MCCC set to induct newest Athletics Hall of Fame class
From the days of Trenton Junior College to now Mercer County Community College, the school has always produced some of the greatest athletic teams and athletes that are truly Hall of Fame worthy.
On Saturday, June 11 at Cobblestone Creek Country Club beginning at 6 p.m., the MCCC Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2022 will be inducted.
Being inducted will be the 1968 Men’s Soccer National Team, the 1974 Men’s Basketball National Championship Team and the 2000 Women’s Tennis National Championship Team.
The men’s soccer team was the first national championship under the banner of Mercer County Community College which was created in 1966.
Dave Leckie, who is also being inducted, was an All-America player on that team and he scored the winning goal in the championship game.
He went on to an AllAmerica career at Alderson-Broaddus and he later returned to coach the Vikings and led them to a 21-1 record and national runnerup season.
Another great All-America soccer player at Mercer was Pete Lindauer.
An NJCAA All-America player in 1969 and 1970, his Viking teams combined for a 33-1-1 record. He was a member of the Philadelphia Atoms and he is in the Mercer County Soccer Hall of Fame and the German American Kickers Hall of Fame.
A member of the 1968 basketball team, Bobby Sands is also being inducted.
Sands was an All-America player and the National Player of the Year in 1968. After a great career at Pepperdine, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Dan Gakeler was a standout pitcher at Mercer and was drafted in the first round by the Boston Red
Sox with the third overall pick in the Secondary Phase Draft in 1984.
He pitched with the Detroit Tigers as a starter and a reliever in 1991.
Diane Kelly was the first Mercer Athlete to earn AllAmerica honors in two sports, women’s soccer and softball.
It was in the 1984 and ’85 seasons that Kelly was an All-America player in Women’s Soccer, and both years she was the JUCO national leader in goals scored.
She achieved All-America status in softball in 1986 and went on to play both sports at George Washington.
After pitching Nottingham High to a state championship, Jennifer Lopresti was a two-time All-America player at Mercer in 1988 and 1989.
She continued her AllAmerica career at Trenton State College.
The late great Mercer Hall of Fame basketball coach Howie Landa once stated, “Carole was the rudder on the Vikings ship.’’
He was speaking of longtime Athletics Administrative Assistant, Carole Gibilisco, who is being inducted as an Administrator.
Before becoming an All-Conference player at Cheyney, Mary Smith-Jones had an All-America career at Mercer in 1988 as she averaged 21.6 points per game.
She tied Terry Dorner’s single-game record of 46 points.
Robert Marchetti was an NJCAA All-America track performer in the high jump, both indoor and outdoor, at Mercer and later won the Western Athletic Conference title at the University of New Mexico.
Marchetti coached at New Mexico, MCCC, Murray State, Columbia and Belmont Abbey.
It is another magnificent and deserving class of Mercer teams, administrators and athletes joining the Hall of Fame.