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WILKES-BARRE — For 27 years, the record stood.
The names were placed on the wall at Pittston Area’s pool for nearly three decades. Now those names need to be changed.
Pittston Area’s 200 Medley Relay team broke the school’s record Friday at the PIAA District 2 Class AAA Swimming Championships at the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center in Wilkes-Barre.
The team of Mia Nardone, Adison Hazlet, Erin Senese and Arianna Boccardi broke the school’s standing 27-year record in the event with a time 1:58.40. That time was good for a bronze medal at the championships.
In the 200 free relay, Pittston Area’s team of Katrina Dillon, MacKenzie Connors, Kassity Roche and Shannen Brady swam a 1:52.39 to finish fourth in District 2.
As a team, the Pittston Area girls finished in fifth place out of seven teams.
Nardone took a second place finish in the 100 fly. Hazleton’s Felicia Grego and Nardone went toe-to-toe for the top two spots. Grego took a favorable .75-second lead before Nardone charged in the final 25 yards. Grego held off Nardone for a 58.94-second finish. Impressively, both swimmers swam under a minute with the Patriot tabbing a 59.59 that could earn her a PIAA at-large bid for the state championships at Bucknell University.
Nardone won gold in last year’s 100 fly with a time of 59.59 to qualify for the state meet. She finished 16th at Bucknell.
Pittston Area’s Erin Senese picked up two top-10 finishes Friday. Her 26.07 in the 50 free gave her a ninth-place finish as did her 1:09.37 in the 100 fly.
On the boys side, Pittston Area’s Brandon Winters fell victim to Wyoming Valley West’s Ed Zawatski in the 50 free. Zawatski turned in a 20.36 to break a seven-year record in the meet. Winters time of 21.97 was good enough for a silver.
For Wyoming Area, Micheal Murphy came out on the podium in the 200 individual medley. Murphy’s 2:15.26 got him a medal and a fifth place finish in the district.
Murphy, along with Zach Lagrue, Ryan Murphy and Austin Adler, got to the podium with a sixth-place finish in 1:51.52 in the 200 medley relay.