Swimmers/divers from Pennsbury, Hatboro-Horsham and Springfield are featured in this week’s notebook.
National Conference
Doyle happy with ending - Alex Doyle finished off her high school career just the way she wanted to.
With her best.
The Pennsbury senior finished 31st at the District One Class AAA diving meet with her score of 144.35 points.
“I just wanted to do my best and have fun and whatever happened, happened,” she said. “I dove better than I did last year so I’m happy with that.”
Doyle has been diving since she was a freshman.
“I used to do gymnastics and we have a diving board in our backyard pool,” she said. “I could do a few things on that board so I thought I’d give diving a try. That worked out pretty well for me so it was a good decision.”
She also tried track, but found that was not a good fit for her.
“That lasted a year,” she said. “Diving was a good choice for me. I had a lot of fun and I got better each year.”
She is a member of the Business Honor Society at Pennsbury.
In the fall she will attend Indiana University of Pennsylvania and hopes to become an occupational therapist.
“I’m going to room with my older sister, Tasha,” Doyle said. “She also dove. She’s going for speech and language therapy. I’m really looking forward to it.”
While she is excited about her future, Doyle enjoyed her time as a Pennsbury diver.
“Diving was really a lot of fun and I’m going to miss it,” she said. “I loved every minutes of it.”
Continental Conference
Thomas following in brother’s footsteps - Andy Thomas is going to be very busy for the Class AAA portion of the PIAA competition.
The Hatboro-Horsham sophomore has qualified for the competition in two individual events. He is the seventh seed in the 100-yard freestyle and the 14th seed in the 200 freestyle.
He will also compete on the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay for the Hatters.
A hectic two days to be sure, but Thomas is ready.
“I went to states last year on the 200 and 400 freestyle relays so even though this is my first experience of swimming individual events at states I feel like I’m ready,” he said.
Although last year was his first swimming in the District One competition, he had been to plenty as a spectator, watching older brother Michael, who now swims at California.
“He’s pretty much my biggest mentor and not just in swimming,” Thomas said. “He’s taught me everything I know about self-discipline, how to train, how to be who I am.
“I got into swimming because of him. He’s the driving force behind that.”
The younger Thomas would also like to swim in college but is unsure of where he’d like to go.
“I have time to think about that,” he said. “Right now I’m just focused on states. We’re all excited to get out there and see what we can do.
“We have a lot of sophomores and juniors on our team so I’m real excited for our future.”
American Conference
Quigg sidelined for senior season - It was a difficult senior season for Springfield’s Katie Quigg.
She spent most of it with her right arm in a sling.
“After swimming the butterfly for 10 years, my labrum actually tore and came off,” she said. “Everything was really loose so they reattached it and tightened my socket. I basically missed my senior year.”
“It was really disappointing. I had a lot of goals that I set for myself for my last season that I thought I could finally achieve but with this I obviously couldn’t.”
The disappointment was difficult to endure.
“It was so hard to not swim,” she said. “I didn’t go to too many meets because it was so hard for me to sit and watch but I went to their big meets and cheered them on.”
She will continue her education at the University of Alabama, where she is undecided on a major but is considering microbiology.
The Crimson Tide competes in the SEC, a very competitive conference in swimming.
“They don’t have a club swim team so I might do club water polo,” Quigg said.
She played water polo and lacrosse for the Spartans, but gave up lacrosse to focus on aquatic sports.
“All of that stopped because of the shoulder,” she said.
“Looking back on my years of swimming, it was all worth it. I had a lot of achievements. The ending wasn’t what I had in mind but I’m really happy with it all.”
In addition to athletics, she is a member of Youth in Government and is the president of the Organization of American States.
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