WPIAL swimmers did well in the Day 1 preliminary swims at the PIAA Class 3A championships Wednesday morning at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
Several swimmers qualified for the championship heats this evening, which include the top-eight finishers from the prelim heats.
Boys
The North Allegheny boys 200-yard medley relay team placed third overall with a time of 1 minute, 33.05 seconds, while Upper St. Clair placed seventh (1:34.42).
Fox Chapel junior Christian Dantey had the best time in the 200 free (1:40.28), and he is the fifth seed for tonight’s championship heat.
Central Catholic junior Luke Hartman, the top seed in the 200 free, placed seventh after the prelims (1:40.65), while Upper St. Clair sophomore Nazar Zoukovski placed eighth (1:40.77).
Gateway junior Hunter Raymer (1:53.42) and Fox Chapel junior Owen Howell (1:53.77) placed fifth and seventh, respectively, after their prelim swims in the 200 IM.
North Allegheny sophomore Danny Lesinski moved up 18 spots from the 26th seed and snagged eighth (1:54.05) and a spot in the 200 IM championship heat.
Regule will represent North Allegheny and the WPIAL overall in the finals of the 50 free after taking seventh in the prelims (20.97), while Gao will do the same in the 100 fly with a fourth-place finish in the prelims (49.16).
Lesinski, Regule, Dylan Seiford, and Jake Rechenmacher lifted the North Allegheny 200 free relay to fourth after the prelims (1:34.67), while Upper St. Clair will swim in the championship heat as the No. 8 seed (1:25.73).
Girls
Greta Mott, Tori Tieppo, Eva Ogden, and Natalie Sens teamed up to secure the No. 4 seed for the championships heat with a prelim swim time of 1:44.89.
Seneca Valley improved their prelim swim time and is seeded eighth for the finals (1:48.10).
Fox Chapel junior Sarah Pasquella, seeded fourth in the 200 free, moved up one spot and is the third seed for the finals after a prelim swim of 1:51.08. That exact time helped her win the WPIAL title on Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Mt. Lebanon junior Sylvia Roy maintained her top seed position for this evening’s championship heat in the 50 free with a time of 22.79.
She will compete against WPIAL runner-up Kaitlyn Connors from Upper St. Clair, who swam a 23.36 in the prelims and is the fifth seed for the finals.
Sens had the second-best time in the prelims of the 100 fly (55.29).
Five WPIAL 200 free relay teams will swim in the finals led by the North Allegheny quartet of Sens, Julianne Weaver, Madden Woycheck, and Claire Bacu (1:35.81) in third.
Mt. Lebanon is the No. 4 seed for the finals (1:36.79), while Upper St. Clair is fifth (1:36.98), Fox Chapel is sixth (1:37.09), and Latrobe is eighth (1:38.29).
Schedule
The championship and consolation heats for the boys will start at 4:30 p.m., while the girls championship and consolation heats begin at 6:50 p.m. The Pennsylvania Cable Network will provide live coverage of both evening sessions.
