Many records are broken throughout exciting day
Henry Miller spent the first three years of his high school career splitting time between wrestling and swimming. This season, he devoted all of his time to the pool.
Miller, a senior who competes as an independent from Southmoreland, pulled off the biggest surprise of the first day of the WPIAL Class 2A swimming finals at Pitt’s Trees Pool. He swam back- to- back events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 butterfly, and set WPIAL records in both.
“Euphoric is the perfect word for it,” Miller said Thursday. “It’s fun. In this sport, people say, ‘What should I swim?’ or ‘How should I approach this?’ Approach it with fun.”
As the top seed in the 50 freestyle, he raced away from defending champion Joseph Roth of Riverside with a record time of 20.18 to win by 1.11 seconds. Miller eclipsed the 2021 dead-heat record of 20.36l.
As the No. 2 seed in the 100 butterfly behind his friend, Mount Pleasant’s David Mutter, he edged the Vikings sophomore by 0.70 seconds.
North Catholic opened the meet and came out of nowhere to with the 200 medley relay. The Trojans foursome of sophomore Luke Lamb and seniors John Lamb, Matthew Littleton and Jackson Kress was seeded fourth, hit the wall in 1:35.80 and beat the Mount Pleasant boys by 0.68 seconds.
A few minutes later, Northgate junior Matthew Purcell came from behind on the final lap of the 200 individual medley to tap the wall in a record-setting 1:51.38.
On the girls side, Mount Pleasant coach Sandy Felice had a long sit-down with sophomore Lily King before the final seeds being announced. Their discussion seemed simple. Felice wanted King, the reigning champion and recordholder in the 50-yard freestyle, to switch to the 200 freestyle to help the Vikings defend their girls team title.
“I did have to talk her into it and she did do it for the team,” Felice said.
Did she ever. King scratched the record books in the 200 freestyle as she went 1:47.36 to edge defending champ Elise Nardozzi of Northgate.
Freshman Kiersten O’Connor won the 50 freestyle in 23.76. This after she opened the meet as part of the 200 medley relay team that set a WPIAL record with a 1:45.86.
The day closed with record-setting efforts in the 200 freestyle relays.
On the girls side, the Mount Pleasant foursome of King, Trinity Graft, Gardner and O’Connor broke its own 2022 mark with a 1:35.90. Because King swam the opening lap, her split time in the first 50 of 22.58 seconds will count as a WPIAL record.
Indiana’s Joey Margita, Rey Nunez, Alex Bauer and Preston Kessler then wrapped it up with a 1:26.24 in its 200 freestyle relay.
Mapletown senior and Alabama recruit Ella Menear didn’t set a record in the 200 individual medley, but she did become a threetime champion in the event with her win.