USC Swim Club Performs Strong in Unofficial WPIAL Kickoff

The Upper St. Clair Swim Club participated in the 50th annual Pitt Christmas Invitational held Dec. 15-18 at the University of Pittsburgh.

Approximately 1,400 swimmers, ages 8-23, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Indiana and Missouri attended the meet. The event is considered to be the unofficial kickoff to the WPIAL season. USC Swim Club was represented by 32 swimmers competing in 161 swims. Included in those swims were 106 personal best times and six USC Swim Club records (three individual and three relay).

Shea Card, 8, the youngest USC Swim Club swimmer, competed in six events, achieving personal best times in five, including a club record in the 100 individual medley. He placed eighth overall for 8 & under boys, scoring 36 points (fifth on the team).

Age group boys and girls were led by female swimmers Abby Matheny and Mia Beyerl, together generating 168 points for the team—almost half of the total women's score and over a quarter of the total team points. Matheny, the club’s high point winner with 111 points, and Beyerl third in points with 57, were the highest scoring eleven-year-olds at the meet in the 11-12 girls age group. Overall, Matheny placed sixth and Beyerl placed tenth (second and third in AMS, respectively). Matheny and Beyerl achieved personal best times in all of their events and Matheny set a club record in the 200 freestyle. Matheny also placed second in the 500 freestyle.

Jacob Jaime scored 14 points placing him 21st in the 11-12 boys age group. Both girls and boys relays in the 11-12 age group had outstanding swims. In an exciting, close race, the boys placed fourth in the 200 freestyle relay (Brandon Novak, Chris Balta, David Frauen and Jaime) and placed fifth in the 200 medley relay (Frauen, Balta, Jaime and Novak) with a new team record.

The girls placed third in the 200 medley relay (Maeve Lersch, Beyerl, Matheny and Olivia Shaffer) and third in the 200 freestyle relay (Beyerl, Shaffer, Lersch and Matheny), smashing club records in both events.

Victoria Shaffer, Brittany Dudzinski and Natalie Johnsen led the high school age girls. Shaffer placed third in the 100 freestyle in one of the closest races of the meet. She also placed 20th in the 13-14 girls age group with 30 points. Dudzinski and Johnsen each performed very well scoring 48 (10th) and 32 (12th) points, respectively (in the 17 and over girls age group). Johnsen bested her club record time in the 200 butterfly. Both girls placed in the top eight in several events

Alex Hardwick led our high school boys; he generated 74 points for the team and placed third in the 15-16 boys age group. Having a great meet, he posted personal best times in all six of his events. He placed first in the 50 freestyle and second in the 100 backstroke in the 15-16 age group.

More excitingly, Hardwick placed first in the 100 freestyle and second in the 200 freestyle in the open age group. These two races were some of the most exciting of the meet. Hardwick competed against college swimmers who posted personal best seed times much faster times than Hardwick. The 100 freestyle came down to the wire, as Hardwick took the win and was presented the Jerry Zaleski Award of the Mens Open 100 Freestyle for this particular race (also setting a new club record). Nate Novak performed well and posted several personal best times, scoring 11 (30th place) points in the 15-16 boys age group.

Overall, the club finished in ninth place, with 591 points for boys/girls combined. The girls team achieved a 9th place finish, with 342 points and the boys team scored a 12th place finish, with 249 points.

Also competing in the meet were: Marty Bacik; Chris Balta; Kate Bellas; Lauren DeSantis; Carissa Hentosz; Jake Johnsen; Christian Kelly; Mariah Kelly; Patrick Lersch; Karina Liu; Kevin Liu; Meghan Matheny; Nick Mudry; Carly Olsakovsky; Melissa Puskar; Andy Tomiczek; Robbie Weaver; Hannah Wilding; and Braedon Wong.