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:

COLLEGE SIGNING: OJR’s Dempsey to play soccer at Iona

Owen J. Roberts senior Taylor Dempsey, center, recently signed a letter of intent to play soccer at Division I Iona College. Dempsey is pictured with his parents Mike Dempsey, left, and Susan Marks, right, and OJR head coach Eric Wentzel. (Photo submitted)

By Steven Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

Taylor Dempsey had his mind made up last fall. He was ready to enjoy the rest of his senior year at Owen J. Roberts without the pressure of a college decision hanging over his head.
Then Mount St. Mary’s University (Md.) decided to cut three varsity sports programs – including men’s soccer.
Dempsey was back to square one.
Then he got a call from Iona College – a school he admits he “had never heard of” before.
“Around Thanksgiving, I had two tournaments and they saw me play and I had numerous calls,” said Dempsey, who signed a letter of intent to play at Iona, a school just north of Manhattan in New Rochelle, N.Y. “They seemed to be one of the more interested schools.
“The past four years, they’ve been ranked in the top 25 many times, and the school doesn’t have a football team, so soccer is one of the bigger sports there,” Dempsey said.” The coaches are really nice and they made me feel like they wanted me a lot.”

(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.

PIAA Basketball Sites, Times Announced (with driving directions)

By Steve Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

The PIAA unveiled its state playoff basketball brackets on Sunday. PAC-10 teams earned spots in Class AAAA and AAA Girls and Class AAAA and AAA boys.

The complete brackets can be found at the links above, and a rundown of the local teams can be found below.

Click on the name of each site for quick Google Map driving directions.

• AAAA GIRLS (FRIDAY)

• SPRING-FORD: District champion -- and potential state title favorite -- Spring-Ford (25-2) will host Hershey (21-5), the 7th-place team out of District 3, on Friday night at Norristown High School (7:30 p.m.)
• BOYERTOWN: The 7th-place team out of District 1, the Bears (19-8) will have to travel a little bit to face Central Dauphin (20-6), the second-place team out of District 3. That game is Friday at 8 p.m. at Milton Hershey High School.
• METHACTON: The Warriors (22-5) finished as the ninth-place team out of District 1, and will travel to Monsignor Bonner High in Drexel Hill to face District 12 champion Cardinal O'Hara (21-5).

• AAA GIRLS (SATURDAY)

• POPE JOHN PAUL II: The third-place team out of District 1, Pope John Paul (18-5) will face District 12 runner-up Archbishop Wood (17-9) on Saturday at Archbishop Carroll at 5 p.m.

• AAAA BOYS (SATURDAY)

• METHACTON: The Warriors (22-5) enter as the seventh seed out of District 1 and will face District 3 runner-up York (23-3) on Saturday at 6:30 at Dallastown High  in their first ever state playoff game.

• AAA BOYS (FRIDAY)

• POPE JOHN PAUL II: As the second seed out of District 1, the Golden Panthers (15-9) will face District 11 runner-up Bethlehem Catholic on Friday night at 6 p.m. at Freedom High School in Bethlehem.

BOYS SWIMMING: Upper Perk sweeps relays, wins 2nd straight District title

Mercury file photo Upper Perkiomen’s Kyle Himmelwright helped the Tribe win their second straight District 1 Class AA team title on Friday.

By Steve Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

PHILADELPHIA — Three Men and a Baby. A mediocre 80s movie? Sure.
But it also could be a perfect nickname for Upper Perkiomen’s 400 freestyle relay team.
“It’s definitely a lot of fun,” said the “baby” of the group, freshman Hunter Peck. “It’s a really big honor to swim with these seniors.”
Just then, high in the bleachers of La Salle’s Kirk Pool, a search party went out for one of the three “men” in the group: senior Mason Cassel.
“Whose turn was it to babysit Mason?” Peck asked.
“Not mine, I thought you had him,” said senior Jason Mercando.
Cassel was eventually found, and senior Kyle Himmelwright completed the quartet as they gathered together to talk about what they had just accomplished: Completing a clean relay sweep in the District 1 Class AA Championships.

(For complete story, click here ... )

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 ... )

BOYS SWIMMING: OJR's Feiser, Upper Perk's Himmelwright win 50 free at districts

Swimmers, fans and officials stand for the national anthem before Thursday's boys session at the District 1 Swim Championships at La Salle University. (Photo by Steven Moore)

By Steven Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

PHILADELPHIA — Big swim meets can often seem like never-ending affairs that require a detailed program and a GPS to navigate.

