By ERIC KNOPSNYDER
Local swimmers had an extremely strong weekend at the District 6/9 Swimming and Diving Regional Championships at Penn State.
The Westmont Hilltop girls captured the team title while Bishop McCort’s Mitch Smith set a pair of meet records.
Westmont’s girls easily outdistanced the field in the team race, scoring 266 points to Bradford’s 226. Clearfield was third with 183 points while Ligonier Valley finished fourth with 107.
“It was one of those weekends you’re speechless because they swam so well,” Westmont coach Jay Hicks said. “They just knocked it out of the park.”
The top two swimmers in each event qualify for the state meet in March 13-14 at Bucknell, but Hicks said that his team’s depth was the deciding factor in winning the team title.
“Of course, for the common person, places other than first don't mean a whole lot,” Hicks said. “But to us those points were just as important as first, because those points, along with the firsts, propelled us into winning the regional meet.”
The Hilltoppers’ 200-yard freestyle relay team brought home gold with a time of 1:43.88 in the finals. Team members are Abby Motley, Kasey Azar, Julia Wolfe and Nikki Kovach.
“We knew that was going to be our strongest relay team going in,” Hicks said. “We had three out of the top six finishers in the 50 freestyle, so we knew we’d be extremely strong. We showed we were the top team.”
Motley captured the first place in the 50-yard 52.26 in the 100-yard freestyle, beating the 53.16 that Westmont’s Michael Grados swam in 1996. Smith also shattered Jon Kofmehl’s 2-year-old record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.30 – nearly two seconds faster than the Richland swimmer’s 2007 time.
“The fly (record) was a big surprise,” Smith said. “The backstroke, I was anticipating that. I was trying for that last year but didn’t quite get it. The fly, I was not expecting.”
Smith is expecting to make a bigger splash at the state meet this year after struggling with a sprained ankle last year.
“I know what to expect,” Smith said.
Westmont’s Joe Ward won the 50-yard freestyle and broke his own school record with a time of 21.5. He also qualified for the state meet in the 100-yard freestyle with a second-place finish in 49.06.
“Every single time Joe gets up on the block, he has the mind-set that he’s going to win,” Hicks said. “That kid has more confidence than anyone I’ve seen. No one can tell him he’s not going to win, not just in individual races, but in the relays too. His teammates see that and believe that, too.”
