Area athletes swim best times at states
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Abby Matheny reached the podium twice during the PIAA swimming championships. The Upper St. Clair swimmer placed sixth in the 500-yard freestyle race and eighth in the 200-yard distance.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Jack Fitzpatrick finished fourth in the 200 IM and took third in the 500 freestyle during the PIAA state championships.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Trinity Ward of Mt. Lebanon secured sixth place in the 100-yard butterfly during the PIAA state championships. The junior also helped the 200 medley relay team of Maddie Dorish, Sophia Donati and Libby McDyer to a fifth-place finish.
Though the South Hills claimed only one gold medal, several local competitors contributed best times and placed on the podium during the PIAA swimming and diving championships held March 14-17 at Bucknell University.
Overall, the Upper St. Clair boys had the best finish, placing ninth in the team standings. North Allegheny ran away with the Class AAA crown, winning with a 301 score while North Penn followed in second place with 190 points.
Josh Matheny led the way. The freshman won the second-to-last event, the 200-yard breaststroke event.
Things, however, did not start positively for the Panthers. They were disqualified in the opening race, the 200-yard medley relay, because of a false start. USC expected to do well enough in the race to supply enough points for the team to finish in the Top 5.
“That was our goal,” USC skipper Dave Schraven said. He noted that if the unit had not “DQ’ed” then the Panthers would have finished fourth or fifth and not ninth in the team standings.
“That was a very tough way to start the meet,” Schraven added. “But, I’m proud of how we bounced back.”
Jack Fitzpatrick ignited the comeback. The junior finished fourth in the 200 IM with a 1:50.49 time while Matheny ended up eighth in 1:54.07. Fitzpatrick also took third in the 500-yard freestyle.
The Panthers showed marked improvement in the 400-yard freestyle relay. In the last race of the meet, Fitzpatrick, Ben Diffendal, Matheny and Brandon Novak won the consolation heat in 3:09.77. While the unit finished ninth, the time was faster than the eight-place finisher in the championship heat. It was also the fastest time of the season for the group.
“Our boys had a great swim.” Shraven said. “We switched up the order and led off with Jack and anchored with Brandon. That seems to have helped and we did our best time of the season by a second and a half. It was a great way to end the meet for the boys.”
On the girls’ side, USC ranked 13th in the team standings, one slot ahead of rival Mt. Lebanon, which placed 14th.
Abby Matheny excelled, gaining a spot on the podium in two races. The senior, who is bound for Williams College in the fall, was eighth in the 200 free and sixth in the 500 free.
“I was really excited to finish my high school career with two medals,” she said. “It was the first time that I medaled in the 500 so that was really cool.”
Three slots behind Matheny in the 500 free was her teammate, Olivia Shaffer. The senior, who will swim and study nursing at Drexel University, combined with Matheny to aid the 200 free relay. The unit, which also included Taylor Connors and Elinor Connor, placed 11th overall.
“Racing with your teammates is really special,” said Matheny, “and that’s what I’m going to miss most about high school swimming. My teammates and my coaches because they got me to where I am today and I could not have accomplished everything I did without them.”
PT trio shines
Peters Township could not have achieved its recent heights-WPIAL runner-up in 2017-without Stephen Hopta. The senior, who is headed to the Virginia Military Institute to swim for the Keydets, managed to submit strong performances despite suffering the lingering effects from the flu.
He placed 13th in the 200 free with a 1:42.26 time and 11th in the 100 back with a 50.98. He also contributed to Peters Township’s 13th and 21st place showings in the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
“Stephen has been a terrific asset to our program,” said PT head coach Mike Meyers. “He leads by example and swims tough in every outing. It was unfortunate he could not kick the flu bug. I think he would have had a fantastic senior year had he been healthy, especially these last four weeks.”
Paul Luniewski, who swam the butterfly leg on the medley relay and a segment on the 400 free relay, scored a personal best time of 58.33 in the 100 fly. He placed 13th.
While Bert Wang and Ryan Rose excelled on PT’s medley relay, Cassidy Sweeney had good swims in the fly and back. The sophomore finished in the Top 22 for both events.
Because of Sweeney’s as well as Wang’s experiences at states, expectations are high for the future of the Indians’ program. This season alone, Peters advanced 21 swimmers to the WPIAL championships and several others were on the cusp of reaching the qualifying time standards.
“Now we have to convert those qualifying times into scoring times,” Meyers noted. “That takes hard work and great focus.
“The team is not afraid of the hard work so we just have to turn that into a little faster WPIAL times,” continued Meyers, who added his incoming freshman class looks very good as several of the swimmers are already close to WPIAL standards.
Ward sixth
Last year, Trinity Ward set the standard quite high. The Mt. Lebanon junior won the 100-yard butterfly as the 2017 state championship meet. In a fast race, she swam a 55.77 and settled for sixth place. Ward also finished 16th in the 100 free.
“Trinity gave 110 percent,” said Lebo coach Tom Donati. “We just did not have the meet we expected. I feel for her. I have tried to help her realize that she is a special young lady who has so many great swims ahead of her. This will help make her stronger both in the water and in life in general.”
Ward and her teammates had a strong showing in the medley relay. Ward, Maddie Dorish, Sophia Donati and Libby McDyer combined for fifth place with a 1:45.09 time.
“The kids gave it their all,” Donati said. “They continued to battle from the first swim to the last.”
Lebo’s unit of Donati, Dorish, Ward and Devon Scott-Davis placed 12th in the 400 free relay.
In the diving competition, Lebo’s Lucas Bumgarner and Owen Johns finished fifth and sixth respectively. Bumgarner, who will dive at Emory University next fall, scored 446.95 points while Johns, a junior, racked up 446.65 points. Chambersburg’s Nick Cover won the Class AAA diving with a 521.50 score.
Other results
Cullin Baker capped his scholastic career with Top 16 showings in the Class AA sprint freestyle races. The Seton LaSalle senior was 13th in the 50-yard distance and 14th in the 100 with times of 21.88 and 48.66 respectively.
For South Fayette, Abbie Duncan set a new team record when she finished 10th in the 100-yard backstroke. She also scored 26th place in the 200 free.
Dante Cecere added 30th place in the 50 free for the Lions.