Shaler swimmer Nebiolo motivated by WPIAL performance

By: Josh Rizzo
Thursday, March 5, 2020 | 5:27 PM

Lydia Nebiolo provided Shaler Area’s Keith Simmons with extra motivation for next year following her performance at the WPIAL Class AAA championships Feb. 27-28 Saturday at Trees Pool.

The Titans junior swimmer missed going to states by less than five seconds in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events.

That’s the kind of performance Simmons hopes will propel Nebiolo to states next season.

“I hope so,” Simmons said. “It motivates me to push her harder next year so she has that opportunity to go to states.”

Shaler’s girls team placed 25 with six points. North Allegheny won the meet with 422. The Titans didn’t record a team score on the boys’ side. The Tigers also won the boys’ meet, finishing with 380 points.

While no Titans qualified for the PIAA meet, 12 of the 21 members of the team swam at WPIALs. Nebiolo set a team record in the 200 free by finishing with a time of 1 minute, 56.66 seconds, but swam a 1:56.92 at the district meet that allowed her to finish 13th. She also finished 15th in the 500 free by clocking in at 5:15.29.

“She’s doing really well,” Simmons said. “As long as she continues working the way she is, hopefully she can get to states in two events next year.”

Justin Adametz also hit several personal bests during the WPIAL meet. Jacob Bacasa cut four seconds off his time in the 500 free, finishing 26th with a mark of 5:01.76.

“Our Day 2 was better than Day 1,” Simmons said. “We ended the season strong. We ended up with three new team records and had all 12 kids who were down at WPIALs.”

Shaler hopes that some of the strong performances from WPIALs will carry into next season.

Simmons believes the roster size will be around the same for the Titans.

“We will have two girls coming in and two going out,” Simmons said. “On the boys’ side, we will have two boys coming in and that should make our team stronger because we aren’t losing anyone. I’m going to be counting on the sophomore and junior girls to be leaders next year.”

Tags: Shaler