WPIAL swimmers chasing more gold in championship heats at PIAA swim meet Day 2

By: Michael Love
Saturday, March 19, 2022 | 12:37 PM

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LEWISBURG — After winning seven state titles on Day 1 of the PIAA Class 2A swimming championships at Bucknell, WPIAL swimmers are after more gold Saturday evening.

Two Friday state champs will go head to head in the girls 100-yard freestyle as Mt. Pleasant freshman Lily King and Northgate sophomore Elise Nardozzi are the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively.

Defending girls 100 backstroke champion Ella Menear is seeded second in the 100 back. Menear won the 200 individual medley on Day 1.

Indiana freshman Peyton Scott will go after her first state title as the No. 2 seed in the 100 breaststroke.

Shady Side Academy junior Maeve Kelley, the state runner up in the 500 free last year at Cumberland Valley High School, is in contention again as she landed the No. 4 seed from the preliminaries.

The Northgate 400 free relay of Anna Neiss, Catrina Raich, Kendall McKelvey and Elise Nardozzi rounds out the leading seeds for the WPIAL girls. They are the top seed for the championship finals.

On the boys side, the WPIAL owns four top seeds in the five championship heats.

Indiana freshman Preston Kessler, Thursday’s 200 free champion, is the favorite as the No. 1 seed in the 100 free.

Northgate junior Matt Purcell hopes to take home a PIAA title in the 500 free.

Jo Roth, edged out of a title in the 50 free by one one-hundredth of a second on Thursday, will give it a go as the top seed in the 100 back.

Riverside will go for its second relay crown as Jo Roth, Sam Kline, Ryan Turner and Alex Roth again team for state bragging rights. The top-seeded quartet came together Thursday and captured the 200 free relay crown.

Mt. Pleasant freshman Joe Gardner and Southmoreland junior Henry Miller are the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively, in the 100 breast. Plum senior Sam Schohn is fifth.

The boys consolation and championship finals are set for 4:20 p.m. with the girls heats set for 6:50.

The eight competitors in the championships heats earn PIAA medals.

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.