New coach wants young Chartiers Valley swim teams to stay aggressive

By: Ted Sarneso
Sunday, December 7, 2025 | 11:01 AM

When Chris Santilli graduated from Chartiers Valley in 2019, he didn’t expect to return to the pool deck for quite a while.

As a swimmer for the Colts from 2016-2019, Santilli found a passion for the sport, making it to states his sophomore and senior years.

After college, he spent a year coaching at Trinity High School in 2023 before joining the Colts as an assistant under Morgan Soulia in 2024.

“Morgan found me, and we talked it through, and I was more than happy to join her on the deck,” said Santilli. “She did a lot of pretty awesome stuff, and we had a lot of good memories coaching together.”

The duo helped the Colts swim teams claim section titles in Class 2A last season. The girls team went 6-4 overall while sporting a 5-0 record in Section 1 and the boys capped their season with a 4-5 overall record and an unbeaten 4-0 mark in Section 1.

In October, Soulia left to take the head coaching job at Chatham University, and Santilli was promoted at Chartiers Valley.

“I hope to build on what we started last year,” Santilli said. “We had a record breaker last year in Dawson Lee and were section champions for both the boys and girls teams. This year, we really hope to build upon our team mentality and become a cohesive group.”

The Colts lost five seniors from last year’s team, including Lee, who posted a sixth-place finish in the 50 freestyle at the WPIAL meet with a time of 22.72 and a third-place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.18. He also placed third at states with a 54.28 time in the 100 back.

“Our challenge this year is getting our swimmers ready to fill the shoes of those graduating seniors,” said Santilli.

Santilli is joined by his sister Natalia, who will be the assistant coach and who is one of four swimmers from the 400-medley relay in 2017 to have their names in the Chartiers Valley record books.

This year’s roster is filled with plenty of incoming freshman and a large sophomore class with few juniors and no seniors.

“We’re a very young team,” added Santilli. “We find ourselves in a position of growing young swimmers, building upon discipline. I am aiming to bring that to the program. Not that we didn’t have that in the past, but it’s really a point of focus this year because of our youth.”

Despite being a young team, there are a handful of returning swimmers who have experience swimming at the WPIAL finals.

The most promising of those swimmers is sophomore Jena Osborne, who placed 18th in the 100 butterfly at WPIALs last year with a time of 1:03.17, 14th in the 100 back with a time of 1:02.86 and was part of the 200 medley relay that placed 15th and the 400 free relay that finished 14th.

Joining the girls team this year is Rachel Heo, a freshman from West Virginia who has shown promising numbers in practice.

“Rachel has shown us flashes of some really fast swimming and will most likely join our A relays,” said Santilli. “I hope we can keep that momentum as we kick off the season at North Hills.”

Cate Volpe also returns and Santilli is “excited for what she can bring to the table”.

On the boys side, Dexter Shelkey has shown in preseason and through the first few weeks of practice that he has the mentality that Santilli is looking for, which is a more aggressive style.

“Our goals are to try and maintain our aggression towards the WPIAL meet,” said Santilli. “I want everyone hitting personal bests by the end of the season, personal records. I want us to stay fit, stay healthy, be involved and have fun with it, while also keeping that aggression as we try and repeat as section champs.”

Two other boys swimmers Santilli looks to rely upon are Damon Lee, Dawson’s brother, who will swim the 100 back, and Liam Lewis, who will swim the 50 and 100 free. Onur Canoplat will also take a bigger role in the relay teams, where he was either the fourth or an alternate last year.

The spark plug for the Colts is sophomore Dante Armenti, who Santilli says has put forth a tough work ethic.

“He’s a kid that if you ask him to do something, he delivers,” Santilli said. “He’s also our hype man and adds a bit of personality to the pool deck. He and Max Holzworth display a lot of hard work and grit.”

The Colts will have one lone diver this season in sophomore Olivia Kennedy.

“We’re very excited to get her on the deck and diving again,” Santilli said.

It won’t be easy for Chartiers Valley to repeat as section champions, but Santilli believes his team will put forth its best effort.

“It’s a bit of a rebuild for us,” said Santilli. “There are a lot of talented teams in our section.

“We’re going to find ourselves in a lot of tight meets, but with our work ethic and that aggressive mindset, we can get after it and find ourselves on the winning side more often than not.”

Tags: Chartiers Valley