Alabama stops sports because of swine flu; Timko sisters make WPIAL "boys" tennis final

 Mike White | Thursday, April 30, 11:10 p.m.

Another state has suspended high school sports competitions because of the swine flu.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association ordered all sports be stopped until Tuesday after the discovery of likely swine flu cases in Huntsville, Ala. The Alabama state track and field championships were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but have been postponed.

On Wednesday, Texas postponed all high schools sports competitions until May 11 because of swine flu cases.

Queens of the boys' game

Two sisters are one win away from winning the WPIAL Class AA boys' doubles tennis championship.

Karli and Tanya Timko of Chartiers-Houston won two matches today to move into tomorrow's championship match, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at North Allegheny.

The Timkos were the No. 1 seed for the tournament and received a first-round bye. In the quarterfinals, the Timkos crushed Matt Greiner and Tyler Spain of Blackhawk, 10-2. In the semifinals, the Timkos defeated Sewickley Academy's Alex Chang and Bobby O'Donnell, 7-5, 6-1.

In the championship, the Timkos will play Thomas Jefferson's Tin Chu and Drew Gallatin.

If the Timkos win, it won't be the first time a girl has won a WPIAL boys' tennis championship. Three years ago, Quaker Valley's Annie Houghton won the WPIAL Class AA singles title.

The Timko girls come from an extremely athletic family. Their mother, Shari, was an All-American gymnast at West Virginia and is in the WVU sports hall of fame. Their aunt is Mary Lou Retton. She is Shari's sister and the 1984 Olympics gold medalist in the gymnastics all-around competition. The Timkos' grandfather is Ronnie Retton, captian of West Virginia University's 1959 NCAA runner-up basketball team that also featured Jerry West.

The Timkos' father, Mike, was a quarterback at West Virginia in the mid 1980s. And the Timkos' older sister, Jaci, is a former softball standout at Char-Houston who is having a big freshman year on the Robert Morris softball team.