Mount Pleasant star 2nd
PIAA Class 2A swimming championships
Heather Gardner was close to becoming the fastest swimmer in the state, but she fell just short at the wire.
Gardner, a Mount Pleasant sophomore, had her best finish in the PIAA Class 2A meet at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium when she came in second to Grove City junior Emma Wilson in the 50-yard freestyle, the speed event of the two-day competition.
Gardner won her first WPIAL title in the 50 freestyle at Pitt’s Trees Pool and was seeded second after posting a 23.43-second time in the morning preliminaries. Wilson, first after the early session with 23.57, won the championship with 23.30, edging Gardner by 0.13 seconds.
Northgate junior Karen Siddoway can empathize. The WPIAL champion in the 200 freestyle came into the weekend as the top seed in the first of her two events, but came in second in the morning qualifiers to Bloomsburg senior Hannah Everhart. Though Siddoway dropped more than three seconds off her morning time of 1:53.68, her 1:50.45 in the final was nearly a full second behind the Everhart’s 1:49.65.
Sophomore Katelyn McClain of Elizabeth Forward also medaled in the 100 freestyle with a seventh-place finish.
Indiana sophomore Harley Kessler was the only other WPIAL medalist on the first day of the competition. She placed eighth in the 200 individual medley, 11.06 seconds behind the winning time of 2:00.99 posted by Shamokin’s Abigail Doss.
On the boys side, the WPIAL’s best chance for a state title was in the 100 butterfly, where Belle Vernon freshman Ian Shahan went into the championship heat just 0.01 second behind topseeded Adam Mahler of Holy Redeemer. Shahan shaved a little off his morning time as he touched he wall in 50.70 in the final, but Mahler cut almost a full second and won the PIAA title in 49.96.
For the rest of the WPIAL swimmers, medals were very hard to come by and championships completely out of reach.
Northgate, the WPIAL team champion, medaled in the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. The Flames finished sixth in the medley relay, one spot ahead of Riverside, and seventh in the 200 freestyle relay.