Sports briefs
WPIAL swimming
Mapletown’s Ella Menear had quite a district meet for herself last year at Upper St. Clair in the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships.
The then-sophomore not only won gold medals in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke, but did so in pool-record times.
Menear seeks to successfully defend those two titles when WPIAL championships return to the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool today and Friday.
The field has been enlarged to all swimmers who met the automatic qualifying times after the amount was capped at 16 in individual events last year because of the pandemic.
Menear is the top seed in both events in defense of her gold medals.
In the NHL
Washington Capitals winger Carl Hagelin is expected to miss an extended period of time with what the team is calling a serious eye injury.
Hagelin was struck in the left eye with an errant stick during practice Tuesday. General manager Brian MacLellan said the 33-year-old Swede had surgery Tuesday night and is meeting with doctors about what’s next.
“Any time you have an eye injury, there’s a concern,” coach Peter Laviolette said after practice Wednesday. “First and foremost there’s a concern for him and just his well-being. It’s unfortunate when something like that happens.”
In college basketball
UMass has fired men’s basketball coach Matt McCall, effective at the end of the season.
McCall is 58-81 over five seasons in Amherst. He will coach the Minutemen (5-11 Atlantic 10, 12-16) through the conference tournament.
In the NFL
The Arizona Cardinals have signed coach Kliff Kingsbury and general manager Steve Keim to extensions that keep them under contract with the team through 2027.
In the NBA
Terry Rozier scored 29 points and carried Charlotte’s backcourt with LaMelo Ball in foul trouble, leading the Hornets to a 119-98 win Wednesday night over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who got back All-Star Darius Garland but lost for the fifth time in six games.
Rozier added seven assists and seven rebounds, while Isaiah Thomas scored 10 points in his debut for Charlotte. The Hornets made 17 3-pointers.