Michael Love stories, Page 87

Spring football is in the air at West Virginia, and the Mountaineers will host their annual Gold-Blue Spring Game at 1 p.m. April 24, at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Because of ongoing covid-19 protocols in place, and for the safety of the spectators, the WVU athletic department announced...

Despite not residing in the same section, the St. Joseph and Apollo-Ridge girls basketball teams have played every year since the 2009-10 season. That streak continued Monday as the Spartans and Vikings renewed pleasantries to open the final week of the regular season. Behind 17 points apiece from sophomores Brinley...

The WPIAL released its final swimming and diving performance lists Sunday evening, and individual swimmers and relays continued to produce new WPIAL-best performances during the final week of the regular season. Posting new top times in Class AAA are Butler senior David Bocci (boys 100-yard butterfly, 49.82), Upper St. Clair...

In a normal high school hockey season in Western Pennsylvania, the regular season would be all but finished by now and teams would be looking to start a possible run in the playoffs. But that is not the case in this season of covid uncertainty, when many teams have a...

Morgan Holmes’ introduction to swimming at WPIALs as a freshman last year came in the 200- and 50-yard freestyle events and as a member of the Gateway 200 and 400 free relays. Her inaugural WPIAL race in the 50 produced a time of 25.48 seconds and landed her in 21st...

The Gateway boys and girls basketball teams have reached the end of the regular season. The Gators will host a varsity doubleheader against McKeesport at 6 and 8 p.m. Friday. Then, it is on to their respective open WPIAL Class 5A playoff tournaments where they hope to make things happen....

When the WPIAL announced in December that it would stage open playoff tournaments for basketball, fearing unbalanced section standings would create issues in determining playoff qualifiers, the Riverview girls basketball team knew it would be one of the participants. But Raiders veteran coach Keith Stitt said he didn’t want his...

At the third Youngstown State open high school meet of the indoor season Feb. 13, Plum senior Logan Parker threw further than anyone else in the shot put. He recorded a heave of 57 feet, 6½ inches to claim the title, outdistancing regional rival Connor Vass-Gal, a senior from Wilmington...

Plum senior Gina Proviano scored 70 goals and had 33 assists over four years as one of the WPIAL’s top girls soccer players. The last two years, the All-WPIAL performer helped the Mustangs capture back-to-back section titles and earn WPIAL Class 3A runner-up finishes. Now, Proviano, the Valley News Dispatch...

Earlier this week, Valley girls basketball coach Ernie Sipolino said he was optimistic his team, despite only having five players able to take the court, would enter the open WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. However, one of those five, freshman guard Ryleigh Kasten, has been trying to play through a condition...

For the second year in a row, the Greensburg Salem girls bowling team is the WPIBL champion. The Golden Lions prevailed over top-seeded Butler, 2-1, in a best-of-three title match Thursday afternoon at Sims Lanes in Beaver Falls. Greensburg Salem won the first game of the finals, 215-156, while Butler...

Highlands won the first meeting Jan. 30. Burrell returned the favor Wednesday. Behind 17 points from freshman Kate Myers and 11 more from junior Allison Fisher, the Bucs earned a 47-37 victory in a competitive Section 1-4A girls basketball game at Highlands High School. It was the Bucs’ fourth win...

With just a week left in the truncated WPIAL girls basketball regular season, Section 2-5A is in position to have every team complete its section slate. It would be one of the few sections, boys or girls, to be able to accomplish the feat. Every remaining game has a scheduled...

The WPIAL Board of Directors in December, fearing covid cancellations and other interruptions to team schedules would create unbalanced section standings, voted to have the basketball playoffs decided with open-tournament formats. As of Wednesday, all 14 Alle-Kiski Valley girls teams plan to participate. “We’re young, and our numbers aren’t the...

When Knoch senior Mike Formica and Deer Lakes junior Carson McCoy, two of the top distance runners in the WPIAL, got to talking at the Spire Ohio Championship Preview Meet in Geneva, Ohio, on Jan. 30, they discussed plans to break away from the usual individual races they had run...

The WPIAL, citing weather concerns, has postponed the team rifle championships from Tuesday to Wednesday. “We have people coming from five counties, we have no idea what the conditions will be, and we don’t want to put anyone in an unsafe position,” said Matt Rodrigues, Woodland Hills coach and the...

The WPIAL released its latest swimming and diving performance lists Monday, and individual swimmers, relays and divers continue to produce new WPIAL-best performances. There were several changes at the top from meets this past week. New leaders in Class AAA are Seneca Valley junior Kevin Donaldson (200-yard freestyle, 1:42.66), North...

The West Virginia men’s basketball team will play one of its two games against Baylor on Feb. 25 in Waco, Texas, the Big 12 Conference and Mountaineers athletic department announced Monday. The road game for WVU had been postponed twice, the first time Jan. 12 when WVU was not able...

A regular season far from normal has concluded for the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League, and top teams and individuals now are looking forward to the team and singles championships set for this week and next. The top two teams from each boys and girls section will face off Wednesday...

Last year as a freshman, Parker Sterlitz had a goal of joining classmate Levi Hansen on the medals podium for the Class AAA boys 500-yard freestyle at the WPIAL championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool. However, the Kiski Area distance specialist fell two seconds short, placing 12th in 4 minutes, 47.58...

Gateway junior Andrew Holmes earned a WPIAL swimming championship automatic qualifying time in the 200-yard individual medley with a personal-best of 1 minute, 52.04 seconds against North Hills on Feb. 9. That put him at the top of the list in the event, surpassing Seneca Valley junior Daniel Simoes (1:52.25)...

Olivia Miller takes nothing for granted as she trains and competes for the Pitt women’s gymnastics team. The Gateway graduate remembers how quickly a season can be taken away as the Panthers’ 2020 campaign ended prematurely when the coronavirus pandemic started to take hold last March. The 2021 season has...

Kennedie Montue had scored 30 or more points three times this season and added a fourth game with 29, so 28 points — what was left for the Plum senior forward to secure the program’s all-time career scoring record — was attainable Friday as the Mustangs battled Section 2-5A rival...

The Plum wrestling team turns its focus this week from team competition to individual accomplishments with subsection and section tournaments taking center stage throughout the WPIAL. The Mustangs were slated to wrestle at the Class AAA Section 1B tournament Wednesday which feeds surviving qualifiers to Saturday’s main Section 1 tournament...

Riverview senior Beth Shoop swam the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5 minutes, 31.36 seconds during Fox Chapel’s Jan. 14 meet with Woodland Hills. She was excited with that time, which was about a half-second faster than her medal-winning eighth-place finish (5:31.96) at last year’s WPIAL Class AA championships...