North Allegheny sets national records

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Usually swimmers don’t do a shave and taper during the regular season, instead waiting until late in the year or right before the state meet so they can get their best time.

North Allegheny, though, had exigent circumstances for being in top condition coming into its earliest meets. The Tigers sent five boys and one girl to the Speedo Winter Junior Championships East Dec. 6-9 in Knoxville, Tenn., and they wereready to start the season offon a high note.

“We had a nice crew up there and a lot of people do that around this time,” North Allegheny coach Patrick Wenzel said. “This was Mason’s last nationals, so we went for it a little bit.”

Senior Mason Gonzalez, a Stanford recruit, finished fifth in the 50-yard freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle. But he and his teammates had a huge carryover whenthey started the regular season last week ... two nationalrecords in relay events.

In their second dual meet of the season, Gonzalez, senior Andrew Zhang, sophomore Rick Mihm and junior Jack Wright broke the U.S. national public school record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:20.46. Wright, Gonzalez, Mihm and Jack Krigger set the mark in the PIAA Class 3A finals at Bucknell University in March when they swam a 1:20.95 to win the state title.

North Allegheny now has two of the three fastest times ever in the country, trailing only Jacksonville (Fla.) Bolles High School, which holds the National Federation of High Schools mark with a 1:19.27 set in 2012.

Not only did the four Tigers set one national record, they got another later in the meet in the 400 freestyle relay as they swam a 2:57.59 to break the original mark of 2:59.00 set by Grenada 2014.

“They were swimming really fast in December. It’s not surprising they swam that fast because I saw the way they swam at Junior Nationals,” Wenzel said. “We just went after it. It was nice to see them get some early goals andnow they can refocus and getsome higher goals.”

North Allegheny would have had the record in the 400 relay at the state finals in Marchwhen the team swam a 2:58, but the foursome was disqualified for an early entry on one of the legs. Despite that, the Tigers still held on to win thestate team championship.

And there is still a possibility for improvement as the season truly gets underway for the six-time defending WPIALClass 3A champions.

“We’re still hoping to see some more drops come March,” Wenzel said. “I know they’re ready to get back to training, and I think this made them hungrier and they want to see how fast their potential really is.” (Calif.) High School in