Michael Love stories, Page 72

Noah Passalinqua established himself as a major player in Class 3A boys diving throughout the season, and now he hopes to make his mark on a championship stage. The Gateway junior will make his WPIAL meet debut Saturday at North Allegheny High School. He is seeded seventh overall with goals...

BOYS Class 4A Quarterfinals 7-Pine-Richland (12-11) at 2-Fox Chapel (21-1) 7 p.m. Friday Winner plays: Winner of 6-Butler (13-9)/3-Central Catholic (17-5) Tuesday in semifinals (site and time TBD) Layup lines: Pine-Richland had no trouble with No. 10 Bethel Park in a 64-41 first-round victory. Joey Dudkowski, who came into the...

The Montour boys basketball team is moving on. The Spartans, the No. 2 seed in the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs, overcame an early challenge from No. 7 Burrell in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup and went on to a 70-50 home victory. The game was Montour’s first in 12 days. Burrell came...

BOYS Class 5A Quarterfinals 5-Highlands (17-6) at 4-Penn Hills (18-4) 7 p.m. Thursday Winner plays: 8-Hampton (13-10) at 1-Laurel Highlands (22-0) Monday in semifinals (site and time TBD) Layup lines: Highlands is coming off a dominating 76-40 victory over Albert Gallatin in the first round Monday. Jimmy Kunst scored 24...

Salvatore “Dom” Sheffo started sparring with his uncle a little over a year ago. “We would hit pads for fun,” said Sheffo, 17, a senior at Plum High School. The former Mustangs wrestler took the relaxed sparring sessions and turned it up a notch in August as he began training...

Wednesday’s games Boys Quarterfinals Class 4A 7-Burrell (14-8) at 2-Montour (18-4) 7 p.m. Wednesday Winner plays: Winner of 11-Freeport (13-9)/3-Belle Vernon (18-3) in semifinals on Saturday (site and time TBD) Layup lines: Burrell kicked off the WPIAL playoffs in successful fashion Friday with a 63-42 victory over No. 10 Elizabeth...

The St. Joseph girls basketball team is back in the WPIAL postseason win column. The youthful Spartans, with just one senior on their roster, halted a three-game playoff losing streak dating to 2018 with a 45-37 victory over Mapletown on Monday in a Class A first-round game at Gateway High...

Boys First round Class 2A 9-Sto-Rox (11-7) at 8-Springdale (11-11) 7 p.m. Tuesday Winner plays: Winner of 1-Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (19-0)/16-Chartiers-Houston (9-13) on Friday in quarterfinals (site, time TBD) Layup lines: Sto-Rox finished in third place in Section 2 behind co-champions Fort Cherry and Carlynton. The Vikings...

Monday’s games Boys First round Class 5A 9-Kiski Area (15-7) at 8-Hampton (12-10) 7 p.m. Monday Winner plays: Winner of 1-Laurel Highlands (21-0)/16-Woodland Hills (8-14) on Thursday in quarterfinals Layup lines: Kiski Area already tripled its win total from a year ago under first-year coach Corey Smith, who played for...

Evan Whiteside is on a roll. The Gateway graduate and 125-pound starter in the Thiel College wrestling lineup is enjoying a breakout first collegiate season. He hopes the momentum built throughout the season, including the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title won Feb. 12, will lead him to big things at Friday...

The Plum competitive spirit team made a long journey this season from a spring and summer of training all the way through to its first appearance on biggest high school stage for the sport in Pennsylvania. Along the way, coach Amanda Anderson, in her fifth season with Plum, said the...

High school girls wrestling in Pennsylvania is gaining momentum on a weekly basis. In December, North Allegheny and Canon-McMillan faced off in the first-ever girls dual match between WPIAL schools. At around the same time, Kiski Area became the 31st school in Pennsylvania to sign on to the movement to...

Despite not having the entire season it wanted, the Gateway girls basketball team finished on a positive note with three wins over its final four games. The finish was something coach Curtis Williams hoped to see and was something the returning team members can build on going into the offseason....

When Penn-Trafford swim coach Dave Babik took over as the WPIAL swimming and diving chairman at the start of this school year, he knew he would have a lot on his plate. Near the top of that list was the when, the where and the format for the upcoming WPIAL...

Justin Brannagan’s final field-goal attempt in the final home game of his varsity career ended up being a shot he will remember for the rest of his life. His Deer Lakes teammates, coaches, classmates and the rest of the Lancers faithful who witnessed Friday’s WPIAL Class 4A first-round game against...

Boys Class 4A First round 9-Blackhawk (12-9) at 8-Deer Lakes (15-5) 7 p.m. Friday Winner plays: At 1-Quaker Valley (20-0), 7 p.m. Wednesday in quarterfinals Lay-up lines: At 7-7, the Cougars finished fourth in competitive Section 2, behind Quaker Valley, Montour and Lincoln Park. They lost three of four games...

Maddie Boyer, Mackenzie McGraw and Lily Hawk have been friends and basketball teammates since fourth grade. The three Knoch seniors admit they have come a long way on a journey that has brought them to a last hurrah and a chance to make history before they graduate. “It’s been a...

Just a couple weeks after Josh Shoop stepped down as Plum’s athletic director, the school district’s board of directors on Tuesday hired his replacement who will guide the Mustangs teams through the remainder of the winter season, into the spring season and beyond. Brian Miller comes to Plum with more...

The WPIAL boys and girls basketball playoff brackets were released Monday, and the Fox Chapel boys and Knoch girls, as predicted, earned byes into the quarterfinals. For the Knights, who reached the Class 4A semifinals last year, a 19-2 record from the regular season and a first section championship in...

Jordan Edwards Jordan Edwards has made a scoring impact as of late for the High Point women’s basketball team in NCAA Division I. The 5-foot-7 senior guard and Gateway graduate scored a season-high 14 points last Wednesday in a 65-57 victory over Radford which put the Panthers at 11-11 overall...

Andrew Holmes has his sights set on more WPIAL gold at Pitt’s Trees Pool in a couple weeks as he hopes to add to last year’s WPIAL title in the 200-yard freestyle. But the versatile Gateway senior also is ready to dive into swimming at the next level as he...

Plum cross country and track and field coach Stephanie Kennedy is optimistic as she looks ahead to the outdoor track season. Those positive feelings, she said, have their genesis in the work a number of Mustangs athletes have put in this winter in advance of moving outdoors early next month....

When the Plum and Kiski Area girls basketball teams met Jan. 26 at Plum, the Mustangs came away with a victory. Plum hoped for a season sweep Friday as the Section 2-5A rivals rematched at Kiski Area. But the Cavaliers had other plans, and they celebrated senior night with a...

Elizabeth Glasspool hopes to make a big splash in the smallest state in the country. The Plum senior swimming standout recently signed a national letter of intent to compete for Providence in Rhode Island. “My dad and I found out about the program, and we got in touch with the...

Nikki Fleming said she and her Deer Lakes girls basketball teammates didn’t know what to expect at the start of the season with a new coach and a new system in place. But the Lancers senior guard pointed to strong team chemistry as a catalyst to improve as the season...