SWIMMING: PIAA Championships - Friday Session

By Steve Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

I apologize in advance for my video skills, but it was worth a try. Below you'll find some video from the Friday night boys finals at the PIAA Championships at Bucknell.

My complete story from Friday's session can be found here.

http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130315/SPORTS01/130319470/-1/SPORTS/swimming-daniel-boone-s-owens-takes-8th-in-200-freestyle-at-piaa-championships


Daniel Boone's Ryan Owens swims in the 200 free final, he finished 8th:

The Boyertown 200 medley relay swims to a 15th-place finish:

The Owen J. Roberts 200 free relay swims to a 13th-place finish:

The wild final in the 200 free relay. La Salle (blue cap) was touched out at the end by Hershey:

SWIMMING: 400 free relay seals 5th place for Upper Perkiomen

Upper Perkiomen's Jason Mercando swims in the 400 freestyle relay during Friday morning's preliminaries at the PIAA Swimming Championships at Bucknell University. (Photo by Craig Himmelwright)

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

LEWISBURG – What seemed very much as an Upper Perkiomen Cinderella story at states last year exploded into a major success story this season as the Indians closed out the 2013 PIAA Class AA Swimming and Diving Championships.
Punctuated by an appearance in the finals of the event’s final race – the 400-yard freestyle relay – a fifth-place finish sealed a fifth-place finish in the team standings Thursday night at the Bucknell University Kinney Natatorium.
It only underlined how far the Tribe has come in one short year.
The Tribe made it a relay trifecta Thursday, Mason Cassel, Kyle Himmelwright, Jason Mercando and Hunter Peck advancing to the 400-yard freestyle championship finals with the fifth fastest time in the prelims, bettering their own school record with a 3:16.21. The foursome went on to place fifth in the finals (3:16.27).

(For complete story, click here ... )

ALL PAC-10 TEAMS

ALL-PIONEER ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
BOYS BASKETBALL
First Team
Brendan Casper, Methacton, Sr.; Matt Crider, Owen J. Roberts, Jr.; Marcus Howell, Phoenixville, Sr.; Brent Mahoney, Pope John Paul II, Sr.; Zameer McDowell, Spring-Ford, Sr.; Purnell Wilson, Perkiomen Valley, Jr.
Second Team
Matt Forrest, Methacton, Sr.; Denzel Harvey, Pottstown, Jr.; Steve Leonard, Perkiomen Valley, Sr.; Mike Mansur, Boyertown, Sr.; Jamel Stinson, Pope John Paul II, Sr.
Honorable Mention
Ryan Corcoran, Boyertown, Soph.; Deandre’ Gadsden, Phoenixville, Soph.; Chandler Junk, Upper Perkiomen, Jr.

(For complete story, click here ... )

GIRLS SWIMMING: Phantoms’ senior trio bids teary farewell with strong finish

Photo by Craig Himmelwright Phoenixville’s Devonne Moore swims the breaststroke during the 200 individual medley preliminaries.

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

LEWISBURG — It was a bittersweet farewell swim for the Phoenixville girls, the area’s lone AA girls qualifiers, as they placed second in the 200 medley relay with a team record 1:51.18 in the night consolation finals — with Erin McElwee, Devonne Moore, Shawna Moore and Eileen Butler — on Day 1 of the PIAA Class championships at Bucknell University.
McElwee, Devonne Moore and Butler are seniors, and have been swimming together since they were splashing around the Phoenixville YMCA and neighborhood pools in elementary school. After four years on the high school team, this was their final relay.
“I’ve been swimming with these girls since I was 10 years old,” said the teary-eyed McElwee, the relay’s leadoff swimmer. “We’re all really good friends. And it’s really hard, bittersweet because we have all gone through it together for so many years. No one knows how hard we all really work. And now our last time together.
“It’s sad, but it’s also really exciting to reflect on all that we have done. And to set a new record again in our last swim was great.”

