Michael Love stories, Page 86

The Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame has enshrined and celebrated area athletic greats for 50 years, and now the signature plaques and photographs of past inductees have a permanent display in Tarentum. The record of local sports history is housed in a gallery at the renovated G.C. Murphy Building...

In only 16 months of competition, Sophia Gentile has made a name for herself as one of the nation’s top teen powerlifters. The Franklin Park resident’s efforts have translated into competition victories and both national and world records, and she is excited to keep pushing forward in the sport. “This...

Josh Matheny made a push for a top-two finish and a spot on Team USA on Monday evening in the finals of the men’s 100-meter breaststroke at the Wave II U.S. Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha, Neb. The Upper St. Clair grad and Indiana commit swam slightly faster than his...

For Emma Smerick, the softball field at Mars is out of this world. In the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals against Fox Chapel on May 25, Smerick bunted twice for singles and scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh. Smerick, back at Mars for Monday’s PIAA semifinals against...

Runs and hits were at a premium when Highlands and Beaver met for the WPIAL Class 4A softball championship June 2. It was shaping up the same way through five innings of Monday’s rematch in the PIAA semifinals at Mars. Bobcats junior pitcher Payton List and her counterpart, Golden Rams...

Upper St. Clair’s Josh Matheny kicked off his first U.S. Olympic Swim Trials competition Sunday night with a pair of top-eight swims in the preliminaries and semifinals of the Wave II men’s 100-meter breaststroke. Those finishes propelled him to Monday evening’s finals and a chance to earn a spot on...

Jess Cekada was mobbed by her Highlands teammates as the junior shortstop crossed home plate after hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning of Thursday’s PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal game against Bishop McDevitt under the lights at Central Cambria High School. An inning earlier, senior second...

Class 4A Semifinals Highlands (18-5-1) vs. Beaver (19-0) 2 p.m. Monday at Mars Coaches: Jen Koprivinikar, Highlands; Amy Haggart, Beaver Winner plays: Winner of 11-1 Bethlehem Catholic (16-8)/2-1 Tunkhannock (22-2) Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the finals at Beard Field, Penn State University. Players to watch: Jess Cekada, Jr., SS,...

Last summer, a group of baseball players from Gateway High School and one from South Fayette formed the Monroeville Gators team in the Western Pennsylvania Baseball League. The WPBL came about after the cancellation of the spring high school season because of the covid pandemic, and players from throughout the...

Beau Ritson is no stranger to high-level youth hockey as a member of the Pens Elite travel program. The 11-year-old Monroeville resident now is gearing up for play as part of Team Pennsylvania at a top-flight youth tournament in Las Vegas on July 6-9. The Kings of Vegas tournament was...

Growing up, J.J. Brestensky was no different than many other young baseball players in that he had aspirations of one day playing professionally. The Freeport graduate is getting that chance for the first time this summer as a member of the Trinidad Triggers in the Pecos League, one of the...

After a delay of 1 hour, 45 minutes, the Ligonier Valley softball team began Thursday’s PIAA Class 2A quarterfinal against District 5 champion Chestnut Ridge at Mt. Aloysius College. Through five innings, the Rams held a 1-0 lead. Then, in the sixth, the rain returned, and the game was delayed...

After losing 2020 to the covid pandemic, the Fox Chapel softball team entered this spring with optimism that it could get to the Class 5A playoffs and make a run. Foxes coach Chris Olbrich was confident his team would be competitive in each game it would play. Both of those...

Rayla Smith was an offensive force for the Plum girls lacrosse team this spring. The freshman attacker didn’t shy away from going to the goal, and she finished the season with more than 40 goals for a Mustangs squad that had designs on the WPIAL playoffs from the start of...

Cloudy skies and rain greeted the Highlands softball team Friday afternoon as they gathered for practice in preparation for Monday’s PIAA Class 4A semifinal against Beaver. The Golden Rams, who are focused in on the WPIAL title game rematch, saw enough rain Thursday to last a lifetime in a state-tournament...

EBENSBURG — The Highlands softball team had to wait through a four-hour delay from the original 4 p.m. start of its PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal game Thursday against Bishop McDevitt. It also practiced patience as the game was moved from Mt. Aloysius College to nearby Central Cambria High School. In...

CRESSON — The record will show Ligonier Valley secured a 1-0 victory over Chestnut Ridge in the PIAA Class 2A softball quarterfinals Thursday. That only begins to tell the story. Rain first delayed the start of the game by 1 hour and 45 minutes. The teams then started and quickly...

The Highlands softball bats and the players swinging them have proven themselves all season with high hit and run totals. The Golden Rams offense continued that trend Monday with 13 hits and seven runs against Clearfield in a PIAA Class 4A first-round victory in DuBois. Just as key, but sometimes...

Softball Class 5A Quarterfinals 7-2 Highlands (17-5-1) vs. 3-1 Bishop McDevitt (23-2) 4 p.m. Thursday at Mt. Aloysius College in Cresson Coaches: Jen Koprivinikar, Highlands; Tim Bowen, Bishop McDevitt Winner plays: Winner of 7-1 Beaver Area (18-0)/7-3 Elizabeth Forward (18-3) Monday in the semifinals (site and time, TBD) Players to...

North Allegheny graduate Jack Wright said he was taken aback when he entered the CHI Health Center in Omaha for the Wave I U.S. Olympic Swim Trials last week. “It is a one-of-a-kind pool that is built up, and it is unlike anything I’ve swam in before,” said Wright, a...

Several members of the North Allegheny rowing team competed at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America national championship regatta over Memorial Day weekend on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The Tigers were represented with qualifiers for the girls varsity lightweight double and the girls varsity quad races. Charlotte Bentrim (stroke)...

Things didn’t start out well for the Leechburg softball team in Monday’s PIAA Class A first-round game against DuBois Central Catholic at Heindl Field in DuBois. The District 9 champion Cardinals scored 13 runs over the first two innings and kept the Blue Devils off the scoreboard. Leechburg didn’t fold...

Already in uncharted territory, the Highlands softball team added to its historic season Monday against Clearfield in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A playoffs. The Golden Rams, playing in the first state playoff game in program history, scored runs in the third and fourth, three more in the...

For the second time in as many seasons, the Leechburg softball team survived a pressure situation in the WPIAL consolation final to earn a trip the PIAA playoffs. This time, South Side fell victim to a Blue Devils team that roared back from a tough Class 1A semifinal loss. Leechburg’s...

Gateway football seniors Jacques Taylor and Chamor Price teamed up one final time May 30 to cap their high school careers in the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association East-West Football Classic at Landis Field in Harrisburg. While the West team didn’t come out on top — the East scored a...