Swimming: Boys place 10th, girls 12th in PIAA Championships

The Upper Dublin boys and girls swim teams concluded one of the best seasons in program history with a strong showing at the PIAA championships this past weekend.

Upper Dublin had swimmers compete in 21 of the 24 events—all 12 for the girls and nine for the boys—at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium.

The boys team was paced by senior Ashton Leyens and a strong showing from the relay teams. Leyens finished 10th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:42.13 and 11th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.35. In the preliminary race for that event, Leyens set an Upper Dublin team record with a time of 46.29, previously set by Dan Fitzergerald in 2009.

Leyens also anchored two of Upper Dublin's relay races. In the first event of the meet, the 200-yard medley relay team of Bobby Bantley, Cooper Tollen, Zach Brech and Leyens took sixth with a time of 1:35.48. In the final event of the meet, a 400-yard freestyle relay team of Bantley, Eric Jensen, Brech and Leyens finished seventh with a time of 3:09.80. The boys also took 21st in the 200-yard freestyle relay, when a team of Joe Starosta, Jensen, Tom Kane, and Brech finished with a time of 1:28.88.

Other individual results saw Bobby Bantley take 16th in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.46 and 22nd in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.81, Zach Brech take 24th in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.46, and Cooper Tollen take 26th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 59.66.

The boys finished in 10th place with a team score of 64, wedged in between ninth-place finisher Central Bucks East (72.5) and North Penn (63). Hershey High won the meet with a score of 344.

The girls' results were also marked with strong relay and individual showings. The Cardinals started off the meet with an eighth place finish in the 200-yard medley relay, where a team of Alex Wheatley, Emeline Leyens, Erin Regan and Lindsey Schmidt finished in a time of 1:47.29. A team of Schmidt, Sam Wheatley, Regan and Carolyn Meier closed out the meet by taking seventh in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:31.43. In the third relay event, a team of Schmidt, Leyens, Ellie Houser and Meier took 10th with a time of 1:39.14.

On the individual front, Regan led the way with a 10th place finish in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.06 and a 14th place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:06.15. Carolyn Meier placed 16th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.73 and 22nd in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.21.

Other results included Alex Wheatley finishing 19th in the girls 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.99, Emeline Leyens finishing 22nd in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:08.20, Lindsey Schmidt finishing 25th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.85, and Sam Wheatley finishing 26th in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:13.61.

Diver Corey Johnson also had a strong showing in her freshman year trip to the state meet, taking 12th place with 395.50 points.

The girls team finished in 12th place with a score of 76, between Downingtown East (78) and Downingtown West (64). Hershey High won the meet with a score of 269.5.