Trib HSSN boys swimmer of the week: Upper St. Clair’s Jack Fitzpatrick

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, January 3, 2019 | 10:57 PM

Upper St. Clair senior Jack Fitzpatrick is eyeing a strong final high school season and also is gearing up for college competition at Notre Dame.

The recent Fighting Irish commit is hoping that his swims in the 200-yard individual medley and 500 freestyle will take him to big things in March and the WPIAL and PIAA championships.

“Jack is swimming well right now,” USC coach Dave Schraven said. “A goal right now is to get him prepared for a successful college career. He’s such a hard worker.”

Fitzpatrick was among several of the region’s top swimmers to compete at the USA Swimming Speedo Eastern Winter Junior Nationals from Dec. 5 to 8 in Greensboro, N.C.

He cut more than a second off his preliminary time in the 400 IM and finished 11th in a time of 3:54.16.

Fitzpatrick achieved a lifetime best of 4:28.97 in the 500 free and took 26th overall.

Back in WPIAL competition, through December’s meets, Fitzpatrick owned the top time in the WPIAL and was second in the state in the 100 backstroke (49.31). He recorded that time at the dual meet with North Allegheny on Dec. 18.

He ranked third in the WPIAL behind North Allegheny’s Rick Mihm and Jack Wright, in the 200 free.

Fitzpatrick has yet to swim his signature 200 IM and 500 free races in high school competition. He placed third in the 500 (4:29.27) at last year’s state meet at Bucknell University and added a fourth in the 200 IM (1:50.00).

USC is scheduled to swim at a tri-meet at Grove City College on Saturday.

“He’s right where we want him to be,” Schraven said. “We expect big things out of him this year.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 412-388-5825, mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Upper St. Clair