Michael Love stories, Page 31
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...
Tigers still populate podium after North Allegheny reign ends in PIAA Class 3A girls diving
A new PIAA Class 3A girls diving champion was guaranteed to be crowned Thursday afternoon at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. The champion the past three years, North Allegheny’s Christina Shi, graduated and is now diving at Harvard. Last year’s runner-up, Latrobe’s Hannah Polosky, also moved on and is at Pitt....
Mt. Lebanon’s Sylvia Roy, North Allegheny’s Natalie Sens earn top times at PIAA swimming Day 2 prelims
LEWISBURG — WPIAL swimmers will go after titles and additional medals Thursday evening on Day 2 of the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. Preliminary swims Thursday morning will give way to the consolation and championship finals this evening. Boys Upper St. Clair sophomore Nazar Zoukovski is...
Mt. Lebanon’s Sylvia Roy leads medal-winning WPIAL contingent at PIAA swim meet
Sylvia Roy won silver in the 50-yard freestyle at last year’s PIAA Class 3A swimming championships. In her return to Bucknell University on Wednesday, the Mt. Lebanon junior wanted gold. But in a fast 50 free championship heat, Roy was edged out for the title by State College sophomore Molly...
Latrobe relay team outswims seed to earn PIAA medal
The Latrobe girls 200 free relay of Lauren Bell, Destini Homan, Hannah Carasia and Maggie Elder arrived at the PIAA Class 3A swim championships at Bucknell University on Wednesday seeded 14th. They had designs on improving their time of 1 minute, 38.42 seconds recorded in taking fifth at WPIALs on...
Fox Chapel swimmers start medal collection on 1st day of PIAA meet
Fox Chapel junior Sarah Pasquella swam a time of 1 minute, 51.08 seconds in the preliminaries of the girls 200-yard freestyle Wednesday on Day 1 of the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. The time was identical to the one she swam in winning the WPIAL title...
Seneca Valley senior goes out on top with PIAA diving gold
Seneca Valley senior Isaiah Clerkley ended his high school diving career on the highest of high notes. The Penn State commit finished the 11-dive PIAA Class 3A championship meet Wednesday afternoon at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium with 570.40 points, roughly 80 points clear of the field, including runner up Alex...
WPIAL swimmers off to fast start at PIAA meet
WPIAL swimmers fared well in Day 1 preliminary swims at the PIAA Class 3A championships Wednesday morning at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. Several qualified for this evening’s championship heats involving the top-eight finishers from the prelim heats. Boys The North Allegheny boys 200-yard medley relay of William Gao, Gus Miller,...
Franklin Regional, Mt. Pleasant swimmers among high seeds for PIAA championship meet
Holden Thomas made his PIAA debut three years ago at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, 70 miles from Bucknell, the traditional site of the state swimming and diving championships. As a freshman in 2021, Thomas was the lead backstroke leg of Franklin Regional’s boys 200-yard medley relay that finished...
After celebrating WPIAL title, Kiski Area swimmers turn attention to PIAA meet
For Abby King, it was like mother, like daughter at the WPIAL Class 2A championships March 1 at Pitt’s Trees Pool. King’s mother, Daina (Cleveland) King, helped the 1991 Apollo-Ridge girls basketball team win the WPIAL Class 2A title and advance to states. Daina was on hand at Trees Pool...
Gateway swimmers find success at WPIAL meet, earn berths to state competition
Gateway sophomore Gunner Raymer briefly faced a measure of adversity right before his 200-yard freestyle swim at the WPIAL Class 3A championships Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool. He had a minor equipment failure as his goggles broke. “That kind of gave me an adrenaline rush,” Raymer said. “You obviously...
Gateway bowlers celebrate regional title, look ahead to state competition
When the Gateway boys bowling team wrapped up the Western Regional championship title March 2 at AMF Noble Manor Lanes, coach Joe Bowman got a message from two members of the last Gators team to qualify for the state tournament. “They (Mark Kuehn and Dominic Beau) shared a picture of...
St. Joseph earns 1st state playoff win in seniors’ last game on home court
There was history being made by both St. Joseph teams coming into their PIAA Class A first-round game Saturday in Natrona Heights. The St. Joseph Spartans, the senior-laden WPIAL runner-up, had done so much that had never been done before in program history the past several years. But Saturday’s game...
Plum swimmers earn berth to PIAA championships
The Plum girls swim team fared well in a number of events at the WPIAL Class 3A championships Feb. 29 and March 1 at Pitt’s Trees Pool. The Mustangs clinched three PIAA appearances — the two freestyle relays and junior Giuliana Ricciuti in the 200-yard freestyle — and were close...
Plum hockey hopes to build off turnaround season
It was quite a turnaround this season for the Plum hockey team. The Mustangs were 3-16 a year ago. The organization’s board of directors felt a coaching change was needed, and Plum hockey alumnus Jon Gratton came on board. The returning team members hit the ice together in August and...
AK Valley campus clippings: Fox Chapel’s Borkovich earns award for SRU softball
Slippery Rock sophomore pitcher Mackenzie Borkovich, a Fox Chapel graduate, was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday for her work against Shippensburg and Shepherd in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference doubleheaders over the previous two days. She was in the circle as a...
A-K Valley high school basketball playoff preview capsules for March 9, 2024
PIAA basketball playoffs Boys Class 3A First round Bishop Guilfoyle (23-4) at Burrell (16-9) 1 p.m. Saturday District seeds: Bishop Guilfoyle 6-3; Burrell 7-2 Winner plays: Winner of 10-1 Girard (23-2)/7-6 Derry (15-7) Wednesday in second round (time, site TBD) Players to watch: Jude Haigh, Bishop Guilfoyle; Macky Bennis, Burrell...
