Gateway sports notebook: Piper Munyon among top finishers at Red, White & Blue Invitational

By: Michael Love
Sunday, September 14, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Piper Munyon made her Red, White & Blue Invitational debut Sept. 6 at White Oak Park and found herself among some of the top runners in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia at the finish line.

The Gateway sophomore also saw an improvement in her time from last year’s WPIAL championship meet on the same course.

Munyon placed seventh overall and was fifth among WPIAL runners in the Class 3A girls race.

She clocked a time of 18 minutes, 33.70 seconds, an improvement of almost a minute and a half from WPIALs (20:07.5) when she took 43rd.

Munyon was just a second away from the sixth-place finisher, Abigail Rogers, a junior from University (W.Va).

Norwin senior Annie Czajkowski won with a 17:52.90. It was the only time better than 18 minutes.

Senior Robert Kennedy led the Gateway boys with a time of 18:44 (158th). Junior Isaac Sha was seven seconds behind Kennedy and placed 163rd.

Gateway runners were slated to return to competition Friday at the annual Kiski Area Invitational at Northmoreland Park. The races were to be contested past the deadline for this week’s edition.

The Gators will run at Saturday’s Uniontown Invitational before joining Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional, Kiski Area, Penn Hills, Plum and Woodland Hills for the one-day Division I, Section 4 championship meet back at Northmoreland Park.

Girls soccer

Gateway girls soccer started its season 2-0 with wins over Penn Hills and Obama Academy in convincing fashion.

The Gators then entered a more challenging stretch with games against Plum, Mars, Hampton and Franklin Regional. Gateway tallied just one goal in those four games, but the one came in the second half against Mars. Senior Geneveive Valdengo found the back of the net in the second half.

“I think we started getting our identity a little better at Mars, especially in the second half when we played very disciplined,” Gateway coach Caleb Kyper said.

“That goal against them was a first for us in several years. It was a big one for us. It was a well-played ball across. It was a meaningful goal, not just an end-of-game fluke. Something as simple as that one goal lifted us into the Hampton game, which I thought was our best game of the season. That was more of an even-up game than a 2-0 final score. The big thing is that we are still learning how to score goals. That is the last piece of the puzzle if we can get there.”

Gateway (2-4, 1-2) was slated to continue its rugged early run this week with a section matchup at No. 1 Fox Chapel on Monday before what Kyper called almost a must-win situation to keep the playoff hopes alive Thursday at home with Shaler.

Boys soccer

The Gators boys soccer team entered last Thursday’s Section 1-4A match at Norwin in search of its first win of the season after five straight setbacks.

Four of those five came on the road before its home opener against Plum on Sept. 9.

Junior Amar Murrell-Merriwether scored in the first half against Plum, but the powerful Mustangs lineup put four on the board over the first 40 minutes and added three more in the second half for a 7-1 win.

Junior Cam Simon scored goals in both a 4-1 loss at Canon-McMillan on Aug. 28 and a close 2-1 defeat at the hands of rival Penn Hills on Sept. 4.

Three straight road matches begin this Thursday with the first-cycle finale against Hempfield followed by nonsection battles with Kiski Area (Sept. 20) and Springdale (Sept. 23).

Girls tennis

Srilihan Sapram and Julianne Lamantia represented the Gateway girls tennis team at the Section 1-3A singles tournament last Wednesday at Franklin Regional.

Seeded eighth, Sapram, a senior, outlasted Kiski Area’s Sadee Andree, 11-9, in a first-round pro-set match. Pro-set winners are the first ones to reach 10 points, but they must win by two.

Sapram’s reward for advancing to the quarterfinals was a matchup with No. 1 Mia Williams from Penn-Trafford.

Williams, a senior, won last year’s section title, finished runner-up at WPIALs, and qualified for the PIAA tournament. She shut out Sapram, 10-0.

Lamantia hoped to join Sapram in the quarterfinals, but she was not able to get past Hempfield’s Ella Barras, the No. 5 seed, who scored a 10-1 victory.

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