Niness, Fresa look to cap standout careers
Upper Perkiomen senior Noel Fresa remembers her first trip to the PIAA Swimming Championships as a freshman three years ago.
Everything was enhanced from the strictness of the rules to the level of competitors swimming in the lanes on either side of her.
“I was terrified,” Fresa said. “I was so nervous. I was terrified about everything about it.”
Owen J. Roberts senior Mikayla Niness said the event was similarly intimidating in her first trip as a sophomore in 2018. She was not used to how fast the event was run nor used to swimming in a Division I pool like the one at Bucknell University, where the state championships are held.
The duo has come a long way since in their terrific high school careers, which have both featured multiple appearances at states.
Niness and Fresa will cap off their senior seasons with one last trip to Bucknell for the PIAA Swimming & Diving Championships this week. The Class 3A competition will be staged Wednesday and Thursday, followed by Class 2A on Friday and Saturday.
Upper Perk’s Fresa will compete in the Class 2A 100 free and 200 free in her fourth state meet, while OJR’s Niness will swim in the Class 3A 50 free and 100 free in her third trip to states.
“It’s a very intimidating meet for a lot of people,” Niness said. “I remember sophomore year I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is crazy.’ Even last year, I felt more comfortable and I did better than I did my sophomore year. So I’m hoping to do a little better than I did last year, and honestly it’s just going to be fun since it’s my senior year.”
Fresa, who will swim at Lehigh University, finished 2nd in the 100 free (50.96) and third in the 200 free (1:52.63) in 2019. Last year’s Mercury All-Area Girls Swimmer of the Year has had one goal on her mind since last year’s PIAA championships: coming home with two state gold medals.
With her name already scattered all over the record board on the pool deck at Upper Perkiomen — she held all but four school records by the end of last season —and a state silver medal already in her possession there wasn’t much else to shoot for on a personal level.
Fresa finished first in the 100 free (51.69) and second in the 200 free (1:53.75) at the District 1-2A championships last month despite swimming tired. Even though she hasn’t tapered yet, Fresa enters both of her individual events seeded second. She said she is shooting for a 0:49 in the 100 free and a 1:49 in the 200 free, which would both be career bests.
“Really that was my main goal,” Fresa said of hunting for state gold. “I had all the records I thought I could get. I tried for 200 IM. Missed it by 0.4. That really sucked, but I’m not an IMer, so I was OK with it. I have most of the records anyway, so really all that’s left is states and that’s the main goal of the season.”
Niness, who wrapped up back-to-back District 1-3A championships in the 50 free last month, finished seventh in the 50 free (23.75) at the PIAA championships last season and missed the finals of the 100 free (52.77) by 0.1 seconds.
Her senior season has been a bit of struggle. She caught the flu twice and also suffered a concussion, which kept her out of the pool from mid-December until the end of January.
Niness has her eyes on getting to the finals in both of her individual events, but after all she’s gone through this season her first goal will be to enjoy her final state meet before she swims at West Chester University next school year.
“Just go in trying not to worry about it and mostly to have fun and whatever happens,” Niness said of her mindset heading into states. “I kind of had not had the best season. I was really sick, so I’m kind of just going with the flow with everything this season.”
The two won’t be alone at Bucknell.
OJR junior Abbey Malmstrom is set to compete in the 200 free and 100 back for the Wildcats. Niness and Malmstrom will also join sophomore Lauren Zelinske and Eliana Crew in the 200 free and 400 free relays.
Malmstrom, Niness, Zelinske and Crew’s older sister Lilia missed out on reaching the event final in the 200 free and 200 medley relays last season by tenths of a second in both races.
“We’re seeded pretty well, but we just have to bring it when it’s time,” Niness said.
Fresa will join junior Devin Romanowski, sophomore Darragh Martin and junior Kayman Heater in the 200 free and 400 free relays.
“When I joined, there were six girls,” Fresa said. “We didn’t win a (PAC) meet ever. Coming from that to have four girls go to states is really great for everyone. I think it’s really impressive what we’ve done.”
As they finish off their high school careers, the two seniors both said that is definitely an advantage going through the championship hoopla multiple times before.
Fresa has nailed down her states routine: “Prelims, Panera and Finals,” she said.
For Niness, the event that once made her anxious now brings a level of excitement that is hard to find during any other event during the high school swimming seasons.
“They turn out the lights, and do kind of like cool lights and fun stuff right before you swim,” Niness said, recalling her appearance in the 50 free finals last year. “They call your name. There’s music and stuff. It’s just really exciting, and I just like that about the whole thing.”
Niness said she’s liked pretty much everything about her high school swim career. One of her favorite memories was coach Kevin Bott breaking out in a rap on the way to states last season.
She and Fresa plan to add a few more memories and hopefully some more hardware this week as they race for their respective high schools one final time.
“I know that’s what’s happening, but it hasn’t hit me yet,” Fresa said. “I’m more like, ‘I have another day. I have another practice. I have another race.’ It hasn’t hit me that it’s my last meet, but I think once I get up there it will because I’ll probably cry. It’s sad.”
“It’ll probably hit me after the meet,” Niness said. “I mean I’m kind of sad that it’s my last meet, but I’m also excited for what the future holds for college and stuff, too.”
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The Mercury area will be well-represented up at Bucknell this week with seven schools sending up athletes to compete.
Boyertown sophomore Gabrielle McKee, who is set to compete in the 200 IM and 500 free, is making her second straight appearance after finishing 13th in both events last season.
Phoenixville junior Erini Pappas will be another multi-event competitor as she is set to swim in 100 fly and 100 back following sixth in the fly (56.57) and seventh in the back (56.66) at the District 1-3A championships in both events.
Along with the Upper Perkiomen and Owen J. Roberts swimmers previously mentioned, Upper Merion sophomore Lindsay Yuen (100 breast) and Spring-Ford freshman Ashley Gutshall (50 free) round out the area’s swimmers set to compete at states.
Perkiomen Valley sophomore Gabby Filzen will be the area’s lone diver up at states. The PAC hasn’t sent a diver to states since Phoenixville’s Caroline Turner in 2018.