NA Swimmers Cap Regular Season At Last Ditch Invitational
North Allegheny hosted the annual Last Ditch Invitational meet on Saturday, Feb 19. This meet included athletes from 11 high school swim teams from around the area. This is the final opportunity for swimmers to achieve a qualifying swim for the upcoming WPIAL Swimming Championships that are held on March 3 and 4 at the University of Pittsburgh.
This was a loud, raucous atmosphere where athletes cheer for swimmers of all teams to help motivate them to achieve the fastest swims possible. Before the meet started, Coach Corky Semler addressed the crowd and proudly indicated that this is the 31st annual version of this meet. He was involved in initiating this tradition that is designed to help provide the best conditions for fast swimming for all competitors. This year proved yet again that the meet format has proven successful with the large number of WPIAL qualifying swims by athletes from all the teams.
In the girls 200-yard freestyle event, junior Rebecca Melanson and freshman May Coffman achieved WPIAL qualifying swims. Freshman Brianna Reinhart had a season best swim by over 3 seconds.
In the boys 200-yard freestyle event, senior Jacob Yarosz, sophomore Camden Wright, and sophomore Josh Berty achieved WPIAL qualifying swims.
In the girls 200-yard individual medley event, junior Mikayla Tieppo and freshman Erin Cuba both had season best times.
Junior Eliot Maravich had an impressive WPIAL qualifying time in the boys 200-yard individual medley event.
In the girls 50-yard freestyle, junior Delaney Kennedy achieved the WPIAL qualifying time. Senior Brooke Gliniski and junior Marissa Milliron also had fast swims.
In the boys 50-yard freestyle, freshman Grant Regule achieved a WPIAL qualifying time. Freshman Gus Miller and sophomore Jake Rechenmacher had season best swims in this event.
The girls 100-yard butterfly event had a couple of near misses for swimmers trying to get a difficult WPIAL cut. Freshman Ava Sharar and junior Sophia Huwar were very close and had season best times. Freshman Josie Daltorio also achieved a season best swim.
In the boys 100-yard butterfly, sophomore Riley Williams, senior Hayden Klein, and freshman Nicholas Klein all achieved the WPIAL qualifying standards in this event. Junior Nico Jacobs-Alarcon also had a season best swim by over 3 seconds.
Kennedy captured her second WPIAL qualifying swim in the girls 100-yard freestyle event. Glinski and Milliron also had significant season best time drops in their fast swims in this event.
Junior David Shi, senior captain Stewart Messer, and Regule achieved WPIAL qualifying swims in the boys 100-yard freestyle event. Miller, Rechenmacher, and senior captain Ethan Berty all achieved season best times in this event.
In the girls 500-yard freestyle, senior Isabella Dietz finished strong during the last 50-yards to achieve a WPIAL qualifying swim.
Sophomore Natalie Sens dropped over 2 seconds on her season best time to achieve a WPIAL qualifying swim in the girls 100-yard backstroke. Freshman Julianne Weaver also had a season best swim in this event.
In the boys 100-yard backstroke, Wright captured his second WPIAL qualifying swim of the meet. R. Williams, freshman Caden Currykosky, and E. Berty also achieved season best swims in this event.
In the girls 100-yard breaststroke event, Sharar out-touched junior Lexi Sundgren as they both achieved WPIAL qualifying swims. With this qualifying swim, Sundgren has achieved the incredible feat of having captured a WPIAL qualifying swim in each individual event during season.
Junior Ben Gavran captured a WPIAL qualifying swim in the boys 100-yard breaststroke event. Shi and freshman Andrew Li had season best swims in this event.
The Tiger divers will compete next at the WPIAL Diving Championships on Saturday, Feb. 26 at North Allegheny High School. The Tiger swimmers will compete next at the WPIAL Swimming Championships on March 3 and 4 at Pitt.