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).

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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.”

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BOYS SWIMMING: Upper Perk takes third in 200 medley relay for second straight year

Photo by Craig Himmelwright Mason Cassel touches the wall on the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay as teammate Kyle Himmelwright leaves the block for the freestyle leg on Wednesday.

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

LEWISBURG — With time running out on their high school swimming careers, the Upper Perkiomen seniors came here determined to make the best of their last chance.
The Tribe veterans — with a few new faces mixed in — did just that on Day 1 of the PIAA Class AA Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University.
The 200 medley relay team of Kyle Himmelwright, Quinn Perlstein, Mason Cassel and Brandon Umstead finished third in the finals with a time of 1:38.64. It was the second straight bronze in the event for the Tribe at states, and set a new school record in the event.

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SWIMMING: Diving provides safe haven for PV’s Ott after fire ravages family home

Photo by Ted Hodgins Perkiomen Valley’s Chase Ott will compete in the PIAA Diving Championships this week at Bucknell.

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

LEWISBURG — The start of 2013 could not have been a more depressing for Perkiomen Valley standout diver Chase Ott and his family.
Sound asleep in his family’s Schwenkesville home, Ott suddenly awakened to the fire alarms blasting throughout the house on a cold January night around 1 a.m.
“When the alarms went off I woke up and stepped out of my room and there was smoke everywhere,” Ott recalled last week. “We had a wooden stove and we thought it was just smoke coming out of the stove, But then we could hear the wall crackling. Something wasn’t right. Then the wall caught on fire. And we ran out, grabbed the dogs, pulled the cars out of the garage, called the fire company.
“It was rough, it was scary. But we were just focusing on getting everyone out and safe. It wasn’t necessarily being scared, it was more like had my adrenaline going. Afterward, watching the house go up in flames, that’s what was sad.”
Everyone did make it out safely. But most of the house was gone, damaged by either the fire, water or smoke.

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COLLEGE SIGNING: Pottstown native Hunter Knighton off to Miami

Photo courtesy of The Hun School of Princeton Hunter Knighton is heading to the University of Miami and former Temple coach Al Golden.

By Rosemarie Ross
rross@pottsmerc.com

POTTSTOWN — From the moment Hunter Knighton stepped onto the field for his first football practice, it was clear he had the right stuff for the game.
Always tall and muscular, even at the very young age of 9, Knighton had the right build and knack for it.
That flair for the game eventually paved the way from playing football at Owen J. Roberts Middle School to The Hill School, then to The Hun School ... and now to the high-profile and prestigious University of Miami for the strapping 6-foot-5, 265-pound two-way lineman.

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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,

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.