State College’s Workman upsets Mt. Lebanon’s Roy in 50-yard

Mt. Lebanon junior Sylvia Roy had everything in place to win her first state title in the 50-yard.

Her main competition the past two years, Downingtown East’s Alexa Fulton had graduated, and Roy was the top seed coming into the meet and had the best time in the morning preliminaries.

About the only thing she didn’t do was win.

Instead it was State College sophomore Molly Workman, who finished third in the state final a year ago, who slipped past Roy and touched the wall in 22.67 seconds to edge the Virginia recruit by 0.23 seconds.

North Allegheny senior Natalie Sens took third in the 100 butterfly with a 55.33-second heat. But she was well behind Hatboro-Horsham junior Annia Jia, who set the state record in 51.26, beating her own 2022 mark of 52.04 by 0.78 seconds.

Fox Chapel junior Sarah Pasquella also took home bronze with a third-place showing in the 200 freestyle. She dropped more than full second off her morning qualifying time of 1:51.08, but her 1:49.91 was still 1.26 seconds behind champion Maddie Faikish of North Penn.

North Allegheny senior William Gao did the honors when he swam a 48.89 to take the bronze in the 100 butterfly. His time was 3.19 seconds off the championship finish by Springfield Delco senior Jacob Johnson, who touched the wall in 45.70 and broke the previous state record of 46.58 set in 2020 by Matthew Jensen of Upper Dublin.

Fox Chapel junior Christian Dantey, who was second in the WPIAL in the 200 freestyle, was the top finisher form the district in the event at the state finals with a 1:40.01, good for fourth. Can Yeniay of Conestoga took the gold with a 1:36.66.

North Allegheny junior Grant Regule, who won his first WPIAL title in the 50 freestyle after a runner-up finish in 2023, finished seventh in the event with a 21.00 second heat.