Feb 26, 2026 5 min read

Catherine Miller of Upper St. Clair and Rinzen Sherpa from Mt. Lebanon are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to swimming experience, but they are on the same side of winning.

Miller and Sherpa along with Bethel Park’s Jackson Edwards captured their first individual WPIAL titles during the first day of competition in the Class 3A championship meet held Feb. 26 at the University of Trees Pool.

Miller won the 100-yard butterfly event. A freshman, who only started swimming three years ago, grabbed the gold by edging out Eva Ogden, a senior from North Allegheny, by five one-hundreds of a second. Miller’s winning time was 56.21

“Anytime a freshman can come in and win an event at WPIAL’s it’s a big deal,” said USC skipper Dave Schraven. “She actually came to swimming late. When she was 11, which is kind of late, for somebody at her level.

“Catherine’s a fighter. Super competitive and a hard worker,” Schraven continued. “You could see that in her last 25 yards and she got her hand to the wall first. So it was a great race for her.”

Sherpa clocked a 1:51.05 to slip past Central Catholic’s Cinco Perez (1:51.79) and claim the gold medal in the 200 individual medley. A junior, Sherpa used his signature swim, the breaststroke to pull away from the field and finish strong during the final leg, the freestyle. The IM includes a lead-off butterfly leg and the backstroke in the second segment.

“I just tried to build momentum into that (breast) leg and finish it with my freestyle,” said Sherpa. “I wanted to be a little faster but I can’t be too mad with that.

“It feels pretty good to win a WPIAL title,” he continued. “I’ve wanted one of those since my freshman year. So, I’m stoked it’s happening.”

Sherpa started swimming seven years ago. His dad took him to the Jewish Community Center “all the time” and then one of the coaches there noticed his talent and invited him to join the local swim team.

“I said yes and I’ve been swimming ever since,” he said. “I really enjoy it. To be honest, I don’t really care about the time, but, you know, I’m just trying to have fun racing the other guys and they’re all really good.”

When Jackson burst onto the scene several seasons ago, he was best at the backstroke, setting new standards as a freshman for Bethel Park High School. Today, he’s pretty good at the butterfly. A junior, Jackson coasted to victory in 48.97, a scant .55 off the All-America standard, and ahead of the second-place mark of 49.26 secured by North Allegheny’s Mason Shantz.

Jackson helped BP’s medley relay team of Caden Powell, TJ Strock and Connor Blocklin to the bronze medal and the 200 free relay team of Blocklin, Charlie Werts and Strock to a seventh-place showing.

Thanks to Sherpa, Mt. Lebanon was good enough to claim runner-up honors in the team competition with 255 points while USC took third place with a 224 score. Peters Township finished fourth (159).

North Allegheny won both the boys and girls team championships with whopping scores of 483 and 495 respectively. The NA girls have won 18 titles in a row and 30 overall. The boys have won four in a row and 20th overall.

“I’m excited for my team,” said Lebo head coach Tom Donati. “After our start on the first day, we stormed back. They worked really, really hard. It was just amazing. Great to see how they rallied and really, really hung tough.

“We are a bunch of no names. No superstars. No marque swimmers. Just a team,” continued Donati. “I’m so proud of them.

“We’re back,” Donati enthused. “We’re young and only lose a couple of swimmers so we’re coming back. They’ll bring it back strong for next year.”

In addition to his win in the IM, Sherpa secured silver in the breaststroke with a 55.93 time.

Greater Latrobe’s Chris Heese won the event in 54.40, .09 off the WPIAL record pace set by Josh Matheny, an Upper St. Clair grad who competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Several other Lebo swimmers submitted strong performances to place in the Top 8 during the meet.

William Thomas was runner-up to Thomas Westerman from Franklin Regional in the 200 free. Thomas posted a 1:41.59 time while Westerman clocked 1:40.91. Thomas also finished fifth in the 500 free

Thomas Vilardaga placed seventh and eighth respectively in the 200 and 500 free.

Noah Loboda found a spot on the podium with sixth in the 100 free.

Michael Zhu and Matthew Coleman added fifth and seventh places in the 100 breast.

Thomas and Vilardaga, Loboda and Zhu combined for third in the 200 free relay while the 400 relay unit of Thomas, Sherpa, Vilardaga and Loboda took runner-up honors to NA. Lebo’s medley relay unit of Sherpa, Zhu, Matthew Burton and Lee Campbell placed seventh.

For the Lebo ladies, Lillyan Evan finished fifth in the 100 back. She helped the medley relay team of Clara Shellenberger, Leah Werzyn and Sarah Albu as well as the 400 free relay of Albu, Colleen Hart and Evie Smith to seventh-place showings.

Visit www.wpial.org for complete results.