Mt. Lebanon’s Sylvia Roy leads medal-winning WPIAL contingent at PIAA swim meet

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 | 11:47 PM

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Sylvia Roy won silver in the 50-yard freestyle at last year’s PIAA Class 3A swimming championships.

In her return to Bucknell University on Wednesday, the Mt. Lebanon junior wanted gold.

But in a fast 50 free championship heat, Roy was edged out for the title by State College sophomore Molly Workman.

Workman claimed the championship with a time of 22.67 seconds. Roy, who came into the finals as the top seed, finished second at 22.90.

“It’s often hard to focus on every little detail (in the 50) because anything can mess up that race with it being so short and so fast,” Roy said.

“I try not to focus on the little things too much because that can distract me from the bigger picture. At the end of the day, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I am happy with it. There’s not too much to be mad about in a race like that.”

History was made as a state 50 free record was set, but not in the 50 free final heat.

Hatboro Horsham’s Annie Jia swam a 22.25 lead leg of the 200 free relay. The lead leg, because it starts off the block like a 50 free race, counts as a new record.

Hatboro Horsham won the title with a time of 1:33.51.

Five WPIAL teams were among the eight in the championship heat. Fox Chapel’s Sarah Pasquella, Josephine Stanczak, Charlotte Rusche, and anchor Grace Kovach trimmed 1.17 seconds from their prelim time and finished in 1:35.92 to lead the WPIAL contingent in third.

North Allegheny was fifth, Mt. Lebanon sixth, Upper St. Clair seventh Latrobe eighth.

“All of my teammates swam amazing before me, and that really motivated me to bring it home with a fast time,” Kovach said. “It was really exciting to look up and see our time and see how much time we dropped. It is my first time on the podium at states, and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.”

Pasquella, a junior, swam a time of 1 minute, 51.08 seconds in the preliminaries of the girls 200 free Wednesday.

The time was identical to the one she swam in winning the WPIAL title Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

But Pasquella had designs on going faster in the championship heat in the evening.

That’s just what she did.

Pasquella, the third seed for the finals, swam to a personal-best 1:49.91 to earn third overall.

Her time was a half-second away from a silver medal.

“The support from everyone during my race was awesome,” said Pasquella, who will swim the 100 breaststroke and the 400 free relay on Thursday.

“Even when I was taking my breaths, I could see my team and my family in the stands. Everyone was cheering me on, and there was so much energy. That really helped me, and our whole team.

“It was a goal to get under that 1:50 mark.”

WPIAL girls individuals and relays brought home more medals from Wednesday’s finals.

North Allegheny’s 200 medley relay of Greta Mott, Tori Tieppo, Eva Ogden and Natalie Sens dropped 1.29 seconds from their prelim time and finished third (1:43.87).

The Tigers quartet knocked a full second off their WPIAL-championship time of 1:44.89.

“Seeing that my other three teammates were so close with the other teams gave me the confidence that we could go faster than our seed time,” said Sens, who later placed third in the 100 butterfly (55.33).

Seneca Valley’s 200 medley relay was eighth (1:49.01).

Upper St. Clair senior Kaitlyn Connors placed sixth in the finals of the 50 free (23.25).

Boys

North Allegheny senior William Gao won the WPIAL Class 3A 100 butterfly title Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool with a time of 49.07 seconds.

It put him as the No. 3 seed for the event at states Wednesday.

While he was a little off his time in the preliminaries, his 49.16 set him up to go faster in the finals.

He did just that with a career-best 48.89, which placed him third overall.

“I am pretty happy with my swim,” Gao said. “I felt I could’ve gone even faster. But I am pretty happy to go under 49 for the first time. It’s an amazing experience to be around some super-fast swimmers.”

Gao’s bronze was one of five podium finishes and top-eight medals for the North Allegheny boys, who head into Thursday’s second-day events third in the team standings with 108.5 points.

District 1 rivals Springfield and North Penn are tied for the top spot with 129 points apiece.

The NA 200 free relay of Gao, Gus Miller, Riley Williams, and Grant Regule started the finals with a fourth-place finish (1:32.44).

The Tigers 200 free relay of Regule, Williams, Danny Lesinski and Jake Rechenmacher capped Day 1 by dropping time from the prelims and taking fourth in 1:24.41.

Regule added a seventh in the 50 free (21.00), while Lesinski was seventh in the 200 IM (1:53.98).

Lesinski came in seeded 26th in the 200 IM, but he dropped 2.8 seconds in the prelims to earn a spot in the finals.

“Hopefully, all of our swims will help build up the momentum for tomorrow,” Gao said. “I think we can do even better tomorrow and have some really fast swims.”

Fox Chapel junior Christian Dantey also earned a fourth-place finish with a 1:40.01 in the 200 free. He was ninth last year, winning the consolation final with the fifth-fastest time overall.

Other boys medalists from the WPIAL on Wednesday were Upper St. Clair’s 200 medley relay (sixth, 1:34.02) and 200 free relay (seventh, 1:25.73), Upper St. Clair’s Nazar Zoukovski (fifth, 200 free, 1:40.26), Central Catholic’s Luke Hartman (seventh, 200 free, 1:41.06), Fox Chapel’s Owen Howell (fifth, 200 IM, 1:53.09) and Gateway’s Hunter Raymer (eighth, 200 IM, 1:54.10).

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.