D-11 Girls’ Swimming: Blue Mountain captures 8th straight Class AA team title
The Blue Mountain girls captured their eighth straight District 11 Class AA team title Saturday at Parkland High School. The Eagles scored 350 points, with Tamaqua second with 269 (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
ALLENTOWN — Blue Mountain’s divers put the Eagles in a good spot.
The swimmers then delivered another District 11 trophy.
Blue Mountain captured its eighth straight District 11 Class AA team championship Saturday during Day 2 of the District 11 Swimming Championships at Parkland High School.
The Eagles didn’t win any gold medals Saturday, but a pair of silvers and strong swims throughout the lineup helped Blue Mountain compile 350 points, 81 more than second-place Tamaqua.
“They swam as hard as I’ve ever seen them,” Blue Mountain head coach Pete Sarnes said. “They worked so hard this season. We knew how good Tamaqua was. They were really up for this meet.
“I’m so proud of this entire team. You have no idea how much time they put in the pool. A lot of them were underclassmen and they were learning how to train. They were fantastic. I can’t be prouder of this team.”
A 1-3-4-6 finish in Wednesday night’s District 11 Girls’ Diving Championships by Hailey Scheuer, Shyanna White, Ana Oettl and Molly Stone gave Blue Mountain a 64-point lead before anyone hit the water Friday night.
But Blue Mountain’s young swimming corps — which includes no seniors — focused all week on retaining the team title and that hard work paid off Friday and Saturday. Even minus the diving points, Blue Mountain would have pulled out the win.
In addition to Scheuer’s diving gold, the only first-place finish Blue Mountain had was in Friday’s 200 freestyle relay, where Anna Kaplafka, Alayna Hensel, Lola Machamer and Isabella Lafko took first in 1:44.59.
All total, the Eagles only earned four top-four swimming medals, two by Hensel, the gold in the 200 free relay and a silver in the 400 freestyle relay.
Blue Mountain’s depth, and overall performance, proved to be the key.
“I’m really proud of myself and the girls,” said Hensel, who was second in the 200 IM on Friday, second in the 100 breaststroke Saturday and swam on both relays. “We all dropped time. It means so much to us that we were able to continue our reign as district champions.
“It was talked about so much this week by our coaches, our teammates, people at school. We were pretty much the talk of the school over the past week. I’m so glad we got to fulfill what we set out to do.”
Strucko dominates, named Outstanding Swimmer
Marian’s Lydia Strucko continued her dominating season Saturday, cruising to victory in the 100 backstroke in 55.68.
The junior controlled the race from start to finish, beating her seed time of 57.49 by almost two seconds.
Mahanoy Area’s Lily Brown was second in 59.73, with Tamaqua’s Kate Behun third in 1:04.66.
That gold, combined with her victory Friday in the 100 butterfly, earned the junior the Dennis McGinley Outstanding Swimmer Award for girls’ Class AA.
“Going into it, I was locked in,” Strucko said. “I was really aggressive with it.
“We didn’t taper for this meet, but I’m really happy with the outcome. I just went for it.”
Tamaqua grabs 2 gold, runner-up team spot
Savannah Wilson said she felt “super good” all weekend in her races.
That might be an understatement.
Wilson captured her third straight gold medal in the 100 breaststroke Saturday, breaking the school record (again) with a personal-best time of 1:04.96. She won the race by nearly four seconds over second-place Hensel (1:08.94).
“That is my fastest time ever,” Wilson said, beaming. “I was going in hoping to get a 1:05, take a second off from last year. But I ended up with a 1:04 … I’m over the moon about it right now. I’m very happy.
“It means a lot. To me, winning is awesome, but I feel like it just shows that the effort and work that I put in really pays off.”
Moments after winning the breaststroke, Wilson was back on the blocks as the third leg of Tamaqua’s 400 freestyle relay, joining Janna Brown, Behun and Shaylee Gormley.
When Wilson took off, the Blue Raiders trailed Blue Mountain. Wilson quickly closed the gap with a split of 56.02 to put Tamaqua in the lead, and Gormley brought it home to help the Blue Raiders finish in 3:48.65.
For the weekend, Wilson earned three gold medals and was second in the 100 butterfly to Strucko.
“I felt super good this entire meet,” Wilson said. “I had PRs all around today and yesterday.
“The 400 free relay, we knew that we would probably be ahead by the end but the first two legs would be close. The second leg, Blue Mountain got ahead of us. The second I hit the water, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m letting them get ahead right now.’
“I was still tired from the breaststroke, but I got in there and just swam as fast as I could. I ended up getting us ahead and Shaylee took off from there. It was another great swim.”
Wilson wasn’t the only Tamaqua swimmer to excel Saturday.
Behun earned two individual medals, taking fourth in the 500 freestyle and third in the 100 backstroke. Gormley added a third-place finish in the 100 freestyle.
Saturday’s success propelled Tamaqua into second place in the Class AA girls’ team standings by 16 points over Moravian Academy.