But no matter what colors you’re wearing, everyone pays attention to the 50 freestyle — the fastest event in the pool.

By those standards, two Pioneer Athletic Conference swimmers stole the show on Day 1 of the District 1 Boys Swimming Championships at La Salle University’s Kirk Pool.

Owen J. Roberts junior Sam Feiser and Upper Perkiomen senior Kyle Himmelwright both brought home gold medals Thursday, as Feiser won the Class AAA 50 free (20.97) and Himmelwright finished first in Class AA (22.21).

“I felt like with my taper I was ready to swim fast,” Feiser sad. “My teammates always help me with practice and my coaches are really supportive of my swims. My best time was a 21-high this year, and that was a (20.97) so I was happy about that.”

(For the 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).

GIRLS BASKETBALL: Mount stifles Eisenhard, routs Boyertown

Kaitlin Eisenhard became the program's all-time leading scorer in Saturday's loss to The Mount.

 
By Steven Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

FLOURTOWN — About 90 seconds after watching his team completely shut down Boyertown during a 62-24 rout in Saturday’s District 1-AAAA girls basketball quarterfinal, Mount Saint Joseph Academy head coach John Miller was standing at midcourt, looking for someone to find a game ball for Kaitlyn Eisenhard’s mother.

It was a classy gesture from the Magic head coach, and a memorable moment for Kaitlyn Eisenhard and her family.

But with more work to do this season, the Bears are hoping to forget everything else about Saturday.

“This wasn’t just a loss, it was a embarrassing for us,” said Eisenhard, who scored just six points, but became the all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,374 points, one more than Wanda Moyer. “But if we can rebound and have a great game on Wednesday, that could really get us going for states. If we get a good seed in states we can make a deep run I think.”

Eisenhard was the main focus of the Magic defense, as the Mount’s top task was not only to double-team the Boyertown star, but deny her the ball on each and every possession.

(For the complete story, click here...)

BOYS TENNIS: New coach, new beginning for Pottstown

Ricardo Saad, a USTA-certified tennis pro who has coached players on the ATP and WTA tours, is taking over the Pottstown tennis program this spring. (Photo submitted)

By Steven Moore
smoore@pottsmerc.com

If you drive past the new tennis courts at Pottstown High School most afternoons this spring, you might see a man teaching some boys the game he loves.
Now, that in and of itself is not that strange a sight. Tennis courts are busy places once the weather warms up, especially at some of the area’s perennial hotbeds for the sport, like Phoenixville, Methacton and Spring-Ford.
But at Pottstown – where there hasn’t been a boys tennis team in roughly a decade – the sight of any Trojan holding a tennis racket will raise an eyebrow.
Enter Ricardo Saad – a 53-year-old tennis pro who holds the highest United States Tennis Association certification, has coached players on both the ATP and WTA tours, has represented his native Argentina as a player and who owns his own tennis academy in Florida.
Oh, he also has an advanced degree in electrical engineering.
One more thing: as of this spring, Ricardo Saad will be charged with the task of reviving the Pottstown boys tennis program.

(For complete story, click here ... )

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.

The Website Quarterback...

While most of the content on this site comes from Don Seeley and the talented writers you see on the sidelines each week, I get to have a little fun with it, as well.

My role on Friday nights (and sometimes beyond) is to "quarterback" the site, so to speak. What goes where, how often it gets updated, which photos are used, etc.

Judging by the pageviews and user statistics from this week -- particularly Friday night -- we're off to a roaring start. But we can always get better.

So, here is my question to you:

What do you think so far?

This site is a constant work-in-progress. Things will change, new ideas will pop up, and adjustments will be made. So, use the comments below to let us know how your experience has been so far.

• Did you access the site during the games Friday night?
• If so, did you use a computer? Your smart phone? An iPad?
• Were you just looking for scores of other games, or did you read the game recaps?
• How could the site look better for you and give you what you need?
• What other features would you like to see on the site?

The purpose of Mercury Sports Live is to give you everything you could possibly want to know about the area's high school football scene. And that means getting feedback from our readers. So, tell us what you think!

-- Steve Moore

The Calm Before the Storm

For sports writers and editors at the New York Post or USA Today, the highlight of their year might be the Super Bowl or the Olympics.
At The Mercury, Friday, August 31 has been circled on our calendars for months.
The first "Football Friday" is like jumping headfirst into a very cold swimming pool.
The summer has been relatively quiet, with the six of us taking our trips to the shore, long weekends at home, or -- for at least one lucky member of the staff -- cruises through the Mediterranean Sea.
Now it's on, for real.