North Allegheny dominates 3A
Tigers follow Mihm’s lead to both boys, girls championships
Rick Mihm wanted to come out and set the tone for the North Allegheny boys swimming team at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
And what he did Thursday helped propel the Tigers through Friday and to their eighth consecutive WPIAL Class 3A team title.
Mihm came out and swam what would have been a WPIAL record 19.88 in the anchor leg of the 200-yard medley relay, the first event of the day, then broke a fiveyear-old record in the 200 individual medley before he anchored the 200 freestyle relay to a title. If that wasn’t enough, he picked up his second consecutive crown in the 500 freestyle Friday to help the Tigers earn 450 points, 188 better than secondplace Upper St. Clair.
“I think the goal was to really make a statement, so I think doing that in the relay really got our team excited, both boys and girls,” Mihm said. “I think it was really pivotal to win that type of exciting race to start it off.”
While the boys won their eighth in a row, the Tigers girls, thanks to wins by sophomore Molly Smyers in the 500 freestyle and junior Torie Buerger’s third consecutive win in the 100 backstroke, won their recordtying 11th title in a row. Only Oakland Catholic, which won 11 in Class 2A from 2000-10, had done it previously.
North Allegheny finished with 313 points to 254.50 for runner-up Mt. Lebanon.
“It’s really cool and it’s really great to have girls as close as we are who support each other through the whole thing,” Buerger said.
“We just put all of the hard work in, and, at the end of the day, we know we have the biggest heart and we know we can do it.”
Mihm’s 19.88 won’t officially break the WPIAL record of 20.05 set by the Tigers’ Mason Gonzalez in 2017 because it happened on the anchor leg of a relay. The only way a record in an individual event can be broken in a relay is if it occurs on the opening leg.
Though he may not have gotten that record, he did erase North Allegheny alumnus Zachary Buerger’s 1:49.33 in the 200 individual medley with a 1:48.15 that just beat Upper St. Clair senior Jack Fitzpatrick, who also bettered Buerger with a 1:49.04.
Fitzpatrick got a record of his own Friday when he swam a 48.20 in the 100 backstroke. Like Mihm, he broke the 2014 record of a former swimmer at his own school, as former Panther Ryan Dudzinski previously held the mark of 48.35.
Fitzpatrick’s current Upper St. Clair teammate, sophomore Josh Matheny, matched his record-setting feat Friday with a 54.70 in the 100 breastsroke that knocked out Mt. Lebanon’s Jack Lanphear, who swam a 54.82 in 2016.
Fox Chapel freshman Zoe Skirboll set the only other individual record of the day when she swam a 1:00.96 to break the 2012 mark of 1:02.68 set by Pine-Richland’s Kristen Murslack in the 100 breaststroke. Top seed and defending champion Laura Goettler of Butler also sneaked in under the previous benchmark with a 1:02.52, but it wasn’t enough.
“It was different for sure because my whole team was behind me,” Skirboll said. “It was a great experience touching the wall and seeing the whole team so happy about it.”
Penn Hills senior Kimani Gregory was a double-gold winner for the second time. After rolling to his third consecutive title in the 100 butterfly Thursday, the North Carolina State recruit battled North Allegheny’s Jack Wright down to the wire in the 100 freestyle before he pulled out the win in 44.51, 0.15 seconds ahead of Wright and 0.42 off the WPIAL record in the event.
Gregory set the standard in the 100 freestyle in 2018 with a 44.09.
Gateway senior Olivia Livingston is perhaps a year away from reaching rarefied air. With her victory in the 100 freestyle, she once again finished with two individual victories in the meet. It’s also her third title in the event and sixth individual crown overall.
Next season she could join Penn Hills alumna Melanie Buddemeyer as the only girls since 1980 to win eight individual WPIAL gold medals in their career. Livingston also has won three 50 freestyle titles, while Buddemeyer won her eight in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley.