Michael Love stories, Page 121
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...
Fox Chapel girls pull away to beat Knoch in Shady Side tournamentVideo
A jumper from Knoch senior forward Lauren Cihonski 40 seconds into Friday’s matchup with Fox Chapel at the Shady Side Academy Tournament gave the Knights a two-point lead. But the Foxes quickly countered from long range as a pair of 3-pointers from senior Gabby Guerreri and a third from junior...
Fox Chapel girls showing glimpses of potential
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...
Fox Chapel girls showing glimpses of potential
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...
A-K Valley girls basketball notebook: Springdale sheds long losing streak
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...
Highlands swimmer Rachel Blackburn in position to battle it out with WPIAL’s best
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...
A-K Valley campus clippings: KA grad Kuhn earns All-American honors for Slippery Rock
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...
Burrell grad Natalie Myers filling stat sheet for IUP
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,...
Slippery Rock’s Rivers wins Harlon Hill Trophy as nation’s top Division II football player
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...
Trib HSSN girls swimmer of the week for Dec. 19, 2019: Seneca Valley’s Kendall Craig
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...
Trib HSSN boys swimmer of the week for Dec. 19, 2019: Upper St. Clair’s Josh Matheny
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...
Freeport girls navigating rocky road during season’s opening weeks
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...
Alle-Kiski Valley girls basketball notebook: Kiski Area loses Hannah Potter to broken wrist
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...
Undefeated IUP men’s basketball team moves up to No. 3 in latest Division II national poll
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...
