Gateway sports year in review: Boys tennis team makes program history

By: Michael Love
Sunday, December 17, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Paced by singles standouts in sophomores Adam Memije and Zidan Hassan and freshman Logan Memije, the Gateway boys tennis team captured the program’s first WPIAL team title in 35 years with a victory over North Allegheny in the Class 3A finals May 10 at Washington & Jefferson College.

The No. 3 seed also defeated Bethel Park, Peters Township and Fox Chapel along the way.

Gateway then won twice in the PIAA tournament before falling to Conestoga, 3-0, in the semifinals in Hershey.

The Gators started their journey by winning a section title for the first time since 1992.

Hassan and Adam Memije also teamed to win gold at the WPIAL doubles tournament April 26 at Bethel Park, defeating the Allderdice duo of seniors Deniz Finkel and Ian Kuchera.

Hassan and Memije lost just seven games over four WPIAL matches. The duo reached the PIAA semifinals May 27 and went on to claim third place.

The tennis team’s success was one of many memorable moments for Gateway athletes in 2023. Here’s a look at some others:

Jones makes his WPIAL track and field mark

With no hurdling experience before this spring, Gateway senior Derrick Jones improved in a short period of time and put himself in position to make his mark at the WPIAL Class 3A championships May 17 at Slippery Rock.

Modestly seeded in both the 110-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles, Jones claimed a pair of top-four finishes, won two WPIAL medals, and secured a trip to the PIAA championship at Shippensburg.

He finished fourth in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.40 and then came back in the 300 hurdles 90 minutes later and placed third with a personal-best 40.08.

Both place finishes earned him automatic berths to states.

Gateway boys basketball claims section crown

The Gators’ boys basketball team’s only Section 3-5A loss in the regular season came by six points at the hands of McKeesport on Jan. 27.

Gateway won its final four regular-season games after that loss and primed itself for the WPIAL playoffs.

The Gators beat Woodland Hills in the first round, and won the rubber matchup with McKeesport in the quarterfinals before a 62-55 loss to Peters Township in the semifinals Feb 25.

Gateway, by making the semifinals, automatically qualified for the PIAA tournament.

The Gators saw their season come to a heartbreaking end in the first round of states with a 56-55 loss to District 3 No. 4 Hershey. Gateway had defeated Hershey in the 2022 PIAA tournament’s second round.

Corrie wins PSAC shot put title….twice

Gateway graduate Sarah Corrie captured her first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship in the shot put at the conference indoor finals in March.

The veteran Slippery Rock thrower achieved the title with a personal-best throw of 14.59 meters, beating the next-closest competitor by two-thirds of a meter.

The feat also earned Corrie her first trip to the NCAA Division II championships.

She then claimed another PSAC gold medal with a 14.41-meter throw in the shot at the outdoor championships in May.

Gateway Sports Hall of Fame returns

For the first time since 2019, a class of inductees was enshrined in the Gateway Sports Hall of Fame.

The banquet ceremony Nov. 4 at Edgewood Country Club honored and celebrated Gators athletic greats Rob Kalkstein, Shayla Scott, Cam Sadder, Luke Nosbisch, Dan Schmitt, Ralph Guzzo and the members of the 1967 PIAA Class 3A champion cross country team.

Ten members of the cross country team reunited before and at the banquet.

More than 150 family members and friends of the inductees and others loyal to Gateway athletics gathered to celebrate the occasion.

The Class of 2023 was the 17th to be honored since the hall of fame began in 1999.

Cisse returns to states

A strong cross country career came to a close Nov. 4 at the PIAA championships as Gateway senior Kefimba Cisse made his second straight appearance on the Hershey Parkview course.

He punched his ticket to states with a 19th-place finish at WPIALs at White Oak Park a week earlier.

It again was a challenging requirement to get to states from WPIAL boys Class 3A as two teams and the top 10 individuals were the only ones to receive berths to the PIAA meet.

Cisse produced several strong finishes throughout the season, including third place at the season-opening Gateway Invitational at Boyce Park, a 17th in the boys Class 3A race at the Red, White & Blue Invitational at White Oak Park, and a gold medal in the Class 3A boys division at the Bald Eagle Invitational at White Oak about a month later.

Gateway swimming busy at states

Members of Gators boys and girls swim teams competed 10 times at the PIAA Class 2A and 3A swimming championships in March at Bucknell after several podium finishes at the WPIAL finals at Pitt earlier in the month.

The girls 400-yard freestyle relay of senior Morgan Holmes, freshman Gianna Laurenti and juniors Mallory and McKenna Brown led the way at states with a fifth-place finish in their Class 2A championship heat.

