Trophy in mail for NA
Officially, North Allegheny has not won a PIAA Class 3A boys team swimming title since 2010. Officially. In reality, the Tigers were dissuaded from taking their traditional championship victory plunge in the Kinney Natatorium pool at Bucknell University early Sunday night to celebrate their inevitable coronation for the fourth state title in school history after a dominant performance in the finals.
“Honestly, it was a great weekend for us and we are happy and we are winning,” North Allegheny coach Patrick Wenzel said. “It obviously feels a bit bizarre we’re leaving there without getting to have a proper celebration.”
Because the PIAA was forced to rearrange the meet schedule after a winter storm last week crippled much of the central and eastern parts of the state, the competition was held Saturday and Sunday instead of the usual Friday and Saturday. In addition, the PIAA opted for timed finals and eliminated the morning preliminary swims and evening championships, which gave individuals and relays only one chance to post a time and win a medal.
In addition to that, the PIAA also moved the diving portion of the program to next weekend. Since diving scores are incorporated into the overall team total, the team results from the swimming-only portion of the program won’t be made official until after the diving finals, which also are at Bucknell.
Because North Allegheny has a 271-183 lead over LaSalle College and no one has more than two divers, the Tigers already have won the title. The most points any team can pick up in diving is 37 as fourth-place North Penn has two seeded in the top eight, but the Tigers do not have a diver in the field .
“They are going to drive the trophy to us at some point,” Wenzel said. “We’re going to figure out how we receive and how we will celebrate at that point.”
North Allegheny took its decisive lead with dominating performances on both days thanks in large part to junior Mason Gonzalez, who won two individual titles and a gold medal in the 200 medley relay. Gonzalez won the 50 freestyle Saturday and followed that up with a victory Sunday in the 100 freestyle. In the 100 freestyle, Gonzalez posted a time of 43.62 seconds that beat Penn Hills sophomore Kimani Gregory by 0.95 seconds and the Tigers’ Jack Wright by 1.05 in a 1-2-3 WPIAL finish.