WPIAL swimmers again dominate PIAA Class 2A meet, winning 8 golds, both team titles

By: Michael Love
Friday, March 14, 2025 | 12:29 AM

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LEWISBURG — The WPIAL again put on a show for the rest of the state at the PIAA Class 2A swimming championships at Bucknell University.

Records fell as WPIAL individuals and relays took home eight more gold medals on Day 2 Thursday.

Mt. Pleasant senior Lily King had a simple task on her mind as she entered the 100-yard freestyle finals: go faster than she’s ever gone before.

King swam fast in the preliminaries earlier in the day and lowered her PIAA and pool records to 48.15 seconds.

When the spotlight was the brightest, King shined even brighter.

She powered through a blazing championship finals heat, finishing with an all-time best of 47.31, four seconds faster than runner-up Genevieve Cody, a senior from Thomas Jefferson (51.30).

“I was happy with this morning. I felt it was a good swim,” King said. “I felt good, so coming back with a little more rest, I knew I would have a lot of good energy for the finals. I figured I would be able to go faster. I was pleasantly surprised with that time. … Seeing that PR up there meant more than anything.”

King also became the first swimmer in history to win eight district individual titles and eight PIAA gold medals.

Shady Side Academy sophomore Ava Jochims followed King’s lead and produced gold in the 500 free.

Runner-up last year in her PIAA 500 debut, Jochims was one of two swimmers to go under five minutes (4:56.56) in the prelims Thursday morning. Whitney Kane from Bishop Shanahan was the other (4:58.89)

Jochims came back in the evening and lowered her time to 4:50.75.

“It was a while since I had gone that low into the 4:50 (range), so I am really proud of my swim,” Jochims said. “I just wanted to pace myself and also push myself. It came together for a great swim.”

Mt. Pleasant senior Kiersten O’Connor saw King’s fast title win and wanted to get one for herself.

Seeded third in the 100 backstroke after the preliminaries, O’Connor roared back to take gold in a time of 54.61.

It was her first 100 back state title. She finished third last year to Hampton’s Lainey Sheets and Bedford phenom Leah Shackley. She took fifth as a sophomore and sixth as a freshman.

“It came down to me wanting to finish my last state meet the best way that I could,” said O’Connor, who came back after placing second in the 50 free Wednesday. “I put forth my best effort and hoped that it would be enough. It was, and I am so happy.

“Lily definitely set the tone for Day 2, so it was nice to see both of us finish it off with really good races.”

Giona Lavorini had her sights set on a second consecutive PIAA Class 2A girls 100 breaststroke title.

The Knights senior and Pitt commit knew WPIAL rivals in Southmoreland junior Allison Stinnett and Indiana senior Peyton Scott would be right with her just as they were when they finished 1-2-3 at WPIALs two weeks ago.

Those three again finished ahead of everyone else. This time, it was Scott at the top with a winning time of 1 minute, 3.15 seconds, just 3 hundredths of a second ahead of Lavorini.

Lavorini dropped nearly two seconds from her prelim time and earned silver in 1:03.18, and Stinnett was third at 1:04.16.

“Giona and I have always been neck and neck, and Allison really stepped up this year and added another one to the group,” said Scott, the runner-up to Lavorini last year (1:02.81).

“It made the stakes a lot higher. I am just so incredibly grateful to have had good, fast races all throughout my career. I knew what we were probably going to see at states from how we finished at WPIALs. I had a lot of confidence we would be right there together again, and we were.”

Cathedral Prep led Mt. Pleasant by four points after the 100 breast, but it didn’t have a team in championship heat of 400 free relay.

Prep finished second in the consolation heat, 10th overall, and scored 14 points. The Vikings relay of King, Riley Shinsky, Maddie Barrick, and Lainey Brown finished runner-up to Dallas (3:33.15) in a time of 3:34.31 and earned 24 points to put them over the top for their third consecutive state title.

Mt. Pleasant finished with 189 team points, 16 better than Prep’s 173.

In addition to the Vikings winning the state team title, King was presented the Swimmer of the Meet Award for her two record-breaking individual efforts while helping her two relays pick up silver medals.

Indiana senior Zach Kessler won his seventh and final individual state title and gained a measure of revenge in the process.

The top seed after his WPIAL win (44.91), Kessler, runner-up to Blue Mountain senior Noah Powers last year, returned the favor Thursday and edged Powers at the wall. Kessler won with a time of 43.28, just one hundredth of a second off the PIAA record set by Hershey’s David Nolan in 2010.

“It was good for me to come back the way I did and take my title back,” Kessler said. “Winning my freshman and sophomore year but losing to Noah last year, it was a big punch to the gut. But I just worked even harder and came back stronger.”

With winning two individual gold medals and two relay state titles this year, Kessler was recognized by the PIAA as the boys Class 2A Swimmer of the Meet.

The race for the boys team title couldn’t have been any closer.

It came down to the 400 free relay.

Mt. Pleasant went into the event leading Indiana by nine points, but the Indians, last year’s 2A state champ, captured the relay win and 40 team points in a time of 3:08.46.

The Vikings quartet of Cody Fusco, Seth Painter, Gunnar Probst, and David Mutter originally thought they took fourth in 3:13.08 for 30 points.

That would have given Indiana the win by one point.

But the initial third-place finisher, Cathedral Prep, was disqualified for a lane violation. It bumped the Vikings up to third and gave them two more team points. Those points were enough to move Mt. Pleasant ahead of Indiana for the team title, 198-197.

The team title is the first at the state level for any Mt. Pleasant boys team in school history.

“Every place finish where we earned even just one point was crucial,” said senior Joseph Gardner, who capped his high school career with his third PIAA title in the 100 breast in a state-record time of 53.83.

“It was hard-fought, tooth and nail. To win it my senior year, it’s the cherry on top. As a sophomore, I watched the girls win it for the first time. We watched them celebrate, and I was thinking how cool it would be for us (the boys team) to have that feeling. It is amazing.”

Gardner added the 100 breast title to his win in the 200 individual medley from Wednesday.

Mutter did the same, as he captured the 500 free in a personal-best time of 4:31.56 and paired that with the 100 fly gold he captured Wednesday.

“The strategy was to stay with the people that were seeded next to me,” he said. “After halfway, I knew I just had to go. Then I just went as fast as I could. I really wasn’t caring about a time. I was really just looking for that gold medal. I wanted to go as fast as I needed to get the win and the points for my team. But the time was amazing. It’s another time drop for me.”

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.