Speikis, Shahan, Gardner lead swimmers into PIAA meet
Jim Downey| Herald-Standard
Geibel Catholic’s Cole Dorobish swims the butterfly leg of the 200 IM Thursday afternoon at the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. Dorobish finished second to Belle Vernon’s Robert Spekis.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon’s Robert Spekis swims the backstroke leg of the 200 IM last week at the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. Spekis’ gold medal-winning time of 1:57.41 is the second-fastest entering next week’s PIAA Championships.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon’s Ian Shahan swims his way to a gold medal in the 100 butterfly last week at the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. Shahan enters next week’s PIAA Championships with the second-fastest seed time of 49.66 seconds.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Connellsville’s Tatam Detwiler pops out of the water in the 100 breaststroke during Friday’s WPIAL Class AAA Swimming Championships at Trees Pool. Detwiler finished fifth and her time qualified her for the PIAA Championships.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Maria Mrosko swims the breaststroke leg of the 200 medley relay during Thursday’s WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. The Fillies qualified for the PIAA Championships on their time of 1:52.39.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Jonathon Lewis pulls through the water in the breaststroke during the 200 IM Thursday morning at the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. The Mustangs qualified for the PIAA Championships based on their time.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Kole Friel swims the butterfly leg in the 200 medley relay Thursday afternoon at the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. Friel qualified for the PIAA Championships in the 500 freestyle and the Mustangs earned a berth in the 200 medley relay.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Elizabeth Forward’s Marleigh Bennett turns to catch a breath during the 100 freestyle Friday afternoon at the WPIAL Class AAA Swimming Championships. Bennett’s time of 54.53 seconds was fast enough to earn a spot in the PIAA Championships.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Albert Gallatin’s Jael Dankle finished fifth in the 500 freestyle Friday morning at the WPIAL Class AAA Swimming Championships.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon’s Robert Spekis swims the breaststroke leg of the 200 IM last Thursday at the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool. Spekis won the gold medal and automatically qualified for the PIAA Championships.
Heather Gardner, Robert Spekis and Ian Shahan all won two WPIAL gold medals, and all three have the fastest time in one of their events entering next week’s PIAA Swimming & Diving Championships.
Belle Vernon’s Spekis broke his district meet record with his winning time of 56.99 in the 100 breaststroke. The mark is the fastest of the 32 qualifiers for the state meet.
He also earned an automatic berth by virtue of his gold-medal performance in the 200 IM. The senior’s time of 1:57.41 is the second-fastest seed time entering the PIAA finals.
The Leopards’ Shahan also set a new standard at the WPIAL finals with his gold medal-winning time of 45.48 seconds in the 100 freestyle. The time is the fastest among the 32 qualifiers in the event.
The sophomore is seeded second in the 100 butterfly after automatically qualifying as the district champion with a time of 49.66 seconds.
Gardner is also has a top seed and second-fastest time entering the state meet. The Mount Pleasant junior’s gold medal-winning time of 23.24 seconds in the 50 freestyle is the fastest entering the state finals and her top time of 1:03.92 in the 100 breaststroke in the WPIAL finals is seeded second.
Elizabeth Forward junior Kaelyn McClain and Geibel Catholic senior Cole Dorobish also earned automatic berths by virtue of winning a WPIAL title.
McClain repeated as the 500 freestyle champion and her time of 5:10.01 is seeded fourth at the state meet. She qualified on time in the 200 freestyle with her silver medal-winning mark of 1:55.22 the third-fastest time.
Dorobish won his first WPIAL gold medal and automatically qualified for the PIAA Championships in the 100 backstroke. His time of 52.77 seconds is the second-fastest time in the field. He finished second to Spekis in the 200 IM and has the top qualifying mark of 1:59.01.
The aforementioned quartet will have a lot of company in the PIAA Championships at Bucknell University. The Class AA meet will be on Wednesday-Thursday, March 13-14, and the Class AAA finals are on Friday-Saturday, March 15-16.
Connellsville senior Tatum Detwiler returns to the state meet after a hiatus as a junior. Detwiler qualified on time in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. She has the sixth-fastest non-automatic qualifying time of 23.79 seconds in the 50 freestyle and fourth in the breaststroke of 1:03.52.
Albert Gallatin junior Jael Dankle swam her way into the state finals with her fifth-place finish in the 500 freestyle. Her finish in 5:06.28 in the WPIAL Championships was the 12th-fastest qualifying time.
Laurel Highlands had a large group of swimmers qualify for the PIAA meet, including Maria Mrosko in four events. The sophomore advanced in the 200 IM (4, 2:10.72) and 100 butterfly (14, 59.40), and swims on the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. The remaining qualifiers include (with qualifying seed and time): Jenna Roscoe (22, 50 freestyle, 24.92), Elizabeth Thomas (12, 100 backstroke, 59.26), Jacob Johnson (5, 50 freestyle, 21.93; 9, 100 backstroke, 54.61), Kole Friel (14, 500 freestyle, 4:59.11), girls 200 medley relay (9, 1:52.39), girls 200 freestyle relay (15, 1:42.92), boys 200 medley relay (18, 1:43.18), and boys 200 freestyle relay (11, 1:31.90).
The Mustangs’ Jonathon Lewis advanced to the 100 breaststroke (12, 1:01.68) and is an alternate in the 200 freestyle.
Several Elizabeth Forward swimmers were rewarded for the performances at the WPIAL finals, including Natalie Glessner (11, 200 freestyle, 1:57.97; 16, 100 backstroke, 59.96), Hailey Yurkovich (8, 200 IM, 2:12.75; 8, 500 freestyle, 5:18.54), Marleigh Bennett (13, 50 freestyle, 24.66), girls 200 freestyle relay (6, 1:40.83), and girls 400 freestyle relay (4, 3:37.86).
The Mount Pleasant girls qualified in the 200 freestyle relay (14, 1:42.80) and are first alternate in the 400 freestyle relay. The Vikings’ 400 freestyle is an alternate.
Delaney Patterson was the lone Belle Vernon girl to advance to the state meet. She qualified with the 19th-fastest time of 1:08.44 in the 100 breaststroke.
The Belle Vernon boy qualifiers include the 200 medley relay (2, 1:38.80), 200 freestyle relay (2, 1:29.63),
The Rams’ Jacob Niziol qualified in the 100 breaststroke (9, 1:01.13). The Ringgold boys are an alternate in the 200 medley relay (1:44.47).
Ringgold’s Anna Vogt and Elizabeth Forward’s Gavin Guern automatically qualified for the Class AA diving championship.