Upper St. Clair poised for strong showing at swim championships
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan set a new pool record in the 200-yard freestyle event during Upper St. Clair’s win against Mt. Lebanon.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Upper St. Clair’s Ethan Neal competes in the butterfly leg of the 200-yard medley relay.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Upper St. Clair’s Will Perham pulls through the water during the breaststroke leg of the 200-yard individual medley during Upper St. Clair’s dual meet against Mt. Lebanon.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Upper St. Clair’s Ryan Senchyshak ranks among one of the top freestyle swimmers entered in the WPIAL championships set for March 3-4 at Pitt.
The Upper St. Clair boys swimming team captured last year’s WPIAL championships.
This time around, Seneca Valley is the team to beat.
The Raiders were runners-up to the Panthers in 2021. They also own an overwhelming dual meet victory against USC, which was short four performers because of illness.
USC finished the regular season with an 8-2 overall record. The Panthers’ only other loss came against North Allegheny, 98-81. In the meet, an exuberant swimmer fell in the pool during the initial race and all three USC medley relays were disqualified according to the rules.
The Panthers also captured their fifth section title in a row, finishing at 6-0 after posting a 100.5-82.5 victory over Mt. Lebanon.
“It’s not an easy path but last year was not an easy path,” USC head coach Dave Schraven said of competing for a WPIAL title.
“There’s no pressure because we are not like the favorite,” he continued. “The way we view it is more like we have done it before, we can do it again. We feel more like we demonstrated we can do it. So, let’s do it again.”
Schraven added there is more parity in boys swimming than there has been in the past. Seneca Valley is on top while USC, NA and Fox Chapel are on the rise while Mt. Lebanon and Franklin Regional keep getting better.
“There are a lot of good teams,” he said. “A lot of teams can impact the results of the meet.”
The WPIAL championships return March 3-4 to the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool after a one-year hiatus. The 2021 finals were held at Upper St. Clair’s state-of-the-art natatorium because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Class AAA competition begins at 9:45 a.m. The Class AA races start at 3 p.m.
“We are looking forward to returning to Pitt,” Schraven said. “It gives more kids an opportunity to compete.”
The WPIAL did, however, raise the standards by lowering the qualifying times. However, the top 32 individuals and top 24 relays will compete.
Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan is expected to be one of USC’s top competitors.
Sivaramakrishnan was the 2021 silver medalist in the 100-yard butterfly with a 50.03 time. He also finished fourth in last year’s 100 backstroke with a 50.69 time. He was third in both events at the PIAA championships.
“Ganesh has been working hard and swimming great,” Schraven said. “He’s the guy that we are relying upon to win races and to help our relays.”
Sivaramakrishnan is a versatile swimmer. He recently broke the USC pool record in the 200-yard freestyle.
He also combines with Ethan Neal, Ryan Senchyshak, Andrew White, Will Perham and Daniel Wang on the medley and free relays.
“We have a big boys team with a lot of good swimmers but our best swimmers are those six seniors,” Schraven said. “All those guys have a chance to make it to states as individuals. If they all make it, they certainly will have been our most productive class.”
Neal and Wang are seeded in the backstroke but Sivaramakrishnan and Bethel Park’s Dom Cortopassi are ranked among the favorites to win the event. White and Pelham compete in the breaststrokers and individual medley while Senchyshak is a freestyle specialist.
“We look for those guys to improve upon their seed times and help the team from a scoring perspective,” Schraven said. “They will do what they need to do to make it to states. We are looking at the bigger picture. In our minds, states is the more important meet.”
Last year, USC finished third in the state thanks in part to Josh Matheny. The Indiana University freshman won Swimmer of the Meet honors with three gold medals and record performance in the 100-yard breaskstroke.
The Panthers are looking for a strong performance when the PIAA hosts its championships March 16-17 at the Kinney Natatorium on the Bucknell University campus in Lewisburg.
Based on the current top times, USC anticipates qualifying more swimmers for the WPIAL championships.
Among those are: juniors Alex Petkov (breast), Colby Bernard (fly) and Matey Zoukovski (sprint free); sophomores Whitten Burns; Pavel Schabanow (IM) and Max Shipley (distance free); and freshman Liam Tomb (breast).