Gateway youth track club sends large contingent to USATF JO Nationals

Alexis Bansah jumped at the chance to win a WPIAL Class 2A championship in May at Slippery Rock.

The Monroeville resident and Winchester Thurston sophomore brought home WPIAL gold in the triple jump with a top attempt of 40 feet, 2 inches, a season and personal best.

She then went onto earn silver in the event at the PIAA meet at Shippensburg.

Bansah also took fourth in the long jump at both WPIALs and states.

While the 40-2 in the triple was a great accomplishment in her eyes, Bansah wanted more as she transitioned to the summer season with the Gateway Gators youth club team.

And more is what she got.

She recorded a personal best in the 17-18 age division triple jump and twice set meet records, winning first at the Three Rivers Association Junior Olympic Championships (40-6.5) last month and then at the USATF Region 2 JO Championships (39-8) a couple of weeks ago.

Bansah was happy but not satisfied as she went for more in the triple jump, long jump and 200-meter dash at USATF JO Nationals last week. She joined more than 50 others from Gateway at the season-ending meet in Savannah, Ga.

“I thought I would reach 40 feet (in the triple jump) by my senior year,” said Bansah, who also set a personal best of 18-8 in finishing second in the long jump at regionals.

“With the training that I got from my coaches, it felt great knowing that I could go beyond what I thought and achieve it sooner.”

Bansah, a member of the Gateway Gators club team all three years of its existence, continues to see her stock rise.

“She is one of our most accomplished athletes with her hard work making such a difference,” Gateway coach Brooke Rawls said.

“She works with us, with the Winchester Thurston team, and she takes private lessons. She is so dedicated to her craft.”

Bansah said it was great to be a part of such a large contingent of Gateway club athletes at nationals, especially with younger sister, Izabelle, who qualified individually in the 13-14 javelin, shot put and discus.

Of the 58 Gateway athletes who competed at regionals in the 7-8 to 17-18 age divisions, 53 qualified for nationals in one or more events.

“Everyone was extremely excited to have so many qualify for nationals,” Rawls said.

“There was such a buzz in the air at practices before heading down (to Savannah). They were locked in and extremely focused to make sure they were ready to compete and see all the other athletes at this level.”

A majority of the athletes on the team are from Gateway, but there are some from Plum, Murrysville, Penn Hills and the communities that serve Woodland Hills.

An eighth-place finish or better at regionals qualified an athlete for the national meet. Gateway competitors brought home 16 first-place regional medals.

Gateway made history with the first-ever mixed 400 relay at regionals. The quartet of Bansah, Elena Myers, Cayden Rankin and Michael Howard was the lone 400 relay to compete in the 15-16 division, and they established the new regional benchmark time of 47.74 seconds.

To qualify for nationals, a team member needed to be age 7 or older or turn 7 by the end of 2025. Rawls said several 5-year-olds were competitive at regionals.

Skylar Moss doesn’t turn 6 until October, but her sixth-place finish in the 7-8 girls javelin (18-2) would have sent her to nationals had she been old enough.

Rawls said having so many Gateway national qualifiers in a variety of events made for an expected busy week in Savannah.

“As coaches, we talk a lot about the fact that we are not just a running team, a throwing team or a jumping team,” she said.

“We have some pretty versatile athletes who are talented in a number of events on the track and then in the jumps or throws. It makes preparing for an event like nationals a little hectic, but it is amazing at the same time. We always encourage them to try different events. Some of our top sprinters tried javelin this year just because they wanted to. We had a lot of kids try hurdles or the long jump for the first time. We let them move around and find their strengths.

“We have a few that want to try the combined events like the decathlon next year. They want to train in those 10 different events.”

Rawls said the roster numbered 115 at the start of the season in April. The first club meet was at the beginning of May when a number of the older athletes were getting into the championship portion of their high school seasons.

Rawls said a student-coach program for those high school competitors helped them stay involved with the club team.

“They didn’t practice or compete for (the club) team while they were still in season, but they came and helped us with the younger athletes as often as they could,” Rawls said.

“They got that leadership experience in helping train the younger athletes. The younger kids love looking up to the older athletes and seeing how far they’ve come. The older athletes share their stories about how they came along in their events. It keeps the older athletes honest to know there is always somebody watching them and learning from them. We tell them that they have to represent Gateway and the Gator well everywhere they go.”

Two dozen Gateway team members also competed at the USATF National Youth Outdoor Championships late last month in New York.

The meet is open to everyone, and there are no qualifiers.

“We decided to make in an elective meet,” Rawls said. “A lot of our athletes did well and placed.”

Only three boys — Lucas Mutombo, Kam Garner, and Chase Jones — represented Gateway in the 8U boys division, but they scored enough combined points (38) in the 100 and 200 dashes and the long jump to finish third in the team standings.

Their point total was just one away from second and four away from first.