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: State qualifiers finalized

By Steve Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

The PIAA unveiled the state swimming psych sheets today. Some area swimmers already knew they were Bucknell-bound by finishing in the top 5 (AAA) or first place (AA) in their event at the District 1 Championships. Others had to wait for today to see if they earned a wild card berth.

Full entries can be seen on the PIAA website by clicking here.

See below for a rundown all the local qualifiers.

GIRLS SWIMMING: Local swimmers struggle to keep up with district powers

Mercury file photo Phoenixville’s Devonne Moore finished fourth in the Class AA 100 breaststroke on Friday at the District 1 Championships.

By Steven Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

PHILADELPHIA — The noise inside La Salle University’s Kirk Pool was deafening during the final laps of the District 1 Championships on Friday night.
Villa Maria Academy was on its way to a rare double — breaking two district records in one race — as the 400 freestyle relay team set a new Class AA record (3:31.38), and leadoff swimmer Sarah Hitchens set a new 100 freestyle record (50.88).
Two lanes to the right, four girls from Phoenixville did what everyone in Class AA has done this week at La Salle: Battle through the wakes of swimmers from Villa Maria and Nazareth Academy.

For complete story, click here ... )

GIRLS SWIMMING: Methacton 200 free relay makes states

Jen Rees was part of Methacton’s fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay at the District 1 Swimming Championships Thursday at La Salle. The Warriors team of Rees, Nicole Young, Kristen Wang and Kiersten Groff earned an automatic bid to the PIAA Championships in the event. (File photo by Adrianna Hoff/JRC)

By Steven Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

PHILADELPHIA — The most nerve-wracking moment for the Methacton girls swim team on Day 1 of the District 1 Swimming Championships Thursday came when they were standing on the deck, not swimming in the pool.
After some quick number-crunching and a massive cheer, four Warriors had secured state bids.
Methacton finished fifth in the day’s final event at La Salle University’s Kirk Pool — the Class AAA 200 freestyle relay — to secure an automatic bid to the PIAA Championships, slated for later this month at Bucknell University. Their time of 1:38.72 was good enough to clinch the only automatic state berth of the day for any PAC-10 girls swimmer or relay.

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: District 1-AA seedings finally available

By Steve Moore

District 1 has apparently decided that the psych sheets for this week's swim championships are more valuable than the nuclear launch codes. But after a day of searching, we have finally obtained (at least half of) the Class AA psych sheets to go with the AAA sheets posted by paswimming.com last night (and summarized here).

The full boys AA psych sheets can be seen at the bottom of this post. The girls sheets should follow soon. The AAA sheets are available here (BOYS / GIRLS) courtesy of paswimming.com.

Below is a quick rundown of Mercury-area qualifiers in Class AA:

AA BOYS THURSDAY (200 MR, 200 FR, 200 IM, 50 FR, 100 FLY, 200 FR)

• 200 MEDLEY RELAY: Upper Perkiomen is the top overall seed, with Phoenixville fifth and Pottsgrove eighth.
• 200 FREESTYLE: Upper Perk's Jason Mercando (1:52.73) is third. He's joined by three teammates: Hunter Peck is fifth (1:54.21), Bryon Scholl (1:56.46) is eighth and Tyler Baskin is 12th (2:01.37).
• 200 IM: Pottsgrove's Morgan Schreiber is second (2:06.67), followed by Upper Perk's Brandon Umstead in third (2:07.48), Upper Perk's Quinn Perlstein in fourth (2:12.52) and Phoenixville's Josh Ziev in sixth (2:19.68).
• 50 FREE: Upper Perk's Kyle Himmelwright is first (22.93), followed by Phoenixville's Jake Luzins in third (23.59), Pottstown's Anthony Gazzillo in sixth (23.99) and Phoenixville's Robert Newman in 11th (24.65).
• 100 BUTTERFLY: Upper Perk's Mason Cassel is first overall (52.72), and is joined by teammate Ryan Mercando in seventh (1:03.48) and Phoenixville's Robert Newman in ninth (1:04.06).
• 200 FREE RELAY: Upper Perkiomen is first while Phoenixville is fifth and Pottsgrove seventh.

