Sewickley Academy senior looking for more medals
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Pick a sport and Ryan Gex excels at it.
As a golfer, he had been a part of two WPIAL and one PIAA Class 2A team championship teams at Sewickley Academy.
While playing for the Panthers hockey team, he was a defenseman and scored five goals and chipped in eight assists for a team that qualified for the PIHL Class 1A Penguins Cup playoffs this season.
Gex also plays tennis and, for the past two years, has been the No. 3 singles player on a team with a reigning WPIAL and PIAA champion at No. 1 in Luke Ross and 2015 WPIAL singles finalist Sam Sauter in the second slot. He has also been a part of a Sewickley Academy team that won its 14th consecutive WPIAL Class 2A team title this year and will head to the state playoffs on May 16 looking to become the first WPIAL team to repeat as PIAA champion.
Gex, though, is a multiple WPIAL champion in his own right. In his first three seasons, he has won the Class 2A doubles title and, when the tournament begins next week, he will be looking to become the first player to run the table in either classification.
“I’d say it’s more of a fun challenge, though I think there will be some pressure,” Gex said. “That’s why I love playing doubles because if I’m not playing well he can help me out and, if he’s not playing well, then I can help him. It’s more of a team sport.”
Gex won his three titles with two different partners, pairing with Luke Vith as a freshman and his older brother Don the past two years. Now that Don has graduated, he will have a little more than a week to break in a new partner, senior Neil Rana.
“My focus has been on singles this year, so I haven’t really been able to play with any of the doubles guys so far,” Gex said. “I’m anxious to go into doubles and see how we do, but I’m definitely looking forward to sections and WPIALs and have a positive outlook on it and make it as much fun for them as it is for me.”
Rana is no slouch at doubles, either. Last season he teamed with Brian Rosario and finished third in the WPIAL and qualified for the state playoffs.
“It’s definitely going to be exciting it’s going to be thrilling with a new partner,” Gex said. “There are a lot of good teams out there in Indiana, California and a lot of other WPIAL teams.”
Still, despite all his success on court, he might rather be doing something else if he had the choice.
“I’d say my favorite sport would be golf, which is probably not the answer my coach [Whitney Snyder] wants me to say,” Gex said. “Overall, some of my closest friends play golf and I go out with them in the summer. I try to carry that attitude and have fun in all the sports I’ve played this year.”
College bound
Maria Santilli became the first girls tennis player from Norwin to win the WPIAL Class 3A singles title when she defeated Upper St. Clair freshman Marlo Schiffman, 6-2, 6-2, in the final.
She got her reward last week.
Santilli, the No. 2-ranked junior in the state, committed to play collegiately at Cincinnati. She had offers from several other colleges including some in the Atlantic 10, ACC and the Ivy League.
“I chose them mainly for the positive support of an organized coach and the fact that courts are on campus and they’re building a new business school that will be opening the year that I get there,” Santilli said. “It was all pretty exciting.”
Santilli had a rough start to her 2016 season as she spent the first month recovering from a broken foot from the summer. Had it not been for the WPIAL flipping the individual championships to after the team tournament instead of before as it had been in the past, it would have been more difficult to win title.
Instead, she defeated Schiffman, then knocked out District 12 champion Eliza Askarova of George Washington, 6-4, 6-4, in the state finals to give the WPIAL its fourth consecutive Class 3A PIAA singles champion and 15th in the past 19 years.
“I feel a lot more relaxed and now I just have to play to get myself better. I don’t have to worry about what other coaches are watching me because I’ve decided,” Santilli said. “I love to compete and I’ve always dreamed of playing Division I tennis.”