GMA’s Szekely was in class of her own again at the Class AA Championships
PHILADELPHIA — Once again, the only person Allie Szekely was chasing was, well, Allie Szekely.
The splendid Gwynedd Mercy Academy sophomore won her second straight gold medal in the District One Class 2A 200 IM on Friday, very nearly breaking her own meet record of 2:01.24.
With her primary focus on states in a couple weeks, Szekely still swam a very impressive 2:01.69 on Friday, outdistancing herself from the competition by almost five seconds.
“I’m not really rested so I knew the (freestyle portion) would be tough and I didn’t know if I was gonna break the record or not,” Szekely said. “I was actually surprised with how fast I actually went. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Szekely took the lead early and opened it up further midway through.
“I try to go to out long and strong in the first 100, push in the breaststroke, and then whatever I have left, push it in the free as well,” she said.
Closest to her was Nazareth Academy’s Shannon Harrington, a silver medalist with a time of 2:06.48. Harrington’s teammate, Molly Kowal, earned the bronze, touching in 2:09.88.
Szekely’s efforts helped GMA to fifth place in the Class 2A team standings after Day One. Villa Maria leads with 286 points, followed by Springfield Township (191), Nazareth (152), Phoenixville (130) and the Monarchs (128).
Gwynedd Mercy also got a second-place finish from Allie’s sister, Steph Szekely, in the 200 free (1:55.49), and the 200 free relay team of Kieragh McMenamin, Molly Riemenschneider, Claire Lacon and Shannon Brown closed things out by earning sixth-place medals with a time of 1:46.77.
Allie Szekely is back in the water again today with a shot at gold in the 100 back and then she’ll join her teammates in the third-seeded 400 free relay.
“I’m really happy because I’m more torn down and more tired than I’ve ever been before, so the fact that I’m that close to my time last year, I’m really happy about that,” she said. “I’m hoping we can go fast in the relay as well as my 100 back.”