MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – Though it may look a little odd in the record books, Villa Maria won its second straight PIAA Girls’ 2A Team Swimming and Diving Championship at Cumberland Valley High School Friday.
The Victors won the 2019 team title, and since the 2020 championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic no champion was crowned. That left Villa as the defending champs.
Unlike the 2019 championships, where the Victors won the team title by more than 35 points, Villa needed every last point to come away with the 2021 team title.
Villa finished with 157 points, just five points ahead of second-place Wyoming Seminary (152).
Heading into the final event, the 400 Free Relay, the Victors had 127 points while Schuylkill Valley had 118 and Wyoming Seminary had 112. Wyoming won the relay and the 40 points that came with it. Fairview was second, Quaker Valley third and Villa fourth.
Those 30 fourth-place points secured the team title for the Victors.
Villa opened the meet with the 200 Medley Relay team of Megan Maholic, Jasmine Chen, Olivia Mottillo and Hayley Palmer edging Wyoming Seminary, 1:46.18-1:46.63, for first place.
That relay was the only individual championship for the Victors, though they did get a number of Top-10 finishes.
Maholic (7th, 200 IM; 3rd, 100 Back) and Chen (8th, 100 Fly; 8th, 100 Breast) each had a pair of Top-10s, while the 200 Free Relay team of Palmer, Emily Torrance, Mottillo and Chen finished third.
Fairview, which finished fourth in the team standings (132 points), crowned a pair of individual champions.
Halle Myers won the 50 Free, narrowly topping South Park’s Katie Jackovic, 23.71-23.85. The 200 Free Relay team of Abby Zablotny, Morgan Dougherty, Ellie Kraus and Myers won gold as well. They finished with a time of 1:36.87, Springfield Township (1:37.03) was third and Villa (1:37.14) was third.
Our state qualifiers are bringing back some GOLD! Congratulations to our relay team that is the PIAA 2A state champion in the 200 Free and the runner up in the 400 Free. What a day! Add to that an individual gold from Halle Myers in the 50 Free and a silver in the 100 Free. pic.twitter.com/Hg3rxLkvtB
— Fairview Tiger Athletics (@fairview_tigers) March 19, 2021
Those same relay team members took second in the 400 Free Relay with a time of 3:33.33. They were 1.5 seconds off Wyoming Seminary (3:31.83) and almost 2 seconds in front of Quaker Valley (3:35.14).
The Tigers had a strong showing in the 100 Free as well, as Myers finished second (51.76) and Kraus took seventh (53.03). Kraus also finished ninth in the 200 Free.
Warren’s Katie Beyer won the 200 Free with a time of 1:53.06, just ahead of Gwynedd Mercy’s Ella Gross (1:53.32). Beyer took third in the 100 Free, just 0.5 behind Myers (52.22). She’s the first swimmer in program history to win state gold.
Moniteau’s Bailey Trettel had District 9’s best finishes of the day. She took 11th in the 100 Back and 12th in the 100 Free.
Full results follow:
Girls 2A results
