After strong 1st season, Gateway swimmer Aliya Rassiane looks to maintain momentum

By: Michael Love
Sunday, January 12, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Aliya Rassiane packed a lot of positive results into her first varsity season with the Gateway swim team.

The sprint freestyle and butterfly specialist had a breakout freshman year which culminated in WPIAL Class 2A medals in the 50-yard freestyle (fifth), the 100 butterfly (fifth) and the 400 free relay (fourth) before taking 11th in the 100 fly at the PIAA championships.

“WPIALs and the PIAA meet were pretty cool,” said Rassiane, now a sophomore.

“I had a lot of fun with my teammates. It was a really great experience to be on the podium (at WPIALs) as many times as I did. I got more and more confident in myself as time went on. All of it provided me with a lot of motivation to work hard and come back this season and drop time.”

Rassiane is not resting on her laurels and is building on an offseason of work with her Monroeville Marlins club team and through many miles of training laps and competition since this season kicked off in late November.

“I have big goals for WPIALs and states,” she said.

“I feel a little bit better now than I did at this time last year. My times now are better than what they were at this time last year, so that is good to see that I am progressing. Last year really showed me the effort that it will take to reach my goals.”

Rassiane fared well in a high school meet Dec. 21 at the Spire Institute in Ohio. Getting the chance to compete against many of the top names in the WPIAL, she placed fourth in both the 50 free and 100 fly.

“It was a pretty good meet for me,” Rassiane said.

“My times at that meet weren’t as good as what they were at the end of last season, but they were good for where I was at that point. I know they will only get better.”

Rassiane has punched her ticket to WPIALs with qualifying cuts in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly. She got the 50 and 100 fly in the season-opening meet with Norwin, and the 100 free came in her leadoff swim of the 400 free relay at Spire.

Right now, she feels that she will stick with the 50 free and 100 fly for the WPIAL championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

Rassiane also helped the 200 medley and 400 free relays — with senior Jolina Estremera, junior Gianna Laurenti, and freshman Elle Kaminski — earn WPIAL qualifying cuts.

With the Gateway girls making the move up to Class 3A, Rassiane said she is looking forward to facing a whole new set of competitors.

That includes Mt. Lebanon senior freestyle sprinter Sylvia Roy, the WPIAL 50 free champion the past three seasons.

“Sylvia is so fast,” Rassiane said. “I swam against her at the meet in Ohio.”

There will be a new WPIAL Class 3A girls champion in the 100 fly as Natalie Sens, last year’s champion, moved on because of graduation and is a freshman on the women’s team at George Washington.

Rassiane said both the boys and girls teams benefited from the holiday break practices.

“Those practices definitely are more challenging, but we try to make them fun, too,” Rassiane said.

“We split the teams in half and had a scrimmage meet. We just tried to stick together through all of the practices and focus on the section meets coming up.”

Gateway kicked off 2025 with a section sweep of Woodland Hills on Jan. 3.

The Gators host Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Raymer to swim at Denison

The Denison men’s swim team placed sixth at last year’s NCAA Division III national championships.

The Big Red continued its run of solid performances on the grandest of college stages.

Gateway senior Hunter Raymer hopes to help continue Denison’s solid run as he joins the program next year.

Raymer finalized his decision early last month. He said he’s excited to see what he will be able to contribute to an already stacked lineup.

“It was a tough decision with the other schools that I had the most interest in, but Denison just was the best fit for me,” Raymer said.

“It will be a challenge academically, and I like that. Athletically, the team competes for NCAAs every year. I loved my recruiting visit. The facilities are great. Denison is a place where I can thrive both athletically and academically.”

Raymer said he is on track with his goals and expectations for his final varsity season.

He completed the individual qualifying sweep by getting the cuts in both the 50 free and 100 breaststroke. He has earned qualifying cuts in every individual event in all four of his varsity seasons.

“It is super cool to be able to do that,” Raymer said. “I am pretty proud of that.”

The distance specialist, who hopes to return to the top of the medals podium in the 500 after winning it as a freshman, will decide on whether to swim the 200 free or 200 individual medley at WPIALs.

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.

Tags: Gateway