Boone’s Guiliano spurred by sibling rivalry
A sibling rivalry isn’t always a bad thing, at least not for Daniel Boone swimmer Chris Guiliano.
Growing up, Guiliano looked up to his older brother, Joe. But when he was about 8 years old swimming for the Boyertown YMCA, Guiliano admitted being envious of his big brother, who now swims for Albright.
“I was pretty jealous of him swimming in the fastest heats,” Chris Guiliano said.
Now, Chris Guiliano is the envy of swimmers across the state. He won gold and bronze medals at last year’s PIAA Swimming Championships, bringing his total to four state medals in the last two years.
He is a two-time Berks Swimmer of the Year and holds Berks records in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyles. He’s heading to Notre Dame to continue his academic and swimming careers with a planned stop in Omaha, Neb., in June for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Time Trials.
But this week, Guiliano has been focused on finishing
his high school career in style at the PIAA championships Saturday at Cumberland Valley High School. He has been working with Boyertown coach Bill Draves on shaving off those tenths and hundredths of seconds that separate state champions from the other medalists.
“I’ve been really trying to explode on the breakout,” Guiliano said. “I feet great so far.”
Guiliano returns to the Cumberland Valley pool two weeks after setting District 3 records in the 50 (20.17), 100 (44.10) and 200 (1:38.55) freestyles and winning gold in the 100 and 200. But by working on the little things, especially cleaning up the seven turns in the 200 free, Guiliano said he hopes he can lower those times. He may have to in order to win another state championship.
Guiliano enters the state championship meet second on the heat sheet in the 200 free to LaSalle College’s Zachary Kohm (1:37.24) with Gov. Mifflin junior Ben Gerhard third. In the 100, Guiliano’s seed time is more than one second better than the nearest competitor.
Guiliano is trying to prepare himself for a state meet unlike most others. It has been trimmed to one day and all races are timed finals. Previously, swimmers competed in preliminary heats with those with the top eight times moving to the finals. The meet was held over two days.
“It’s more of a mental challenge this year than anything,” Guiliano said. “Having that prelim is pretty important. You’ve got to have that finals mentality this year.”
Last year at Bucknell, Guiliano was second in the prelims in the 200 before taking off nearly two seconds in the finals and winning in 1:35.81. The following day, he finished third in what was originally a preliminary heat in the 100 but turned into a timed final when the meet was cut short due the coronavirus pandemic.
Matt Brownstead of State
College won the gold medal with Matthew Jensen of Upper Dublin taking the silver.
“It was pretty deflating learning about the cancellation of finals,” Guiliano said. “The day prior in the 200 free, I made a lot of improvement between prelims and finals.
“I believe I could’ve made some improvements in the 100 final. I was excited to go up against Brownstead and Jensen there in the final and I really think it could’ve pushed me.”
Still, it was an improvement from 2019 when Guiliano earned PIAA fifthplace medals in the 200 free and 200 individual medley.
Even that was enough to make a big brother a little envious and very proud.