Girls athlete of the week
// The Post-Gazette’s top female performer from the past seven days
The past week: Dave won the gold medal in the 100 meters at the WPIAL Class 2A individual championships on May 18, finishing with a time of 12.70 seconds. The senior also took home second place in the 200 (26.24) and 400 (58.39), and was part of the Trojanettes’ 400 relay team that finished fifth (51.43).
Check this out: A standout midfielder on North Catholic’s soccer team, Dave is in her first year of varsity track after helping the Trojanettes reach the WPIAL Class 2A finals in the fall. She won a WPIAL Class 2A title with North Catholic as a sophomore before taking a year off to focus on club soccer as a junior. A Cleveland State soccer recruit, Dave now has two WPIAL gold medals (one in track, one in soccer) and three silver medals (two in track, one in soccer).
I heard you had to leave WPIALs as soon as you were finished racing to perform in a chorus concert. Is that right? [Laughs] Yeah, I’m not even a good singer. It’s just for the art credit.
Will you be running in all four events again at states later this week? I’m going to drop the 100. I’m just going to be doing the 200, the 400 and the 400 relay.
Will you become a Browns fan once you move to Cleveland for college? I don’t know about that. People have asked me. I know there’s a little bit of beef between the Steelers and the Browns. We’ll see. It depends how much I like Cleveland, I guess.
Are you a football fan at all? 100%. My brother [Kobe] plays football. I always told him — I honestly thought about being the kicker for the football team. I find it really fun.
What would someone find you doing when you’re not playing soccer or running track? Lifting — I guess I do it for my sport, but I’ve honestly gotten really into that. Other than that, I’d say just cooking and baking. … That’s about it. My whole life really revolves around my sports and stuff, which I love, but it takes up most of my time.
What are your favorite things to cook or bake? I really like baking banana bread. As far as cooking, I started making homemade Ramen. It’s really good. What’s one thing someone would be surprised to know about you? Maybe that I’m lefthanded. … In most sports, I’m kind of ambidextrous, too. In both soccer and basketball, I started off left-handed and leftfooted, and then at some point, I switched over and was right-handed and right-footed. I’ve always been able to use both, especially for sports.