Michael Love stories, Page 31
Mars, Shaler maintain top spots in latest WPIAL boys volleyball coaches rankings
A couple of teams in Class 3A changed positions as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 3 Top-10 polls and Players of the Week on Monday morning. Shaler remained in the top spot, followed by North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Norwin and Penn-Trafford rounding out the top five....
Gateway boys tennis sets course on WPIAL title defense
Six of seven starters returned from last year’s Gateway boys tennis team which captured the program’s first WPIAL title since 1988 and made it all the way to the PIAA Class 3A semifinals. Team members also fared well at the WPIAL and state singles tournaments. Despite all of the laurels...
Gateway swimmers pleased with performance at state championships
The final Gateway swim in the final event of the final day of the PIAA swimming championships at Bucknell University resulted in a podium finish and a state medal. The Gator girls 400-yard freestyle relay of freshman Aliya Rassiane, senior Mallory Brown, sophomore Gianna Laurenti and senior McKenna Brown swam...
St. Joseph’s Julie Spinelli headlines Valley News Dispatch girls basketball all-stars
Player of the Year Julie Spinelli 5-11, Sr., G, St. Joseph The St. Joseph girls basketball team took several steps forward in the 2023-24 season and met or surpassed goals and expectations set for themselves at the start in late November. Two of the goals were met on a single...
Riverview baseball leans on experienced lineup, starts 3-0
Riverview senior pitcher and infielder Jack Loughren is an island unto himself in that he’s the only senior on a youthful Raiders baseball team. The team’s senior day ceremony will be brief. But Loughren is not alone in terms of players in the lineup who have varsity experience. Eight seniors...
After impressive postseason, Plum bowlers head to national championships
Plum was the only WPIBL program to have both its boys and girls bowling teams qualify for the Pennsylvania state championships. The Mustangs’ representation at Leisure Lanes in Lancaster on March 16 was the destination of a journey that took the squads through the WPIBL and Western Regional tournaments. But...
Again searching for new boys basketball coach, Plum seeks stability, return to prominence
For the second time in less than two years, Plum is looking for a new boys basketball coach. Justin Walther tendered his resignation last month, and it was accepted by the district. Athletic director Drew Karpen said Wednesday that in a short time after the position was advertised, there were...
Freeport pitcher Sydney Selker healthy, aims to make final season memorable
Sydney Selker wasn’t accustomed to sitting out a softball game, no matter at what level. But that is where the Akron commit found herself for the last eight games of Freeport’s 2023 season. A concussion suffered against Knoch in a defensive collision with a teammate in the 10th game last...
Plum softball team bounces back from opening loss to blank Derry
The Plum softball team’s season debut against Ligonier Valley on Friday was, in the eyes of the coaches and players, not their best outing. But the Mustangs shook off the loss and rebounded in all three phases Monday at home against Derry. The Plum offense collected eight hits, and the...
After busy tournament weekend, Shaler, Mars remain atop coaches’ volleyball polls
Shaler captured the Meadville Tournament championship Saturday, and the victory strengthened the Titans’ hold on the No. 1 spot in the latest Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 3A poll released Monday morning. North Allegheny battled state power Central York in the semifinals finals of Saturday’s North Allegheny Tournament. Despite...
Competition fuels Forest Hills resident Sarah Mitchell as part of Steel City Surge women’s semi-pro volleyball
Lee Yong Ok rose to the top of her chosen sport in her native South Korea. She worked her way up the ranks in women’s volleyball, and her work paid off to where she was selected to play in and represent her country for the 1988 Olympic Summer Games in...
WPIAL swimmers claim 6 more golds to wrap up successful PIAA Class 2A meet
WPIAL swimmers brought home six more PIAA Class 2A state championships Saturday evening to cap a highly successful two-day meet at Bucknell University. North Catholic junior Luke Lamb won his second individual crown in as many days with a victory in the boys 100-yard backstroke, while Mt. Pleasant junior Joseph...
Knoch’s Giona Lavorini wins duel for gold at PIAA Class 2A swim meet
Knoch junior Giona Lavorini bested rival Peyton Scott, a junior from Indiana, for the WPIAL Class 2A title March 1 at Pitt’s Trees Pool. Scott then got the better of Lavorini at a YMCA district meet last weekend. But Lavorini was back on top Saturday evening in the finals of...
