Loss in PIAA final fueling drive for Butler’s Goettler
Laura Goettler didn’t need to look very far for motivation coming into this season.
All the Butler senior had to do was remember back to the PIAA Class 3A final in the 200-yard individual medley
“That definitely does because I knew I could have done better,” Goettler said. “It’s definitely pushing me to maybe think about things a little bit more before a race, but it’s definitely a motivator for this year.”
Goettler went into last year’s state championship as a three-time WPIAL champion in the 200 individual medley and was the top seed in the final after posting a 2:00.34 in the morning qualifier that was nearly a full second ahead of the second-best time from North Allegheny’s Torie Buerger. In the championship heat, however, Goettler’s time ballooned by almost two seconds to 2:02.24 and she ended up in the middle of the pack behind Fox Chapel’s Zoe Skirboll, who won her first state title in 1:58.75.
Goettler did rebound in the second night of the meet when she beat Skirboll in the 100 breaststroke and, in so doing, became the first WPIAL swimmer since Pine-Richland’s Karen Murslack in 2011 to take home a PIAA title in the event.
Now, using that tough loss as inspiration, Goettler has set some rather lofty goals as this season winds down.
“I’d love to have another state title in the breaststroke and the 200 IM and I’d also like to come close or maybe get the state record in the 200 IM,” Goettler said. “I’m actually closer in the 200 IM than in the breaststroke.”
Though Buerger is back to challenge her in the 200 individual medley, Skirboll won’t be as the sophomore opted instead to train for the Olympic Trials and not compete for the Foxes.
“I’m definitely going to miss someone like that pushing me a little bit more,” Goettler said. “But I I understand and know where she’s coming from.”
Whether she is able to win both events — if she does she would be the first from the WPIAL to sweep both events since Kaitlyn Ornstein of Mt. Lebanon in 2004 — she already knows where she’ll be heading in the fall. Goettler committed to swim at Duquesne prior to the season.
“It was really the atmosphere of the team and the coach [David Sheets] I knew really well,” Goettler said. “I knew they would take care of me when I went there and I just had a pretty good feeling about the school.”
And, having the recruiting aspect out of the way has allowed her to just worry about training and dropping time. “It’s like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders,” Goettler said. “It ended a year of stressing and all that.”
Northgate
In the past few years, Northgate has quietly become one of the best swimming programs in Class 2A.
In 2018, the boys won the school’s first WPIAL team title and, last year, a last-second victory in the 400 freestyle relay, the final event of the meet, pushed the Flames girls to their first crown.
This year, though Northgate is the defending girls champion, repeating may be a bit much to ask for a team that lost perhaps the best swimmer in school history in Karen Siddoway to graduation and senior Isabella Salerno, who opted not to come out for her senior year.
“We’re in a lull year because we basically lost two girls,” Northgate coach Jess McKelvey said. “We knew it was going to be a little bit of a stretch last year. We went for it and it worked out for us, for sure.”
While the girls may not be top heavy with stars, they will have quite a few qualifiers who will provide key points that will keep Northgate competitive.
“This year will be a little bit more of a reach,” McKelvey said. “We’ll still show up and do well, but we’ll show up with a lot of girls who have a lot of potential … and next year we’ll be back at it again.”
While the expectations are a touch lower for the girls this year, the boys may have enough to reclaim their title from Indiana. The Little Indians won the title by 18.5 points over the Flames a year ago.
Even so, both the boys and girls teams are building toward potential dual titles in 2021. That’s especially possible considering what is coming down the pike.
“I’ll just have some out of the park freshmen coming my way on both sides for next year,” McKelvey said. “We have always had a wonderful feeder program.”