WPIAL swimmers advance to PIAA championship finals on Day 2

By: Michael Love
Thursday, March 17, 2022 | 1:46 PM

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LEWISBURG — The WPIAL will have several swimmers and relays battling for state medals and championship gold Thursday evening on Day 2 of the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell.

The boys consolation (ninth through 16th) and championship finals will begin at 6:05 p.m., with the girls consey and championship heats set for 8:30.

The top eight finishers in each event will be awarded state medals.

Upper St. Clair senior Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan, second Wednesday in the 100-yard butterfly, is the No. 2 seed heading into the finals of the 100 backstroke.

He will have WPIAL company in the final heat as Bethel Park senior Dom Cortopassi landed in fourth after all the preliminary swims were decided.

The Seneca Valley 400 free relay also is a No. 2 seed for the championship finals as the quartet of senior Kevin Donaldson, junior Gavin Blazer and seniors Zach Lozowski and Daniel Simoes swam to a prelim time of 3:06.49.

Bethel Park’s 400 free relay of junior Lenny DeMartino, senior Eammon Anderson, sophomore Nathan Stutzman and Cortopassi is the eighth seed for the finals.

Seneca Valley junior Haihan Xu will challenge for the 100 breast title. He is the No. 3 seed (56.57).

Simoes, who won the PIAA title in the 200 individual medley Wednesday evening, will shoot for another top finish as he is the fourth seed in the 100 free.

Donaldson is the fifth seed in the 100 free.

On the girls side, Kiski Area sophomore Eliza Miller, swimming at her first PIAA meet, is in the running for state gold in the 100 breast. She finished the prelim swims tied for third (1:04.89).

North Allegheny’s WPIAL 100 breaststroke champion Natalie Sens, also a sophomore, is the eighth seed for the finals.

Others set for championship-heat swims include Mt. Lebanon freshman Sylvia Roy (fourth) and Fox Chapel junior Talia Bugel (sixth) in the 100 back, North Allegheny junior Lexi Sundgren (fourth) in the 500 free, and Upper St. Clair sophomore Kaitlyn Connors (eighth) in the 100 free.

The Fox Chapel 400 free relay of seniors Ariana Pasquella and Rei Sperry and juniors Sophie Shao and Payton O’Toole is the lone WPIAL representative in the championship heat. The Foxes are seeded seventh.

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: Bethel Park, Fox Chapel, Kiski Area, Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Upper St. Clair