Gateway’s Livingston set the bar high as freshman

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Olivia Livingston is a sprinter so it shouldn’t be a surprise that she quickly burst onto the scene with a memorable record-setting freshman campaign.

Not only did the Gateway swimmer set benchmarks in both of her individual events, she also set a PIAA Class 3A record with a 22.73second time in the 50-yard freestyle and capped her year with a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a 49.53 finish that was just 0.10 behind Pennridge’s Morgan Scott.

After all of that, the sophomore knows she has a lot of work to do to eclipse her own high standards and low times.

“I’m working on a lot of smaller technique things and my main focus [was] on Junior Nationals,” Livingston said. “I’m doing a lot with my flip-turn to make it more continuous and with my dive and things like that.”

Livingston competed in the Junior Nationals East Regional Dec. 8-9 in Knoxville, Tenn., and came away with top-15 finishes in both of her events. She came in 13th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.30 and touched the wall in 23.15 to finish 15th in the 50 freestyle.

Like the PIAA championships, only the top eight times in the preliminary rounds swim in the championship match. Livingston was in the best of the two consolation swims in both events.

With that behind her, Livingston can now focus on defending her WPIAL and PIAA titles. And what might be scary is that there is room for improvement in her approach.

“I know that I’m a lot stronger this year and my coaches always tell me that,” she said. “I set lots of goal times and I wrote a goal sheet at the beginning of this year and I’m just hoping to go a lot faster and drop time.”

Heading into the season, the only record she doesn’t hold in her two events is in the state 100 freestyle, but if last year is any indication it is certainly attainable. Hershey’s Meaghan Raab set the current mark of 49.01 in 2012.

“I think in the 50, I’d like to be around a 22.30 and for the 100, 48.00 low,” Livingston said. “I feel like the expectations are the same because all I have ever wanted to do is to get in the pool and drop time and make sure that I did my personal best.”

While Livingston is the only returning swimmer who will defend two WPIAL titles at Trees Pool, North Allegheny is once again back to defend its overall Class 3A team championship. The Tigers have an opportunity to move their winning streak into double digits as they have a nine-season title streak on the line heading into the year.

“I just think you have to look at your own team’s strengths and not focus on anyone else’s,” North Allegheny coach Patrick Wenzel said. “Our goal is make our girls as fast as we can, but there’s just a ton of competition within the WPIAL especially if you look at all the freshmen last year.”

What will help North Allegheny is not just the influx of talent from a solid freshman class that should offset the loss of Princeton recruit Lauren McGrath, but that the team also has a superb sophomore of its own in Torie Buerger, who is a WPIAL individual champion in her own right and the last in a long family line to stand on the blocks for the Tigers.

“Torie is just a technician and she’s always trying to get things right,” Wenzel said. “We’re always working on making her stronger and figuring out the exact potion to make her swim even faster.”

Class 2A

Shady Side Academy only won one individual event at the WPIAL Class 2A championship meet — that by recent alumna Ashley Azzarello in the 100 backstroke — but the Indians captured the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay to win its third consecutive team title.

And there is the possibility that it could have enough talent to make a run at No. 4 this season.

Shady Side Academy was a relatively young squad last year and Azzarello was the only senior to swim on any of its three relays. The stage is set for the Indians to make their way back to the podium.

If nothing else, there will be a lot of new faces atop the medal stand. Indiana junior Payton Rayko, who won the 100 butterfly in an upset of top-seeded senior Danielle Jellison of Derry Area last season, is the only returning individual champion in Class 2A.