Gateway senior Dino Nadarevic entered his final high school outdoor track and field season eyeing up a couple of longstanding throwing school records.
Work in the offseason and in the indoor season got him ready to go after the top marks in both the discus and shot put.
Building his strength was also one of his goals, and that proved to be beneficial when one of the records fell March 21 in Gateway’s season opening meet against Hempfield and Connellsville.
He popped a throw in the discus of 172 feet, 5 inches as he dominated the event that day.
That mark surpassed the previous school record of 172-3 set by Wayne Marinclin as a senior in 1973.
“Since I started throwing seriously, I wanted to break that record, and also the record in the shot put,” Nadarevic said.
“It just so happened for it to be the discus first. Coming into that meet, I knew the throw was there. It was about time to happen. It felt amazing, and it is awesome to know that my name is in the record books.”
Nadarevic’s previous best throw in the discus, 168-3, came at last year’s Baldwin Invitational.
Marinclin, the man that now is No. 2 all-time in the discus at Gateway, met with Nadarevic last week and congratulated him on the new record.
“Dino is a fine young man and a really good athlete with a lot of potential,” Marinclin said.
“I got the chance to watch him today, and I think he will be able to throw even further the rest of the season.
“When I heard someone broke my record, I said, ‘Great. Finally, someone broke it.’ It lasted for a long time. I just wanted it to be someone who is a good student and a good person, and Dino definitely is both. I had my time in high school and college. It was only right for the torch to be passed. Dino loves the sport, and I look forward to coming up again and working with him.”
Nadarevic said he was pleased to meet and talk with Marinclin, something he wanted to have happen since breaking the record.
Nadarevic was third on the all-time Gateway discus list. Chris Warning in 2006 came close to Marinclin’s record as he achieved a personal best 172-2.
Marinclin was a throwing standout for Gateway and a classmate of current Gateway throwing coach Joe Ritter. He went on to Bowling Green where he threw the shot and discus. With a heavier discus implement in college, Marinclin achieved a top discus throw of more than 180 feet.
“It is special the admiration that Dino has for those who went before him,” Ritter said.
“I saw how special (breaking the javelin record) was because when I looked over the record list, javelin and shot where the oldest ones still standing. All of the other ones had been broken over the last 20 to 30 years. Wayne’s was still out there after 50 years.”
Bob Buczkowski’s 1982 shot put record of 63-1.5 is up next.
Nadarevic’s outdoor personal best in the shot is 57-6 set in winning the event at last year’s South Fayette Invitational.
His top indoor mark was 60-1 set at a Tri-State Track Coaches Association Indoor meet at Edinboro on Jan. 11.
Gateway dominates section singles
It was déjà vu all over again for Gateway seniors Adam Memije and Zidaan Hassan at the Section 1-3A boys tennis tournament last Wednesday and Thursday.
As the top two seeds, Memije and Hassan, both of whom are committed to play in college at Division III Allegheny, rolled to a third consecutive finals meeting. And just like 2023 and last year, Memije got the better of his classmate.
Memije, this time, won with set scores of 6-1, 6-0.
“That match was similar to the past two years, very competitive,” coach Matt Stockunas said.
“Adam won 6-1, 6-0, but they were all very close games in both sets. They are both just very competitive players who know each other’s games so well. They’ve set themselves up to do very well at WPIALs.”
Memije topped Hassan in three sets, 7-6 (5), 0-6, 6-2, as sophomores in 2023, and defeated Hassan, 6-2, 6-4 last year.
Thursday’s action was moved indoors to the Greensburg Racquet Club because of adverse weather conditions. Before getting to the finals, Memije and Hassan had to complete semifinals matches which were suspended from Wednesday at Franklin Regional.
Memije topped Franklin Regional junior Sanshiro Ogawa, 6-1 6-0, in one semifinal while Hassan upended Franklin Regional sophomore Colin Stalnaker, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the other.
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By making the semifinals, Memije, Hassan, Ogawa and Stalnaker knew they had earned automatic berths to the WPIAL singles championships that was to be contested Tuesday at North Allegheny and Wednesday at Bethel Park.