A-C Valley graduate Chris Gilman placed eighth in his weight class recently at the U.S. National Championship weightlifting event in Schaumburg, Ill.

Gilman snatched 220 pounds and clean and jerked 308 pounds. He plans to visit a regional training center for Olympic weightlifting in New Jersey toward the end of June.

Molly Evans of Butler's swimming and diving team has been selected as a 2007 WPIAL Scholar/Athlete Award winner.She was one of only 10 honored and was selected as a female runner up.Fellow seniors Amy Achesinski and Doug Moran have received Northern Athletic Directors Association Tri-Athlete Awards. Achesinski received her award for volleyball, basketball and outside track while Moran received his for soccer, indoor track and outdoor track.Senior swimmer Jessica Vernon was selected as one of the YMCA Top 100 Scholar Athletes for 2007. That banquet will be held May 31 at the Downtown Pittsburgh Hilton.

MALIBU, Calif. — Floyd Landis' sleepy, scientific arbitration hearing morphed into a pulp-fiction blockbuster, replete with revelations of sexual abuse, allegations of threatening phone calls and even a firing.It came courtesy of Landis' fellow American Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, who disclosed he had been sexually abused as a child and received a call Wednesday from Landis' manager who threatened to reveal the secret if LeMond showed up to testify.Shortly after LeMond dropped those bombshells, the manager, Will Geoghegan, walked up to LeMond, apologized and admitted he made the call, LeMond said. Which led to "You're fired" — the message Landis attorney Maurice Suh gave to Geoghegan while they were still standing in the hearing room.

ROME — Serena Williams appeared frustrated at times but eventually overpowered 11th-seeded Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Italian Open.Peer pushed Williams deep into the third set when the two players met in the quarterfinals of January's Australian Open.Williams could have another tough test in her next round against 14th-seeded Patty Schnyder.