Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Mt. Pleasant swimmers shine during Day 1 of WPIAL championships
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Thursday, March 3, 2022 | 8:03 PM
Franklin Regional’s Aiden Bunker competes in the boys 200 individual medley during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant competes in the boys 200 freestyle relay during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield competes in the boys 200 freestyle relay during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Franklin Regional competes in the girls 200 freestyle relay during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Greater Latrobe’s Lauren Bell competes in the girls 50 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield’s Dominic Falcon competes in the boys 50 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield’s Jordan Crupie competes in the girls 100 butterfly during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield’s Liam Randolph competes in the boys 200 individual medley during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Franklin Regional’s Amanda McFaden competes in the girls 200 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield’s Hannah Uhrinek competes in the girls 200 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield competes in the boys 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Franklin Regional competes in the girls 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Hempfield competes in the girls 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant’s Logan Snively competes in the boys 100 butterfly during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Greensburg Salem’s Abigail Sharp competes in the girls 100 butterfly during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Derry’s Chloe Buhite competes in the girls 100 butterfly during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant’s Ashlyn Hornick competes in the girls 50 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant’s Lily King competes in the girls 50 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant’s Joseph Gardner competes in the boys 50 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Derry’s Chloe Buhite competes in the girls 200 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant’s Reegan Brown competes in the girls 200 freestyle during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant competes in the boys 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Belle Vernon’s Martyna Maley competes in the girls 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Greensburg Salem competes in the girls 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Greensburg Salem competes in the girls 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
A Greensburg Salem swimmer warms up prior to the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Southmoreland’s Henry Miller competes in the boys 100 butterfly during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Pleasant competes in the girls 200 medley relay during the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships March 3, 2022, at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
It was the best of feelings and the worst of feelings for the Franklin Regional boys relays Thursday on Day 1 of the WPIAL Class 3A championships at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
The Panthers’ 200-yard medley relay of sophomore Holden Thomas, junior Aiden Bunker, senior Owen Holm and junior Jason Tosh opened the meet in quick form with a WPIAL title in a time of 1 minutes, 33.50 seconds. It rose to the top swimming out of Lane 7.
The time also is a school record, and the relay earned an automatic berth to the PIAA championships, which goes to winners from each district meet.
“At the beginning of the season, we were struggling a little because we were tired from training so hard,” Holm said. “We weren’t going the times we wanted, especially at the county meet (in late January). We got second-place there. We didn’t stack the relay, so we knew we could go faster. Getting first place from an outside lane, it showed all the hard work paid off. I knew from experience at WPIALs that anything can happen. We’re really happy about that.”
The same four closed the meet by swimming a 1:24.61 in the 200 free relay. That time initially put them in third place, but a WPIAL official flagged them for a too-quick start off the block in one of the legs.
The quartet was disqualified, much to the dismay of coach Vic Santoro.
“It was just a couple inches,” Santoro said. “They swam well. It was an All-American time. I feel really bad for them.”
Despite not getting the 32 third-place points in the 200 free relay, the Franklin Regional boys, with four medals won, finished Day 1 in eighth place in the team standings with 90 points, four behind seventh-place Fox Chapel. Bunker took third in the 200 IM (1:52.28).
Hempfield is fourth in the boys standings with 100 points, and junior Dominic Falcon led the Spartans with a second-place finish in the 50 free in a personal-best time of 21.15. He trailed only defending champ Ben Borvendeg, a senior from Butler, in the final standings.
“I had a pretty good race, but there definitely is stuff I can improve on, hopefully, for states,” said Falcon, who also bested Tosh (fifth) and Spartans teammate Ryan Murtha (sixth).
“I am really looking forward to swimming Ben and a lot of the other guys again at states. I am super excited.”
Falcon came back and anchored the 200 free relay, which included Murtha, junior Liam Randolph and senior Hunter Cooper. Their time of 1:25.49 initially was fourth before being bumped up to third on the Franklin Regional disqualification.
“The relay has grown a lot since the start of the season,” Falcon said. “We have our starts down to a T with all of the practice we’ve gone through. We beat our team record, so we’re really excited about that.”
Class 2A
The Mt. Pleasant girls 200 free relay won WPIAL gold last year, and they were determined to do it again.
Ashlyn Hornick, the relay’s lone senior, was confident coming in, and her positive vibes translated into a repeat performance.
She along with junior Trinity Graft, freshman Kiersten O’Conner and freshman anchor Lily King swam to a WPIAL record time of 1:37.53.
“We all swam so well, and I knew Lily was going to take it home for us,” Hornick said. “After I was done, it was a really exciting race to watch. I wasn’t really sure what the record was, to be honest, but I knew that we were going to get a really good time with the talent we have on the team this year.”
The victory capped a strong first day for the Mt. Pleasant, which won three WPIAL titles and several other top-eight medals. The Vikings are firmly in first place with 187 points, 51 ahead of second-place Quaker Valley.
The girls 200 medley relay finished runner-up to Quaker Valley at the 2021 WPIAL championships. With just one change in the lineup, it hoped to bump up a spot and take WPIAL gold.
Mission accomplished.
O’Connor, along with juniors Reegan Brown, SaraJo Gardner and McKenna Mizikar, captured the title in a time of 1:49.46.
“We’re so excited to be able to come back and win it after getting so close last year,” Gardner said. “This was definitely a good way to start off the meet.”
O’Connor, the anchor of the relay, said she was anxious but also excited and ready for her first-ever WPIAL race.
“My teammates and coaches did a very good job of calming me down and reassuring me that everything was going to be OK, no matter what happened,” O’Connor said. “That really helped me swim well.”
Mt. Pleasant edged runner-up Freeport by a quarter of a second.
King kept things rolling for Mt. Pleasant in record fashion. The freshman clocked a record time of 22.74 in the 50 free, just three-hundreths of a second off the WPIAL record set by Gateway’s Olivia Livingston (22.71) at the Class 3A meet in 2018.
“(The record) was kind of in the back there, but I was just trying to focus on what I needed to do and focusing on my personal best and what I could do in that race,” King said. “This (title) means a lot. It feels so amazing. I am just very excited right now.”
Mt. Pleasant medaled all four of its swimmers in the event, as Gardner took fourth, Mizikar seventh and Hornick eighth.
Silver medals were placed around the necks of the Mt. Pleasant boys 200 medley relay of freshmen David Mutter and Joseph Gardner, sophomore Logan Snively and senior Joe Barrick.
They finished in 1:38.02, more than two seconds better than its seed time. Hampton, the defending champs, won again with a time of 1:36.92.
Southmoreland junior Henry Miller added a silver medal to his already robust WPIAL collection in the boys 100 fly (51.04) to Hampton senior Will Retsch.
Gardner also was third in the boys 50 free (21.79), Mutter took third in the boys 100 fly (52.64) and Brown placed third in the girls 200 free (1:57.34).
The state berths beyond the champions will be determined based on the remaining times from the district meets.
Day 2 of the WPIAL swimming championships is Friday and will begin with the final events in Class 3A. Class 2A swimming will start at 3 p.m.
Events to be contested are the 100 free, 500 free, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, and 400 free relay.
Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.
Tags: Mt. Pleasant
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