AA GIRLS THURSDAY (200 MR, 200 FR, 200 IM, 50 FR, 100 FLY, 200 FR)

• 200 MEDLEY RELAY: Phoenixville is seeded fourth and Upper Perkiomen is sixth. 
• 200 FREE: No local qualifiers.
• 200 IM: Upper Perk's Kirsten Siwy (2:21.13) is seeded eighth, Phoenixville's Devonne Moore is 10th (2:21.63), Pope John Paul's Morgan Fink is 14th (2:25.63) and Upper Perk's Kristin Kilroy is 16th (2:26.04).
• 50 FREE: Phoenixville's Shawna Moore is ninth (26.26) and teammate Eileen Butler is 13th (26.51). 
• 100 FLY: Phoenixville's Shawna Moore is 10th (1:03.80), Upper Perk's Jackie Hammill is 11th (1:04.02) and Phoenixville's Erin McElwee is 15th (1:05.05).
• 200 FREE RELAY: Upper Perk is fourth and Phoenixville sixth. 

SWIMMING: District 1 seedings announced -- sort of

By Steve Moore

The psych sheets (seedings) for this week's District 1 Swimming Championships were supposed to be released Sunday, something my swim coach wife says usually happens without fail.

But apparently this year things are a little different. The district did not post the official sheets as of this writing (1 a.m. Sunday night), but the website paswimming.com did obtain the AAA sheets, which can be seen here: AAA Boys and AAA Girls. So, a nice tip of the hat to them. We'll post AA seedings once they're available.

If you don't feel like combing through the pages, I've done it for you. Below is a quick glance at some of the area contenders, divided by session at the pool this week. 

AAA and AA boys will swim from 10:30-2:30 on Thursday and Friday, while girls will swim from 4:15-8:00 on both days. Half the events on Thursday and half on Friday.

AAA BOYS THURSDAY (200 MR, 200 FR, 200 IM, 50 FR, 100 FLY, 200 FR)

• 200 MEDLEY RELAY: Perkiomen Valley is seeded second overall behind Upper Dublin. Boyertown is seventh, Methacton ninth and Owen J. Roberts 19th,
• 200 FREE: Boyertown's Steve Miller is seeded seventh (1:46.08) and Seth Underwood 13th (1:47.29).
• 200 IM: Perkiomen Valley's Wyatt Amdor is fifth (1:59.47) and Boyertown's Russell Lambet is 11th (2:00.89).
• 50 FREE: Owen J. Roberts' Sam Feiser is sixth (21.87) and Perkiomen Valley's Kyle Dix is tied for 10th (22.22).
• 100 FLY: Owen J. Roberts' Feiser is sixth (52.86) and Methacton's Matthew Schulz is 14th (54.55).
• 200 FREE RELAY: OJR is 10th (1:30.26) and Boyertown is 15th (1:31.17).

SWIMMING: Perkiomen Valley runs win streak to 32 straight

Perkiomen Valley’s Seth Underwood wins the boys 500 freestyle. Photo by Kevin Hoffman, The Mercury

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

GRATERFORD — Facing their toughest challenge of the season, the Perkiomen Valley boys came in twice as pumped up and kept right on streaking, holding off Boyertown, 100-83, in a Pioneer Athletic Conference showdown to stretch their record of consecutive dual meet wins to 32, Tuesday, at the Vikings pool.
And that’s not just PAC-10 dual wins, but includes Ches-Mont League and non-league duals, starting back in 2010.
The Perk Valley girls made it a clean sweep, beating Boyertown, 98-77,

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: Boyertown takes care of Pottsgrove

Photo by Kevin Hoffman/The Mercury Boyertown Shane Corbett wins the 200 IM.

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

BOYERTOWN — Since the day swimming officially joined the Pioneer Athletic Conference a decade ago, Boyertown has always been one of the league’s major challengers.
Some years the Bears are not quite as deep in numbers and talent, but they are always tough to beat.
Pottsgrove, never quite as deep numbers-wise, certainly knows that. But the Falcons love a challenge and the Bears always bring out the best in them.
Boyertown swept the PAC-10 dual meet against visiting Pottsgrove, Wednesday, at the Boyertown YMCA pool, with the Bears’ boys beating Pottsgrove, 106-50, and the Boyertown girls holding off the Falcons, 102-60.

