 47-28, in the consolation game of the Valley Tournament. The team then experienced a losing streak that extended through the first six games of this season. But Springdale put that 37-game skid to rest last Friday with a 31-18...

A youthful group led the Class AA girls 100-yard breaststroke at last year’s WPIAL swimming championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool. The top 12 finishers were underclassmen. Mt. Pleasant’s Heather Gardner, now a senior, won the WPIAL crown with a time of 1 minute, 3.92 seconds and went on to finish...

On the heels of one of the most successful seasons in Slippery Rock football history, several members of the team were honored with selection to the Associated Press Division II All-America team. Kiski Area grad Chad Kuhn, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound redshirt junior defensive lineman, was a second-team pick after he...

In her three-plus seasons as a basketball player at the collegiate level, Natalie Myers hadn’t had the type of game she produced in the IUP women’s basketball team’s 65-54 victory over Salem on Nov. 27. The Burrell graduate and senior guard for the Crimson Hawks scored a career-best 26 points,...

Roland Rivers III’s memorable 2019 football season with Slippery Rockwas recognized Friday morning as the senior quarterback was named the recipient of the Harlon Hill Trophy. The Ellenwood, Ga., native is the first Rock player to earn the award, which is the Division II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. Rivers...

Kendall Craig set a new Seneca Valley pool record Tuesday in the girls 200-yard individual medley. The Raiders junior established a time of 2 minutes, 6.39 seconds in winning the event against Peters Township. The record — held by former IM standout and Seneca Valley WPIAL champion and PIAA medalist...

No record is safe when Josh Matheny is going after it. The latest to fall at the hands of the Upper St. Clair junior was the men’s 200-yard breaststroke meet record at the Speedo Winter Junior Nationals last Saturday at Georgia Tech. Representing Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics, Matheny swam to a...

The Freeport girls basketball team is 2-0 in Section 1-4A and the Yellowjackets hope to remain unblemished Thursday when they face rival Burrell. The opening month of the season has been one of progress for a Freeport team mixing in veteran talent with new varsity blood all the while working...

Hannah Potter hoped to have a standout senior season for the Kiski Area girls basketball team and build off of a strong junior campaign which saw her lead a young Cavaliers squad with an average of 14.9 points a game. But Potter’s final varsity campaign ended before it really got...

The IUP men’s basketball team, undefeated through eight games this season, moved up two spots to No. 3 in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II poll released Tuesday. The Crimson Hawks ticked up from No. 5 on the heels of a 108-41 victory Sunday over Bethany. The...

The Cal (Pa.) and IUP women’s basketball teams are ranked No. 9 and No. 11, respectively, in the latest Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll released Tuesday afternoon. The Vulcans, idle since an 80-66 loss to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference foe Shippensburg on Dec. 7, rose...

Late in the first quarter of Monday’s Section 1-4A girls basketball matchup between Freeport and Highlands, the Yellowjackets and Golden Rams were tied at eight. Grace Solis then connected on back-to-back 3-pointers that sparked a 23-0 run as Freeport took control en route to a 62-34 victory at Highlands. “Highlands...