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LEWISBURG – The boys portion of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships came to a close early Saturday evening with three Dallas seniors closing out their high school careers as state medalists.
Dallas placed sixth in the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, to move up to 15th in the final team standings, passing Holy Redeemer and Tunkhannock in the process for the best finish by a District 2 team.
The Mountaineers reached the final earlier in the day by placing seventh in qualifying and were in that position until sophomore anchor Shane Szczecinski gave his senior teammates a parting gift, moving them a few inches up the medal podium by lifting Dallas into sixth place.
Mikail Krochta, Tony Caravaggio and Ryan Spears handled the first three legs of the only medal-winning effort by Wyoming Valley Conference boys on the final day of the two-day meet.
“It felt really good,” Krochta said. “It was definitely a good way to cap it off. … It was definitely a surprise to not only medal, but get up on the podium in sixth place.
”That was awesome.”
Krochta joined Szczecinski by both reaching the consolation final in an individual event, to score team points with a top-16 finish, and making the medal stand with a top-eight finish. Krochta reached a personal-best in the backstroke while finishing 12th and Szczecinski shattered the five-minute barrier as he had hoped, going well under it twice while placing 16th.
“I am ecstatic,” Szczecinski said. “This is only my second year and I’m at states for individuals; I’m at states with my best friends, the best relay team a guy could ask for.
“It’s truly mind-blowing.”
The top eight from qualifying earned spots in the state finals and ultimately medals. The ninth- through 16th-place finishers competed in the B (consolation) final and scored points.
Wyoming Seminary’s Yonah Wasik was the only other WVC swimmer in the top 16 Saturday, taking 15th in the 100 backstroke.
Lower Moreland won the team title, 207-193, over Erie Cathedral Prep.
Dallas scored 45 points. Holy Redeemer was 20th with 34 points, one place in front of Tunkhannock with 31 1/2.
PIAA CLASS 2A BOYS SWIMMING
Saturday WVC Results
(Qualifying time in parens for finalists)
100 freestyle – Alex Bushre, Tunkhannock, 17th, 48.80
500 freestyle – Shane Szczecinski, Dallas, 16th, 4:53.86 (4:55.90)
100 backstroke – Mikail Krochta, Dallas, 12th, 53.77, (54.36)
100 backstroke – Yonah Wasik, Wyoming Seminary, 15th, 54.97 (54.66)
100 breaststroke – Ryan Spears, Dallas, 23rd, 1:01.98
400 freestyle relay – Dallas (Mikail Krochta, Tony Caravaggio, Ryan Spears, Shane Szczecinski), sixth, 3:18.40, (3:18.76)
Team points – Dallas, 15th, 45; Holy Redeemer, 20th, 34; Tunkhannock, 21st, 31 ½; Wyoming Seminary, tie 55th, 3.
Friday WVC Results
200 medley relay – Tunkhannock (Davis Tidball, Dyllan Henning, Dylan Mislevy, Alex Bushre), 10th, 1:39.29, (1:41.25)
200 medley relay – Dallas (Mikail Krochta, Ryan Spears, Shane Szczecinski, Tony Caravaggio), 12th, 1:40.31, (1:40.70)
200 freestyle – Adam Mahler, Holy Redeemer, 5th, 1:43.00, (1:42.41)
200 freestyle – Shane Szczecinski, Dallas, 19th, 1:48.19
200 individual medley – Mikail Krochta, Dallas, 14th, 2:00.73, (2:00.42)
200 individual medley – Yonah Wasik, Wyoming Seminary, 16th, 2:01.76, (2:00.95)
50 freestyle – Alex Bushre, Tunkhannock, 11th, 21.69, (21.76)
100 butterfly – Adam Mahler, Holy Redeemer, 1st, 49.96, (50.82)
200 freestyle relay – Holy Redeemer (Adam Mahler, Colton Smith, Matt Dinh, Mike Williams), disqualified
Diving – Sawyer Aitken, Tunkhannock, tie 7th, 350.00 for 11 dives
Diving – Hunter Whytashek, Tunkhannock, 22nd, 117.30 for 5 dives