Mt. Pleasant girls repeat as PIAA Class 2A team swimming champions
The Mt. Pleasant girls 400-yard freestyle relay of Lainey Brown, Maddie Barrick, Riley Shinsky and Lily King took fifth (3 minutes, 36.90 seconds) in the championship heat Friday night at Kinney Natatorium at Bucknell University. The 28 points the relay earned capped another strong day for the Lady Vikings and...
Hampton’s Gabby Elk takes 2nd at PIAA Class 2A diving championships
LEWISBURG — Hampton sophomore Gabby Elk sat in fifth place after the second round of dives Saturday afternoon at the PIAA Class 2A championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. But she made a final push over the final three dives, scoring 121.40 points to move to second in the final...
5 WPIAL swimmers, 2 relays to go for PIAA Class 2A gold as top seeds after Day 2 prelims
LEWISBURG — Day 2 of the PIAA Class 2A swimming championship Saturday morning at Bucknell University brought more fast times from WPIAL swimmers, and they will be well-featured in this evening’s championship heats in the 100-yard freestyle, 500 free, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 free relay. Girls Mt. Pleasant...
Plum seniors cap careers at PIAA wrestling tournament
Mike Tongel wrestled at the PIAA Class AAA tournament as a senior in 1984. He went 4-1 at 155 pounds and took third place overall. Forty years to the week, his son, Jack, a senior at Plum and a Pitt commit, took his first steps onto a wrestling mat at...
WPIAL swimmers dominate field on 1st day of PIAA Class 2A meet
Indiana’s Preston Kessler knows nothing but PIAA championships in the Class 2A boys 200-yard freestyle. The junior freestyle specialist won his third state title Friday evening with a time of 1 minute, 38.57 seconds. While it wasn’t his best time in the event – he swam a 1:38.26 at WPIALs...
Mt. Pleasant adds 6 state swimming gold medals to trophy case
WPIAL individual swimmers and relays captured nine out of a possible 12 state titles on the first day of the PIAA Class 2A championships Friday at Bucknell University. Mt. Pleasant claimed six of the nine and added a state record to the program portfolio. Junior David Mutter was a big...
Freeport’s Schrecongost takes PIAA silver in 100 butterfly
Leah Shackley is fast. Very fast. The senior from Bedford in District 6 has owned the PIAA Class 2A girls 100-yard butterfly for the past several seasons and came into this year’s meet as the state record holder. She crushed her own record in the finals Friday night at Bucknell...
Blackhawk, Derry divers medal at PIAA Class 2A championships
Blackhawk senior Brecken Finkbeiner and Derry junior Jacob Hauser finished 1-2 at the WPIAL Class 2A diving championships Feb. 23 at North Allegheny. The standout duo, both diving at the PIAA championships for the third time, led the seven-diver WPIAL contingent Friday afternoon at Bucknell University’s Kinney Nataorium. Finkbeiner captured...
WPIAL swimmers in good position after Class 2A preliminary swims at PIAA meet
WPIAL Class 2A swimmers took the baton from their Class 3A counterparts Friday morning at the PIAA swimming and diving championships at Bucknell University. Several of them over the six boys and six girls preliminary events punched their tickets to the evening’s championship finals heats with shots at state titles....
With brilliant final session, North Allegheny girls win back-to-back PIAA team titles
A trio of North Allegheny divers got the ball rolling Thursday afternoon with points scored in the PIAA Class 3A competition. Juniors Juliet Hood and Lola Malarky and sophomore Maggie Lapina finished second, third, and 10th, earning 40 points to the overall team total. Then the Tigers swimmers took over...
Franklin Regional, Penn-Trafford swimmers end illustrious careers side by side on PIAA medal stand
Holden Thomas owned the top seed in the Class 3A boys 100-yard backstroke and had his sights set on big things in the preliminaries Thursday morning on Day 2 of the PIAA swimming championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. The Franklin Regional senior, the WPIAL champion in the event with...
Fox Chapel junior’s best time good for 2nd to North Allegheny star at PIAA swim meet
Fox Chapel junior Sarah Pasquella entered the finals of the girls Class 3A 100-yard breaststroke Thursday evening at Bucknell University as the second seed to North Allegheny’s Natalie Sens. Hoping to add a state title to her portfolio of accomplished swims, Pasquella swam to an all-time best in the finals...