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: Perk Valley too much for Phoenixville

Perkiomen Valley's Samantha Schroeder swims in the 400 free relay during Tuesday's PAC-10 meet against Phoenixville. (Photo by Barry Taglieber)

By Barry Sankey
bsankey@journalregister.com

SCHUYLKILL — Perkiomen Valley’s boys swimmers are defending their undefeated Pioneer Athletic Conference championship from last year with much of the same cast along with some strong newcomers in the pool.
Thus far during the 2012-13 campaign, the Vikings are still undefeated to start the PAC-10 season along with some other non-league meets. On Tuesday afternoon, Perkiomen Valley hiked its record to 4-0 in the PAC-10 and 8-0 overall with a 97-62 victory over host Phoenixville at the Phoenixville YMCA metric pool.
The Perkiomen Valley girls have undergone wholesale changes from their undefeated PAC-10 title from last year and it has shown in the early going against some other strong league teams. The Vikings, though, still had too much depth for Phoenixville’s talented individual girls, resulting in a 107-63 victory for Perkiomen Valley.

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: Perkiomen Valley sweeps Spring-Ford

Perkiomen Valley's Sean Hodgins placed second in the 100 butterfly and also swam on PVís winning 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay. (Photo by Ted Hodgins)

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

GRATERFORD — Most of the swimmers on the two teams have known each other forever, from way back when they first started splashing around summer pools.
Now half of them swim for Perkiomen Valley, the other half for Spring-Ford.
“Boys and girls on both sides, we have a lot of history since we were like 8 years old,” said Spring-Ford senior Nate Darlington. “It’s fun swimming against friends, but while we’re in the pool we’re enemies.”
These days, the Perkiomen Valley boys are the league’s Enemy No. 1, with its undefeated dual-meet streak dating back to 2011.
The Vikings stretched that streak to 27 in a row on Tuesday after holding off Spring-Ford, 99-76, in a Pioneer Athletic Conference dual in the Vikings pool.
The Perk Valley girls made it a sweep, also beating the Rams, 99-70.

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: Owen J. Roberts sweeps Upper Perkiomen

John Strickler/The Mercury Owen J. Roberts’ Alex McCullough swims to a victory in the 200 freestyle Tuesday against Upper Perkiomen.

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

BUCKTOWN — With the Owen J. Roberts boys team’s depth and strength stretching throughout every event, opponents are finding it’s tough to beat the Wildcats in a dual meet. Even a team like defending District 1-Class AA champion Upper Perkiomen.
Add to that the Tribe lost a lot of talent from last year’s team and doesn’t quite have the numbers it did, and the Wildcats only grew deeper with a terrific freshmen class.
But it was still entertaining as the OJR boys held off Upper Perk, 110-75, in a Pioneer Athletic Conference meet Tuesday in the Wildcats pool.
The OJR girls, unbeatable in the PAC-10 for four straight seasons until a couple of years ago, are back on the rise thanks to some excellent young talent and easily defeated low-in-numbers Upper Perkiomen, 111-67, and — like the boys — swam their last two events non-scoring.

(For complete story, click here ... )

SWIMMING: PV boys still streaking; OJR girls get revenge

Owen J. Roberts' Taylor Davis wins the 100-yard butterfly against Perkiomen Valley Tuesday. (Photo by Ted Hodgins)

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

GRATERFORD — Given a choice, Perkiomen Valley and Owen J. Roberts would have much rather battled it out later in the season. Powerhouses in any sport prefer it that way and the Vikings and Wildcats are among the swimming elite in the Pioneer Athletic Conference.
But coaches don’t make the schedule and so the Vikings and the Wildcats both opened their PAC-10 season squaring off Tuesday.
The big showdown ended in a split with the Perk Valley boys stretching last year’s undefeated PAC-10 streak into the new season, beating Owen J. Roberts, 98-88.
The Wildcats girls got some revenge for a year ago when Perk Valley snapped their four-year undefeated streak, swimming past the Vikings for a 109-77 win.

