Mustangs sweep Uniontown, Connellsville
Connellsville's Shane Beneke swims the breast stroke during the boys' 200 medley relay on Wednesday.
Brandon Quinn swims the breast stroke leg of the boys' 200 individual medley for Uniontown Wednesday, which Uniontown won in the final event of the meet.
John F. Brothers/HeraldStandard.com
Uniontown diver Daniel Jones enters the water during the triangular meet at Uniontown High School. He finished second to teammate Braden Carei.
Lee Knoyer swims the back stroke for Laurel Highlands during the 200 medley relay Wednesday. Additionally, he won the 50 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke.
Laurel Highlands jumped in front and never looked back on the way to a win over host Uniontown and Connellsville in Wednesday’s triangular swim meet.
Uniontown coach Matt Girod said the event “is like our own county meet” as it includes Fayette County’s only high school swim teams.
The winning Mustangs were led by Seth Abraham, Lee Knoyer, and Justin Kostelnik, who combined for seven first place finishes and parts of two winning relay teams.
Kostelnik won the 200 IM by nearly 30 seconds in besting teammate Conor Hughes, and posted a time of 53.21 in the 100 butterfly to win that event by 18 seconds.
Kostelnik said he enjoys triangular meets over dual meets. “This was one of my best performances,” he said. “I feel there’s not as much pressure (in triangular meets).”
Knoyer won the 50 freestyle over teammate Thomas Lucas and took the 100 backstroke over teammate Jacob Hughes. Abraham won the 100 freestyle and edged Uniontown’s James Rabon in the 100 breaststroke.
Abraham, Lucas, Hughes, and Kostelnik combined to win the 200 freestyle relay, and Knoyer joined Kostelnik, Abraham, and Lucas to win the 200 medley relay.
Connellsville has only seven boys on its team, but one of its team members made significant impacts as Shane Beneke won the 200 freestyle by three seconds over Hughes, and won the 500 freestyle by 23 seconds over Keith Daniel of LH.
While Uniontown trailed its county rivals, the Red Raiders had the night’s last laugh as the team of Rabon, Nathan Hager, Brandon Quinn, and Chris Smith edged their Laurel Highlands rivals by less than one second in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay which concluded the night’s events.
The Red Raiders also took the top two spots in the diving event with Braden Carei and Daniel Jones taking those places in advance of both going to the WPIAL diving competition at the end of February.
Uniontown coach Matt Girod was pleased with his relay team’s victory and said, “Everyone has placed differently in every meet. I tried to put some fast swimmers in that event.
We had 13 boys post their personal best times and I’m thrilled with that. You’re supposed to be getting faster at the end of the season and I’m pleased with their efforts.”
Laurel Highlands coach Ed Yauger said his boys team has been consistent all season long in building an 11-5 overall record and building towards the WPIAL individual championships.