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By KIM TRANELL Times Leader Sports Correspondent
Sunday, January 30, 2000 Page: 9C
PLYMOUTH – Good competition.
That’s what Spartan swimming coach Frank Tribendis wanted to see at the
Wyoming Valley West Ray Wills Invitational.
And its exactly what he got.
“There wasn’t a blowout in this meet,” Tribendis said. “We’ve had great
competition in year’s past, but it was really high quality this year.”
The invitational, which was renamed to honor former Spartan assistant coach
Ray Wills, who died last year, included some of the top local teams as well as
tough competition from out of the area.
Bishop Hoban won the girls meet with 360 points, followed by Wyoming Valley
West and Central Columbia.
In the boys meet, Wyoming Valley West finished first with 270 points.
Central Columbia came in second, and Scranton Prep was third.
With only three weeks left in the regular season, team victories in
Saturday’s Invitational can be looked at as a sign of what to expect in
districts and state competition.
The Hoban girls were led by Shana Keeler, who won the 200-yard freestyle
and 500 freestyle, and Liz Byron, who finished first in the 50 freestyle and
100 butterfly.
Keeler’s time of 5:16.04 in the 500 freestyle was a new pool record, while
Byron broke a pool record with her time of :58.96 in the preliminaries of the
100 butterfly.
“We had some really great swims,” said Bishop Hoban coach Mara Pawlenok.
“We had a couple records, and just a lot of personal bests on the part of
most of the kids.”
For the Wyoming Valley West boys, Corey Welch won the 200 individual medley
and 100 breastroke. Mike Chesterfield took first in the 200 freestyle. Welch’s
time of 1:00.39 in the 100 breaststroke was a pool record.
Tribendis was pleased with his boys’ times, as well as their development.
“It just sets the tone for getting into what has to be done at the end,”
he said.
The invitational was run like the state meet, with preliminaries in the
morning and finals in the evening.
“The idea when we decided to do this was to set up a situation for
athletes who don’t get a chance to do preliminary and final type events,”
said Tribendis. “So now when they get down to the state meet, they know what
it feels like.”
The invitational also included a trophy event. Each year, a different
individual event is highlighted and a trophy is presented to the winners of
the race. Keeler and Chris Grabowski of Pottsville were the recipients of this
year’s award for their first-place finishes in the 500 freestyle.
Along with winning the trophy event, Grabowski also broke pool records in
the finals of the 500 freestyle (4:39.97) and 100 backstroke (:53.52). Jamie
Flick of Central Columbia also set a new mark in the preliminaries of the 100
backstroke (1:07.60).
The invitational also included a diving competition, which was held Friday.
Seminary’s Alana Anzalone won the girls competition with a score of 287.90 for
eight dives. Mike Bergan of Central Columbia finished first in the boys
competition with 299.95 points.