Mapletown’s Menear PIAA champion
Eleanor Bailey/ The Almanac
Ella Menear won the first state championship in any sport for Mapletown High School.
By Joe Tuscano/Staff writer/jtuscano@observer-reporter.com
Ella Menear cuts thre the water last week on the way to a WPIAL title.
MECHANICSBURG — Ella Menear got her first PIAA title and Mapletown got its first state champion of any sort Friday in the PIAA Class AA Swimming Championships.
Menear won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.99.
Second place went to Leah Shackley of Bedford with a time of 55.65 and Megan Maholic of Villa Maria was third with a time of 56.17.
In Menear’s other event, the 200-yard IM, she finished in third place with a time of 2:05.64. Second place went to Isabell Huang of Quaker Valley, who touched in 2:05.60, and Kimberley Shannon of Lewisburg, whose time was 2:03.25.
“It’s awesome. I’m really excited,” said Menear. “Whenever I finished, I was able to see the scoreboard. To celebrate, we’re going out to eat at a steak house.”
Belle Vernon’s Ian Shahan won two events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly.
Shahan blew away the competition in the 100 butterfly. He beat Isaac Griffith and Bryan Lecroix of Bloomsburg by nearly two seconds. Shahan touched in 48.77 and Griffith and Lecroix each finished in 50.54.
In the 50 free, Shahan won the event in 20.00, which set a PIAA record. Conner McBeth of Neshannock finished in 20.26, also breaking the old record of 20.45.
Menear had the fastest qualifying time in both events, 54.58 in the 100 yard backstroke and 2:04.54 in the 200 yard IM.
“I’m actually not happy with my time in the 200 yard IM,” said Menear. “It’s not what I expected. I actually wanted to drop a couple tenths.”
Menear gets Sunday off then heads back to her club team to resume training for an event at the end of April.
Menear, a sophomore, swims as an independent but attends Mapletown High School, which does not have a team or a pool.
She qualified at Laurel Highlands High School’s pool and joined a swim club in Morgantown, W.Va., where she trains for events.
Last week, Menear won two gold medals and set a pair of pool records at the WPIAL Class AA championships at Upper St. Clair’s natatorium in the process. Meaner crossed in 2:04.54 to win the championship in the 200-yard individual medley. She swam a 54.58 to win the 100 backstroke.
Those victories earned Menear an automatic berth in the PIAA Championships, which were held at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
Menear became the first Mapletown athlete to win a WPIAL title since Jim Wilkins captured the 119-pound title in the 1987 Class AA Wrestling Championships.
Wilkins is one of four WPIAL wrestling champions from Mapletown. The other three are Chris Homistek, who won the 185-pound Class AA title in 1983 and 1984; and Ben Cree, who won the 154-pound Class AA championship in 1955.
The Menear family lived in Virginia and moved into the Mapletown School District before Menear’s freshman season.