Mapletown’s Menear wins silver in final race
LEWISBURG – Mapletown’s Ella Menear capped her stellar high school career with a silver medal in the 100-yard backstroke Thursday at the PIAA Class 2A Swimming Championships at Bucknell University.
Menear entered the finals with the second-fastest time during the morning preliminaries. Only Bedford junior Leah Shackley was faster and that’s the order in which they finished in the evening final.
Shackley broke the state record that she set in the preliminaries and won the gold medal with a time of 51.61 seconds. Menear touched the wall in 53.88 and the Hampton freshman Lainey Sheets placed third in 56.29.
Shackley led Menear at the halfway point by .85.
The second-place finish makes Menear, a senior, a six-time PIAA medalist. She won three gold medals (two in the 200 individual medley and one in the 100 backstroke), two silvers and one bronze. She successfully defended her championship in the IM on Wednesday. Menear also won six WPIAL gold medals.
Menear’s performance gave Mapletown a 24th-place finish in the team standings, which is remarkable considering the Maples do not have a swimming team or pool. Mernear qualifies for postseason competition with help from Laurel Highlands. She is given a lane at LH home meets to use to post qualifying times.
Ringgold’s Natalie Noll placed 17th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.40 in the preliminaries.
Belle Vernon’s Nick Reda placed 12th in the boys 200 freestyle.