Villa Maria on top after Day 1 at Bucknell

The Villa Maria Academy girls swimming team has a very simple formula when it comes to winning district and state titles. Depth + talent = championships.

That tried and true method worked again in the first day of the Class 2A Girls Swimming championships at Kinney Natorium on the campus of Bucknell University on Thursday.

The recent snow storm forced a change in the schedule to timed finals only, but that didn’t derail the Hurricanes’ attempt for a seventh straight PIAA title. They fininshed Thursday’s action with 106 points. Grove City and Fairview are tied for second withe 84 points each. Villa Maria of Erie is fourth with 79 and Scranton Prep

rounds out the top five with 65 points.

Things started for Villa with a second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay by the team of Kira Buchler, Katelyn Chick, Olivia Giampietro, and Maura McManus in 1:47.25. They were edged by Fairview in 1:47.25.

Alexa Turco finished 16th in 200 freestyle. Hope Reynolds followed by lowering her seed time by 1.5 seconds to finish 11th in 2:10.18.

Nina Smith earn Villa’s first individual medal by placing sixth in the 50 free at 24.29. Kaitlyn Agger took seventh in the 100 butterfly.

The only gold of the day for the Hurricanes came in the final event of Thursday, Giampietro, Smith, Turco and McManus captured the 200 free relay in exciting fashion, out touching Shady Side Academy by one-hundreth of a second.

The second day of the Class AA championships will begin Friday at 10:45 a.m.