Relay victory gives title to Northgate girls
Northgate senior Karen Siddoway won the 100-yard individual freestyle for the second year in a row Friday.
But it was what she did in the other 100 yards she swam that gave the Flames their first WPIAL Class 2A girls team title.
Trailing Indiana by three points in the standings and in third place by almost 1.5 seconds behind Elizabeth Forward and Indiana in the 400-yard freestyle relay, Siddoway hit the water, made up the time on the first 50 yards, then wrapped up a 50.24-second leg and a team 3:35.89 to give Northgate a 225-220 win over Indiana.
“I was not even looking anywhere because my hands and arms and the upper part of my body was numb from adrenaline,” Siddoway said. “All I could think about was that I had to do this and I had to pull this out for my team.”
Although Siddoway came in as the No. 2 seed in the 100 freestyle, 0.33 seconds behind Thomas Jefferson sophomore Hallie Findlan, the defending champion pulled away late and touched the wall in 50.88 seconds, beating runner-up West Mifflin senior Ashley Lynch by a whopping 2.81 seconds and third-place Findlan by 3.22.
She also won the 200 freestyle title on Thursday.
“I only swam this event once this season, so I didn’t have a best time ... ,” Siddoway said. “But I was really excited for my time because it was exactly the time I went at states last year, so I’m excited for what I can do at states.”
Indiana may not have won the girls title, but the Little Indians did take home a gold medal as the boys capped their first championship season since 2012 with a 211.5-193 win over second-place Northgate. Indiana did not win an individual event at the meet but capped the title with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay.
“We came here with only seven boys, and we knew it was going to be close,” Indiana coach Garet Weston said. “They worked hard all year long and they’ve been swimming together for years and it’s an awesome honor for the boys.”
Neshannock sophomore Connor McBeth swam the second-fastest 100 freestyle in WPIAL history on Friday, but that was good enough for only second place in the heat. Instead, Belle Vernon sophomore Ian Shahan etched his name into the WPIAL record book with a 45.48 that beat McBeth’s 45.80, as well as Blackhawk alumn Mark Stepanian’s 2009 benchmark of 45.97.
It was the fourth time in the two classifications that two swimmers lowered the previous WPIAL record in the same event. Laura Goettler of Butler and Fox Chapel freshman Zoe Skirboll pulled it off Thursday in the Class 3A 200 individual medley with Goettler taking the title, then it happened again on Friday as Skirboll returned the favor in the 100 breaststroke.
On the Class 3A boys side, North Allegheny junior Rick Mihm and Upper St. Clair’s Jack Fitzpatrick both bested Tigers alumnus Zachary Buerger’s 2014 standard of 1:49.33 in the 200 individual medley with a 1:48.15 and a 1:49.04, respectively. But Mihm’s name will be in the record books, and Fitzpatrick is a footnote.
And Shahan didn’t even swim this event last year. On a whim, he changed out from the 100 backstroke, where he was the reigning champion, to the 100 freestyle.
“I’ve been training a lot this whole season and, coming in, just to see what I could do, especially seeing where my back went from last year to this year,” Shahan said. “I wanted to break records and I wanted to see what I could do.”
Leopards teammate Robert Spekis also put on a record-breaking performance — even though it was his own record he broke. Spekis swam a 56.99 in the 100 breaststroke to eclipse his own 2018 mark by 0.81 seconds.
Deer Lakes’ Adam Morrison pulled off an upset when he swam a 4:40.05 to defeat defending champion Andrew Pierre of Mars in the 500 freestyle. Morrison became the first Lancers swimmer since at least 1980 to win a WPIAL individual title.
Pierre, who trains with Morrison, swam a second-place time of 4:40.99 that was 4.51 seconds faster than his 2018 winning time.
“It’s just unbelievable. I’ve put in so much training and it’s amazing to see it finally pay off and it’s really incredible,” Morrison said. “I love to race my friends, and I think it takes a lot of pressure off because I see what they do in practice and you know exactly what their style is.”
Heather Gardner of Mount Pleasant finished off her double-gold meet with a second consecutive win in the 100 breaststroke. The Vikings junior posted a 1:03.92 that beat Highlands junior Rachel Blackburn by 2.85 seconds.