Mar 2, 2017 4 min read

Washington County swimmers submitted no gold-medal performances on the first day of the WPIAL Championships at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool. Some did turn in record-breaking efforts.

“In a meet like this, you never know what will happen but when you swim a best time, you can’t argue with that,” said Peters Township head coach Michael Meyers. “You can’t be disappointed in that.”

Canon-McMillan head coach Steve Leonardi agreed. His Big Macs, including bronze-medalist Cody Stewart, clocked in with personal records.

“When a kid says they have never swum better than this my whole life, no one has ever said that that’s not good enough,” he said. “It’s a fun bus to be on for the ride home, when you have kids that have done their best time. When they did better than they have ever done before and, almost every one of them universally swam their best time, then they are better than we have ever been.”

Not since Eric Forrester has Canon-McMillan seen a swimmer like Stewart. Forrester was one of the top swimmers in recent C-M history, earning WPIAL medals in the 100-yard butterfly (fourth) and backstroke (second) in 2011.

This season, Stewart broke Forrester’s school record in the 50 and 200 free. Competing in his second WPIAL meet, Stewart won the bronze medal in the fly with a personal-best 50.35. Penn Hills sophomore Kimani Gregory won the event in 50.17.

“I was seeded fifth,” explained the C-M junior. “I was hoping for a top three finish because we were only separated by hundredths of seconds. It was better than my best swim. So I was happy with everything.”

Stewart’s teammates and Leonardi were more than delighted.

“I and the rest of the team are justifiably proud of the performance,” Leonardi said. “Cody has reaped the profitable rewards of having the right attitude and the right work ethic.”

Stewart, who also placed sixth in the 50 free, swims year-round with the South Hills YMCA. He says that keeps him in shape and he faces good competition there but the WPIAL championships is the best meet he attends.

“It’s a different atmosphere and a great pool,” he said of Pitt. “That helped my time.”

Stewart anticipates facing Gregory again at the PIAA championships set for March 15-18 at Bucknell University.

“The goal at states is to go for the gold,” Stewart said. “(Gregory) is within my range. I expect it won’t be the last time I face him but really the next goal is always to swim a new best time.”

At Peters Township, the Indians swam plenty of those. In fact, they shattered five school records on the first day of the meet.

The WPIAL championships resume today for Class AAA competition at 10 a.m. The Class AA timed finals start at 3 p.m. Races will be in the 100- and 500-yard freestyle; 100 backstroke and breaststroke and 400 free relay.

The Peters Township boys started the meet with a record in the medley relay and followed with marks in the 200 and 50 free, and 200 freestyle relay.

Mitchell Golias, Benon Brewer, Mike Kehm and Jake Rose clocked a 1:25.32 in the 200 free relay and finished second to North Allegheny, which set a meet record with a 1:22.93. Stephen Hopta, John Martin, Paul Luniewski and Kehm took third with a 1:34.52. NA also won that race with a 1:33.93.

Hopta finished fifth in the 200 free with a 1:41.58 and Kehm took third in the 50 free with 20.90. Again North Allegheny won both races, including breaking another WPIAL record in the 50 free when Mason Gonzalez grabbed the gold in 20.05.

Peters Township’s Abby Hay did not defend her title in the 200 individual medley. There was a good reason though for the sophomore’s second-place showing. Butler’s Laura Goettler won the event in 2:01.78, shaving almost two-tenths of a second off the 2004 record set by former Mt. Lebanon and Washington & Jefferson College product, Kaitlyn Orstein.

Hay, who helped the medley team of Carly Frizzell, Cassidy Sweeney and Olivia Yocca finish fifth, swam a personal-best 2:03.06.

“Abby did her best time ever and broke her own school record,” Meyers said. “You can’t be disappointed when you do your best and swim your best time ever.

“All in all it was not a bad day for Peters Township swimming.”

After one day of competition, the Peters Township boys were third in the team standings with 131 points. North Allegheny led with 221, followed by Hempfield at 152. Canon-McMillan was ninth, thanks to ninth-place showings by Turner Gill in the 50 free and 200 free relay. Stewart, Gill, Brant Purell and Liam Sulc comprised the foursome.

North Allegheny also led the girls’ standings with 221 points. Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair followed with 175 and 131 points, respectively. Peters Township ranked sixth with 62 points.