Holmes, now a freshman on the women’s team at Bloomsburg, just missed the finals heat in the 50 free. She was ninth after the prelims and finished 10th in the consolation final.

Holmes placed third in the 50 at the WPIAL Class 2A championships.

She also tied for 11th in the consolation final of the 100 backstroke and was a part of the 15th-place 200 medley relay with the Brown sisters and senior Ayva Harris.

Hunter Raymer capped his sophomore season with a 13th in the consolation final of the Class 3A boys 500 free. He was third in the 500 at WPIALs.

Baseball and softball fields get a facelift

A new artificial turf surface was one of the many new aspects of the baseball and softball fields at the Gateway Sports Complex under a renovation project completed in the weeks leading up to the start of both spring seasons.

Outfield walls similar to what is seen at PNC Park were added, and new flashy scoreboards were put into place.

With favorable weather conditions throughout the fall of 2022 and into the New Year, work on the project proceeded at a positive pace.

Improvements to the dugouts also were part of the process, as well as the addition of bleachers at both fields.

The new field improvements eliminated a lot of the scheduling headaches that come with postponements and cancellations because of early season weather issues.

The WPIAL and PIAA took notice of the upgrades as nearly two dozen playoff games were staged on the fields throughout May and into June.

Bocce takes hold

Gateway athletic director Don Holl first saw what a Unified Bocco program was all about while at Seneca Valley, and he felt it would be something to consider at Gateway.

The school board got behind the idea for the program, and more than a dozen competitors, a mix of general and special education students, began to gather and interact in practices and competitions.

Some of the students played the game before, and for others, it was a new experience.

Unified Bocce is part of the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools program which maintains a goal of social inclusion through planned and implemented activities.

Gateway, for the 2023 season, was one of 89 teams in 50 schools throughout several Western Pennsylvania counties that made up the Three Rivers Region. The Gators faced Fox Chapel, Plum, Riverview, Burrell, Franklin Regional, Ligonier Valley, and Norwin in their division.

Making their move

The NCAA transfer portal for football again swept up many Division I players in 2023.

Gateway grads were included in the mix.

Derrick Davis was among the WPIAL notables who changed collegiate addresses as he made the move from LSU to Pitt for the 2023 season.

He announced the move in early January and was on the field with the Panthers for spring practices. This past season, the redshirt sophomore running back appeared in eight games and carried the ball twice for a total of 8 yards.

Courtney Jackson produced on the field for Arkansas State in 2023 after three seasons at Syracuse.

He led the Red Wolves receiving corps during the regular season in catches (38), yards (658) and touchdowns (7) as the team finished 6-6 overall.

Jackson and his ASU teammates will face Northern Illinois on Saturday in the Camellia Bowl at 11 a.m. in Montgomery, Ala. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Gateway boys soccer sets program record

Under the direction of first-year coach Mike Rugh, the Gators set a program record by qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.

The previous best streak was a run of three in a row from 1986-88.

Gateway finished 8-4-2 in Section 4-3A and included a victory over section power Franklin Regional. The Gators’ hopes of making a run in the WPIAL playoffs, however, came to a sudden halt with a 5-0 loss to Montour in the first round.

Senior forward Blake Marsh, senior goalkeeper Jack Kweder, junior midfielder Nick LoCoco and junior forward James LoCoco were honored with selection to the All-Section 4 team.

Gateway repeats as Big East football champ

The Gators football team finished 0-5 through a rugged nonconference schedule that included Mt. Lebanon, Central Catholic and McKeesport.

But when it counted for a spot in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs, the Gators got the job done.

Gateway went undefeated over five games in Big East play. The closest of the five wins was a 31-27 triumph at Penn-Trafford in the Victory Bell game Oct. 6.

The Gators hoped for a strong run in the WPIAL playoffs but were edged out by Moon, 35-31, in the first round at Antimarino Stadium.

Junior guard Chase Gabriel, sophomore tackle Kaiyen Mbandi, senior linebacker Steven Jenkins and junior defensive back Kenny Lewis were selected to the All-Big East first team.

Don Holl was voted the conference’s coach of the year.

Means punches ticket to senior nationals

Gateway and Cal (Pa.) graduate Jae’Len Means added sprinting at the U.S. Track and Field Senior National Championships in Oregon to his list of athletic accomplishments.

He qualified for the July nationals event in the 200 dash with a time of 20.93 seconds recorded in May at Track Night NYC.

Means, a multi-time All-American at Cal who won eight individual PSAC titles, ran the preliminaries and finished 24th overall in a time of 21.74.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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