NA GIRLS WORK TO WIN ANOTHER TITLE
North Allegheny has been the dominant swimming program in the area for more than a decade, so it’s not surprising the Tigers came into the season with several active WPIAL records.
Not only are the girls seeking to add to their record of WPIAL team swimming titles with No. 13, with a win the Tigers would tie the Norwin (1973-85) volleyball team’s overall WPIAL record for consecutive girls team titles. The program can also extend its record of concurrent boys and girls WPIAL titles in any sport to 10.
And yet, even with all of these marks within their grasp, the Tigers have been just as much a victim of the COVID-19 shutdowns, restarts and general disarray as any other program in the region.
“Obviously this season is crazier than anything I’ve ever dealt with before, but it’s just a matter of trying to be excellent at what we do in practice so that, when the time comes, we’re prepared to go through the process,” North Allegheny coach Patrick Wenzel said. “Those three weeks off were tough, but our team is generally mentally tough and I think that will help us carry through.”
Normally personal best times are what coaches are looking for as the deadline for WPIAL qualifying is approximately a month away, but North Allegheny shifted a lot of its focus away from the water and into the swimmers’ heads.
“This year’s been all about keeping kids mentally ‘in it’ and keeping kids happy,” Wenzel said. “I think swimming has done that for a lot of them because it’s their outlet.”
Even in a tumultuous year, the one constant might be the North Allegheny girls swimming team excelling. The Tigers have a pair of seniors in Colorado School of Mines recruit Olivia Kisow and George Washington recruit Molly Smyers as well as junior Ella Ogden leading a top-level group into the season as it seeks to continue its dominance.
On the boys side, though, there are not the one or two dominant individuals the team has had in recent years. If the Tigers are to move their winning streak into double-digits, it’s really going to be a team effort.
“We have obviously graduated a ton of talent over the last three classes. Those kids did the stuff of lore and now it’s just time for the boys who were in the background to step to the foreground and do what they can to keep the North Allegheny tradition alive,” Wenzel said. “We have seniors like Jacob McCarran and Tim Compton who have been to the state meet and know what it’s all about and have been through this process.”
Indiana
Last season, Indiana won its second consecutive WPIAL Class 2A boys team swimming title in the most amazing fashion.
It wasn’t that the Little Indians blew away the competition. Far from it. They only edged secondplace Northgate by 23 points.
No, it was how Indiana won the title.
It only had seven swimmers on the team and sent just five to the WPIAL finals. And those five racked up enough points to bring home a championship despite not even participating in the 200 freestyle relay because each competitor can only enter two individual and two relay events.
“It was kind of crazy,” Indiana coach Garet Weston said. “The last few years, we’ve had a little smaller boys team and that’s how the swim system is out here in Indiana. Last year was a very interesting year and it was good.”
Winning for the third consecutive year will be a different kind of challenge. Even though Indiana has one more swimmer than it did a year ago — the boys are up to eight — only two IUP recruits Kyle Thome and Isaac Griffith — competed at Pitt’s Trees Pool last season
“We did get a couple of new guys and freshmen in, so it’s been kind of a unique follow-up to last year’s season,” Weston said. “So far we’ve gotten off to a pretty good start winning our first two meets, so we’ll see if and how that translates to a championship season.”