Upper Dublin Swimmers Collect Medals at States

Two days, seven medals. That's the official tally for the Upper Dublin boys and girls swim teams after this week's PIAA Championships.

The boys team started things off on the right foot Wednesday, led by junior Bobby Bantley, who lead the Cardinals with four medals. Bantley took third in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing in a time of 1:39.95 Wednesday.

Bantley also swam the first leg of the 200-yard medley relay team, which finished second in a time of 1:33.49 to LaSalle's 1:31.83. Upper Dublin's Cooper Tollen, Zach Brech and Eric Jensen also collected medals as part of the relay team.

Bantley, Brech, and Jensen would do it again Thursday, this time adding Ian Flynn to take 4th in the 100-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:06.48.

Bantley would add another individual medal in the second day of competition, finishing 7th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.01. Tollen would also collect a medal, finishing 5th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 56.43.

The team finished in 4th place with 119 points, with LaSalle finishing first with an impressive 323.5 points. Near misses included Jensen's 10th place finish in the 100-yard backstroke (51.98) and Brech's 11th place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (51.50), although both are considered significant achievements as they made the final cut from preliminaries.

The girls team collected a few medals of their own, with diver Corey Johnson leading the way by finishing 4th in her competition with a total of 420.85 points. The girls 400-yard freestyle relay team of Casey O'Neill, Sam Wheatley, Emily Houser and Carolyn Meier also earned medals with a 6th place time of 3:31.31 Thursday.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Alex Wheatley, Emeline Leyens, Sam Wheatley and Lindsey Schmidt was at the center of some controversy Wednesday, when they were was disqualified from the event. The team made it past preliminaries and was racing for 9th place, but officials ruled that they had left the starting block early. However, the disqualification is being disputed, as the call was not made by officials on the deck but rather by a starting block technology that is not approved for PIAA competition, those involved with the team say.

Sam Wheatley also just missed an individual medal, finishing 11th in the 200-yard IM, and the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Lindsey Schmidt, Casey O'Neill, Emily Houser and Carolyn Meier took 10th with a time of 1:37.65.

The girls finished in 10th place with 65 points. Wilson-West Lawn won the competition with 231.