Vikings’ Gardner earns Swimmer of the Meet honors
Mount Pleasant swimmers, behind the lead of Lily King and Joseph Gardner, had dominating performances Saturday on the final day of the PIAA Class AA Swimming & Diving Championship at Bucknell University.
Gardner was named the Swimmer of the Meet after winning the 100 breaststroke in a meet record time of 54.28 seconds. He anchored the Vikings’ 400 freestyle relay to a third-place finish.
Gardner opened the meet Friday with gold medals in the 200 IM and 200 medley relay.
The Vikings’ Logan Snively placed seventh in the 100 backstroke with a time of 52.68.
The Mount Pleasant boys were in contention for the team title heading into the 400 freestyle relay. The Vikings placed third with a time of 3:10.09 to finish with 168 points. Indiana won the team title with 184 points.
The Mount Pleasant girls won the team title with 164 points. Cathedral Prep was second with 145 points.
King led the way for the Lady Vikings with another gold medal performance. The junior won the 100 freestyle in a meet record time of 48.38 seconds.
King anchored Lainey Brown, Maddie Barrick and Riley Shinsky to third place in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:36.90.
Teammate Kiersten O’Connor won the bronze medal in the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.39 seconds.
Laurel Highlands’ sophomore Kasey Mahoney finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 57.81 seconds. He managed to do so in an outside lane.
Mahoney qualified for the final with the sixth-best time of 58.04 seconds in the prelims.
The Class AA boys had the first session on both days so that meant an early wakeup call. The finals started around 4:30 p.m.
“Most of the meets are early in the morning. I’m used to it by now,” said Mahoney. “I felt good. I came in prepared.
“It was a good enough amount of time (between the preliminaries and finals). I was able to eat, relax and get ready.”
Mahoney noted he didn’t hold back in the morning prelim swim.
“I swam as fast as I could. I wanted to make the final,” explained Mahoney.
Mahoney said he accomplished what he set out to do.
“My goal was 57 (seconds) and that’s what I accomplished,” said Mahoney. “Winning my first medal is a pretty good feeling, one of the best.”
Mahoney advanced to the B final of the 200 IM and placed 13th overall after finishing 16th in the prelims. He had a personal best in the prelims of 2:02.22 and lowered that to 2:02.11 in the consolation final.
Uniontown’s Logan Voytish finished third in the 100 freestyle B final and 11th overall in 47.80 seconds. The Lady Raiders’ Hannah Foster placed 20th overall in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:09.05.
Ringgold’s Gionni Traeger was 27th overall in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.54 seconds. The Rams’ 400 freestyle relay finished 19th in 3:21.95.
The Lady Rams’ Natalie Noll finished seventh in the B final and 15th overall in the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.97 seconds.
Elizabeth Forward’s Ethan Glessner was 18th in the 100 backstroke in 55.60 seconds.