Season comes to a big close at Bucknell
La Salle surges; Upper Dublin climbs
La Salle’s remarkable Day Two at the PIAA 3A Championships last weekend provided a point surge totaling 191 points and the No. 3 spot in the state.
The Explorers go into the offseason with plenty to remember about their trip to Bucknell University.
On Day One, the Explorers pushed to an All-American performance in the 200-yard medley relay. A team of Tim Grossi, Kevin O’Dare, Matt Szekely and Quinn Buck posted a sixth-place time of 1 minute, 32.65 seconds.
Then, Liam Smith notched an AllAmerican mark in the 200 freestyle, his 1:38.38 earning him the silver medal. Matt Szekely’s 200 IM time (1:51.30, ninth) as well as that of the 200 freestyle relay team of D.J. Comerford, Matt Lewis, Quinn Buck and Liam Smith (1:24.47, third) also found a spot on the All-American list.
La Salle had a tremendous morning on Day Two, the team qualifying five individual swimmers along with the 400 freestyle relay for the night finals.
To get things started, Will Seely dove to an eighth-place medal for La Salle and more All-American performances in the 500 freestyle (Smith), 100 breaststroke (Kevin O’Dare and Evan Parkhill), and 400 free relay (Andrew Pave, Matt Szekely, Quinn Buck, and Liam Smith) paved the way to a third-place finish out of 54 teams in Class 3A.
The Explorers have now won 29 consecutive Philadelphia Catholic League Championships as well as nine straight
District 12-3A Championships since joining in 2009. CARDINALS PUSH TO FOURTH >> Right behind La Salle in the team standings was Upper Dublin, which compiled 147.5 points to grab fourth.
It was a strong finish for the Cardinals, who improved upon their No. 5 finish of 2018.
Upper Dublin earned a
bronze medal in both the 200 medley and 400 free relays. The medley foursome of Jake DiMartile, Matt Jensen, Kyle Pro and Nicholas Gewartowski swam to a 1:31.11 and then to cap things off, the 400 free squad of Pro, Kornel Pesti, DiMartile and Jensen pushed to a 3:02.70 to grab third.
Individual medals on Day One for the Cards included Pro (1:40.62, seventh) in the 200 free; DiMartile (1:51.49, sixth) in the 200 IM; and
Jensen (48.10, second) in the 100 fly.
On Day Two, the medal count grew, with Jensen (43.89, third) in the 100 free and DiMartile (49.50, fourth) in the 100 back.
Upper Dublin also had a diver add some points to the pile, as Michael Burke rose to 10th in the competition with a score of 420.30.