Mar 17, 2020 4 min read

Pony Series games to be rebroadcast

With the sports world on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, television stations and networks are scrambling to find programming that will substitute for previously scheduled live events. They have turned to rebroadcasts.

AT&T SportsNet announced Tuesday that it will air six games from the 2019 Pony League World Series, including the championship game and two involving the Washington County team.

Last night, AT&TSN showed the game between Brownsville, Texas, and Bay County, Michigan, which was played Aug. 10. Tonight, at 7 p.m., it will show Washington County’s win over London, also from Aug. 10.

Two games are scheduled air Thursday: Arecibo, Puerto Rico against Chinese Taipei at 7 p.m. followed by Youngstown, Ohio, against Chinese Taipei at 9 p.m.

The Washington County game against Bay County Michigan, which was played Aug. 12, will air at 7 p.m. The championship game between Chinese Taipei and Bay County will follow.

Former W&J swimmer to join Jewish Sports Hall

Kaitlyn Orstein Fife, who won eight NCAA Division III championships while a member of the Washington & Jefferson College swimming team, will be inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Western Pennsylvania in May at a banquet in Pittsburgh.

Orstein Fife, who competed at W&J from 2005 to 2008, was the Presidents’ most accomplished swimmer in program history. In addition to the NCAA championships, she was a 14-time All-American and was named the PAC Swimmer of the Year four times. She held the Division III record in the 200 individual medley for five years, won 25 Presidents’ Athletic Conference titles, set 10 PAC records and held 16 school records.

She went on to compete in the 2004 Olympic trials in two events (200-meter IM and 100 breaststroke) and represented the United States in the 2006 Maccabi Games in Sydney, Australia, where she won five gold medals.

Orstein Fife was inducted into the W&J Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Washington-Greene Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

She was a seven-time PIAA champion at Mt. Lebanon and won 15 gold medals at the WPIAL Championships.

Pittsburgh Marathon canceled

The Pittsburgh Marathon is canceled for 2020, another sports victim of the coronavirus pandemic.

Race organizer P3R announced Tuesday that it was following Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s executive order that banned gatherings of more than 50 people.

“All of us at P3R are disappointed and frustrated that this year’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon has been canceled,” Troy Schooley, P3R’s CEO said in a released statement. “But we know that this is really the only decision the city of Pittsburgh could make given the current environment and that it’s the right thing to do to ensure the safety of our participants, staff, volunteers, medical professionals, security personnel and spectators.”

The race was scheduled for May 3. Participants also can get a refund of their registration fee.

The marathon attracts about 40,000 runners each year.

ACC cancels spring sports

The Atlantic Coast Conference has canceled all athletics competition and practices through the rest of the 2019-20 academic year amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

The league announced the move Tuesday. The ACC had previously suspended those activities “until further notice.”

The ACC’s statement said the cancellations came after a unanimous decision among league member schools, with Commissioner John Swofford saying league officials are “particularly disappointed for our student-athletes.”