Mt. Pleasant’s King headlines list of WPIAL swimmers to receive top seeds for PIAA meets

By: Michael Love
Sunday, March 2, 2025 | 6:39 PM

The PIAA on Sunday released a list of the qualifiers — automatic (district champions) and at-large (time) — for the boys and girls state swimming and diving championships March 12-15 at Bucknell.

The WPIAL owns numerous top seeds in Class 3A and Class 2A.

As expected, Mt. Pleasant senior Lily King is the top seed in the Class 2A girls 200- and 100-yard freestyles after running away with both titles at the WPIAL championships Thursday and Friday at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

The times of 1 minute, 44.62 seconds in the 200 and 47.65 in the 100 smashed her own WPIAL records and also were Pitt pool records.

She owns the PIAA record in the 100 (48.38) and will go after the 200 state record of 1:44.73 set by West York’s Courtney Harnish in 2017.

Harnish went to Georgia where she became an SEC champion and established some of the top times in program history.

Also heading to states as top seeds for Class 2A girls are the Mt. Pleasant 200 medley relay of King, Kiersten O’Connor, Lainey Brown and Maddie Barrick (1:45.22); Shady Side Academy sophomore Ava Jochims in the 200 individual medley (2:00.09) and 500 free (4:54.22); O’Connor in the 50 free (23.30) and 100 backstroke (54.62); Freeport’s Kira Schrecongost in the 100 butterfly (54.85); Thomas Jefferson’s 200 free relay of Wynter Olsen, Nadia Casamassa, Shannon Chalfant and Genevieve Cody (1:37.75); Knoch’s Giona Lavorini in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.03); and Mt. Pleasant’s 400 free relay of King, Barrick, Brown and Riley Shinsky (3:33.46).

Mt. Pleasant senior David Mutter hopes to lower his PIAA-record time of 47.52 in the Class 2A boys 100 butterfly. He is the top seed in the event after his WPIAL-record swim of 48.01 Thursday at Pitt.

He also is the top seed in the 500 free (4:34.54).

Other No. 1 seeds for the Class 2A boys are Mt. Pleasant’s 200 medley relay of Mutter, Seth Painter, Joseph Gardner and Gunnar Probst (1:35.08); Northgate’s Sam Cavanaugh in the 200 IM (1:52.95); Indiana’s Preston Kessler in the 100 free (44.91); Gardner in the 100 breast (55.77); and Indiana’s 200 free relay of Kessler, Joshua Reed, Matthew Blystone and Joey Margita (1:25.92) and 400 free relay of Kessler, Margita, Reed and Rey Nunez (3:08.34).

Gardner won last year’s 100 breast at Bucknell with a state-record time of 54.28.

Fox Chapel’s Sarah Pasquella, a Michigan commit, is the top seed in the Class 3A girls 200 free after she captured the WPIAL title Thursday in a time of 1:48.79.

Also securing No. 1 seeds from the WPIAL after championship swims are Mt. Lebanon’s Sylvia Roy in the 50 free (22.57) and 100 back (52.53) and Pine-Richland’s Sarah Shaffer in the 100 breast (1:02.11).

Roy is the defending state champion in the 100 back, and she will go after her own state-record time of 52.90.

Mars senior Luke Lamb will seek state gold as the top seed in the Class 3A boys 50 free (20.43) and 100 back (47.86).

Also earning No. 1 seeds are Central Catholic’s McClellan Clark in the 500 free (4:25.06) and the North Allegheny 200 free relay of Grant Regule, Gus Miller, Mason Shantz and Zach Totin (1:23.01).

Ethan Maravich, a junior from North Allegheny, will be the hunted as the top seed (5:32.30) in the Class 3A boys diving competition.

The PIAA championships will start with the Class 2A meet March 12-13 before giving way to the Class 3A meet March 14-15.

The full list of state qualifiers, including those from the WPIAL, can be found here.

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: Central Catholic, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Indiana, Knoch, Mars, Mt. lebanon, Mt. Pleasant, North Allegheny, Northgate, Pine-Richland, Shady Side Academy, Thomas Jefferson