Latrobe swimmers speeding toward championship meets

By: Ted Sarneso
Monday, February 3, 2025 | 10:20 AM

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When Latrobe swimming coach Grey Arrigonie was asked about the times for his swimmers last year, he offered up the following response:

“There’s always room for improvement in swimming. It’s one of those sports where you can continue to get faster and faster.”

This year, his swimmers just might hit warp speed.

The WCCA swimming championships were held Jan. 25, the unofficial midpoint of the season. The event is not only a fun meet for swimmers from county schools to display their talents, it’s the first chance in the season to start evaluating where they are compared with a year ago.

On their way to placing first (the girls) and third (the boys) in the competition, Latrobe swimmers posted times that bested their WPIAL championship times from a year ago or came close enough that they could be bested by year’s end.

“That’s one of the goals we set to show that we’re improving,” Arrigonie said. “If you can try to get close to that WPIAL time, your rest time and taper time during the season, you’re way ahead and you can continue to go and really blow that time out of the water at the end of the year in those championship meets.”

The Wildcats boys and girls 200-yard freestyle relay teams not only bested the times they posted at WPIALs last year, they set records for the WCCA meet.

The girls team of seniors Destini Homan, Maggie Elder and Lauren Bell and junior Hannah Carasia swam finished in 1 minute, 38.39 seconds, beating last year’s WPIAL time of 1:38.42 and taking fifth place.

That same quartet earned a medal at the PIAA championships with an eighth-pace finish (1:38.90).

“We have all the same girls and all that same fire we had last year,” Bell said. “We’re all doing really well, and we still have that drive to win and to be on the podium.”

The boys group of seniors Patrick Cratty and Heinrich van der Westhuizen and juniors Chris Heese and Charlie Thomson posted a time of 1:26.91. Van der Westhuizen replaced graduate Jace Pedicone, who, with Cratty, Heese and Thomson, swam 1:27.70 and finished second at WPIALs.

“A relay team has got to have four committed athletes,” Arrigonie said. “They have to work together, have to keep pushing all year to keep that going. Having depth to where Heinrich can slide right in for Jace is a huge benefit.”

Cratty, a Grove City commit, bested last year’s time in the 200 free (48.32) with a time of 48.23 and just missed beating his WPIAL time in the 100 free (1:44.49) by swimming a 1:44.50.

“It’s been a really good season,” Cratty said. “My goals for this year were to swim really fast and improve my times.”

Heese also saw an improved time in the 200 IM. He swam a 1:58.31 at WPIALs last year and posted a 1:57.04 at the WCCAs.

Bell, a Marshall commit, missed her second-place WPIAL time in the 100 butterfly (56.48) by the narrowest of margins (56.50), and Carasia swam a 25.80 in the 50 free at WPIALs last year and bested her mark with a 25.42.

Homan, who will attend IUP in the fall, missed her times from last year by a few seconds. She posted a 1:02.73 in the 100 back, which put her just off her WPIAL time of 1:01.61. She also swam a 2:00.97 in the 200 free and, again, was just off her WPIAL mark of 1:58.96.

“We’re happy how we swam at the WCCAs and where we are, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Arrigonie said. “There’s a lot of season left for us to fine tune and push it a little bit.”

At the midway point of the season, Latrobe’s boys and girls were atop Section 1-3A with 3-0 records. The boys are 5-3 overall, and the girls are 7-1.

Both squads rode a five-meet winning streak leading up to the halfway mark, beating Derry, Kiski Area, Penn-Trafford, Connellsville and Hempfield from Jan. 7-23.

“The team as a whole have been doing well,” Arrigonie said. “The nice thing is we have 11 boys and 16 girls, and that gives us variety and allows us to move swimmers around so we don’t drop any races. More importantly, they don’t get bored, and it allows them to work on other things and continue to get better all-around.”

Now that the midpoint has come and gone, the focus narrows to more significant time drops toward the end of the season and the WPIAL and PIAA championships.

“We want to keep our momentum going,” Bell said. “We’re going get ready for WPIALs, which is a whole different mindset. We’ll get more serious but keep that same fire. Then after that it’s right into states.”

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