Mar 3, 2026 By Eleanor Bailey 6 min read

In their signature swims, the 100-yard freestyle race, Nazar Zoukovski of Upper St. Clair and Ava Komoroski from Peters Township are sure things.

They came into the WPIAL Class 3A championships as defending champions and left the Joseph C. Trees Pool on the University of Pittsburgh Campus with duplicate gold medals.

Their triumphs were far from easy.

Zoukovski left the starting blocks seeded third behind his own teammate, Ben Whiteford, and Dom Davis from Mars. He finished first, touching out Davis by a scant seven hundreds of second, for his third title in the race.

“Nazar stepped up,” said USC skipper David Schraven. “When he puts his mind to it, he gets it done. It wasn’t by a lot, but he got it done by enough.”

Zoukovski admitted there was “definitely a lot of pressure” to win his third 100 free championship but felt having Whiteford swimming in Lane 4 “calmed” his nerves.

“We do this in practice all the time so it’s great to have him beside me,” he said.

Zoukovski also indicated he was relieved to win the gold particularly after his “disappointing” showing in the 50 free on Day 1 of the competition. Zoukovski took the bronze in the race, which was won by Davis in 20.26.

“It was a little bummer that the 50 didn’t work out, but I’m glad I came back for the 100 and gave it all that I had.

“I feel like I got a little too excited and my brain kind of shut off during the 50 free, but I kind of kept calm and tried to execute the details for the 100. I’m very excited about the win.”

Zoukovski grew nostalgic thinking about his third championship because it is an indication that his scholastic career is coming to a close. The PIAA championships set for March 11-14 at Kinney Natatorium on the campus of Bucknell University will be his last official high school event donning the USC swimcap.

“I wouldn’t say this WPIAL title is more special because it was so close. I would say that it’s definitely a little sad that it’s my last. Next year it’ll be on to bigger and better things,” said the Arizona recruit.

The best is yet to come as well for Komoroski. Because she is a junior, she too, can become a three-time champion in the 100 free.

She entered this year’s WPIAL meet as the top seed with a more than one second advantage over the rest of the field.

“I knew there was going to be competition, but I was pretty set in my mind that I was going to win it,” Komoroski said.

And, she did.

On Day 2 of racing on Feb. 27, Komoroski won the race in 51.06, .01 seconds faster than her seed time.

“I’m very proud of Ava defending her title,” said PT skipper Alex Hardwick. “It’s one of those things where almost being the winner is more of a nerve wracking experience than being fresh out of a pool swimmer.

Cameron Peretti from Woodland Hills was the fish out of nowhere that had sights on toppling the champion. The junior lowered her mark by more than three seconds and finished runner-up with a 51.61 time.

“I just went all out from the very start and I didn’t hold anything back,” Komoroski said.

Hardwick concurred.

“She was a lot of fun to watch,” he said. “Ava did a wonderful job taking it out with a lot of confidence, and this time, her last 25 was so much better than last year’s”

Komoroski agreed, saying that her “details” (starts, turns, under-water swims and finish) have improved.

“I just kind of put on my best performance, and I think that really made the difference,” she said. “Although I’m not fully tapered for this meet, I still wanted to win.

I won,” she added. “I got what I wanted.”

Komoroski, who grabbed a bronze medal in the 50 free, wants to do well at the PIAA championships next. Last year, she placed ninth in the 50 free and 12th in the 100 at the state meet.

“Yes, on to states,” said Komoroski. “That’s where I’m going to go for it all this time.”

That is a vow Hardwick expects Komoroski to keep.

“I think her 100 performance gives her a lot of promise going into states,” he said.

Going into Day 2 of the competition, the Peters Township boys reversed their fortunes. DQed on the final event of the first session the day prior, the Indians rebounded to finish fourth in the team standings.

North Allegheny won both the boys and girls team championships with whopping scores of 483 and 495 respectively.

In the boys team standings, Mt. Lebanon earned the runner-up trophy with 255 points.

Thanks to Zouvkovis and Whiteford, Upper St. Clair took third with 224. The duo combined with Danis Vakufac and Tom Howard for runner-up honors in the medley relay as well as the 200 free relay.

Individually, Howard and Vakufac scored sixth and seventh in the IM. Vakufac also finished fourth in the breaststroke. Whiteford added thirds in the 100 free and back.

Peters Township finished with a 159 score for fourth in the boys’ team standings.

“I think for the boys to be in a position where we were pretty much all best times, day one, till that last relay was tough. We finished the day in sixth but worked our way back to fourth place.

“We say, you either win or you’ll learn, so we had some learning (Day 1). We had some winning (Day 2). For the team we have, it’s a great finish.”

The Indians finished strong with a third-place showing behind NA and Lebo in the 400-yard free relay. John David Lewis, Isaac Lee, Wyatt Stetor and Ryan Smith comprised the unit, which clocked a 3:12.47.

PT also started the meet with fourth in the medley relay with Stetor, Lukas Hartman, Ryan Smith and Logan Hartman.

Individually, Stetor finished fourth in the 200 IM and 500 free. Isaac Lee secured sixth and seventh in 50 and 100 free.

Visit www.wpial.com for complete meet results.