(For complete story, click here ... )

Jones, Bears set for splash with former standout

By Rosemarie Ross

rross@pottsmerc.com

SOUDERTON — It wasn’t that long ago when Caity Fisher-Warren was one of the Boyertown High School swimmers. A terrific distance freestyler, she was a key member of that powerful Bears team in early 2000.

Now 24, Fisher-Warren is the newly appointed head coach at Souderton High School after serving as the Indians assistant the past two years.

And today she is taking on her former longtime coach and mentor in Boyertown veteran Linda Jones at the Souderton pool in a non-league dual.

And yes, Fisher is also newly married to former Boyertown football standout Jon Warren and now better known as Caity Fisher-Warren.

"It’s very exciting," Jones said. "I think they did a good job hiring Caity. She is young, especially with a big district like Souderton, and they could haven taken somebody older, who had some head coaching experience. I think it’s terrific they had confidence in Caity and I’m sure she is going to do an excellent job. She is such a nice person and, even more important, she is a very fair person."

Jones should know. She coached Fisher from the time she was 7 years old — first in the youth programs, then for Boyertown High and the Boyertown YMCA and USS teams.

"Two years ago we swam against Boyertown, when I was an assistant coach, and that was really strange at first being an assistant coach against Linda," Fisher-Warren said. "Now the pressure is already off.

"But it is kind of funny because I know how she is as a coach. But she doesn’t know how I am as a head coach. So it’s going to be fun having her see a different perspective of me."

Fisher-Warren is also teaches at Souderton. But being just 24 is pretty young to take on the head position for such a big team.

"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous," she said. "But being in the program for two years and knowing the kids and the families involved, I know they are incredibly supportive and positive people," she said. "And when you are working with people who are as supportive and positive as they are, being the head coach is hard work but it’s fun. It’s fun because you know in the end you have so many people who support you and the swimmers in order to make their season the best it can possibly be."

In 2004, Fisher-Warren’s junior year, Boyertown went 11-1 in dual sand captured the District 1-AAA girls championship. She was a district finalist in the 500-yard freestyle.

"Caity was a real solid swimmer, always very competitive," Jones recalled. "But you don’t have to be a superstar of a swimmer to be a good coach. Coaching is just totally different.

"She trained with me, so she knows in my mind what a good program operates like. I would think she has the background to know how to train swimmers and make them successful. You need to have someone that’s fair, especially in high school, because you need to take everything into consideration, and you can’t play favorites."

Fisher-Warren certainly learned from one of the best.

"Every single thing you experience in life has an impact on you," Fisher-Warren said. "Even if you’re just job-shadowing somebody. You have some kind of perspective you wouldn’t have had had you not experienced whatever it is. And the way Linda coached definitely plays a role in how I think and how I coach."

Walking Into a Winter Wonderland

We have spent this fall giving you the best high school football coverage around here at Mercury Sports Live. And you have hopefully found our new site to be the perfect source for all your sports needs.

Now that winter is upon us, it's time to expand.

We hope to make Mercury Sports Live your one-stop shop all season long for coverage of every winter sport. Whether it's Don Seeley's wrestling insights, a trip onto the basketball court with Jeff Stover and Darryl Grumling, or jumping into the swimming pool with Rosemarie Ross', you'll find it all here at MSL.

On the right and left side of thispage, you'll see "Labels" for all the Winter Sports, as well as your favorite schools and our sports staffers. By clicking any of those labels, you'll see the most recent posts for that sport, that school or by that specific writer.

We also plan to provide exclusive content each weekday (and maybe more) that you won't find on PottsMerc.com or in the print edition.

Do you have an idea for what you might want to see on MSL? Let us know by commenting here, or mention us on Twitter @PottsMercSports.

Buckle up, because the winter sports season kicks off tonight, and it should be a heck of a ride.