Upper Dublin senior Michael Jensen crushed his own state record in the 200 free to highlight the first day of the PIAA Class AAA swimming championships.
.jpg)
Michael Jensen put up the big swim at Wednesday’s opening day of the PIAA Class AAA swimming championships, hosted by Kinney Natatorium at Bucknell University.
The Upper Dublin senior broke his own PIAA record in his defense of the 200-yard freestyle title, posting a time of 1:33.90 to crush his old record of 1:35.31 set March 13, 2015, and just .07 off the national federation record of 1:33.83 set by Tom Shields of California in 2009.
“Of course I’m excited with that time,” he said. “That was a goal of mine, to get under a 1:34 and I’m happy with that.”
The Cardinals got the meet off on the right foot, winning the 200 medley relay in 1:30.99. Jensen, Wyatt Amdor, Devon Polak and Alex Flynn were the gold medal foursome.
“That was a big team goal for us,” Jensen said. “It was the same four guys as last year and last year we were fourth. We got to train every day with that in mind. It was great.”
The medley relay and 200 freestyle events are consecutive, but on Thursday, Jensen will get a break, swimming in the first event, the 100 freestyle, and the last, the 400 freestyle relay.
“This was a tough 30 minutes or so but the 100 and the 400 free relay time out a lot better for me,” he said.
Teammate Ogden Leyens also earned a medal in the 200 freestyle, finishing sixth (1:39.78).
Leyens, Polak, Scott Luttmann and Flynn were ninth in the 200 freestyle relay (1:26.02).
Also for Upper Dublin, Amdor was ninth in the 100 butterfly (50.49) and Polak was 28th in the 200 individual medley (2:00.03).
Souderton’s Cristian Musterait took second in the 50 freestyle (20.32).
“The 50 is such a technical race,” he said. “If one thing goes wrong, it’s all over and I just had a great race. I can’t ask for anything else.”
Last year, he made the consolation final of this event.
“More practice overall and experience made a difference,” he said. “Especially experience. Coming into states as a younger kid you don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know the experience, but I’ve been coming back awhile and after a year or two you get to know the whole routine.”
Storm Krader, Ryan Witoslawski, Brendon Loux and Musterait were third in the 200 medley relay (1:33.53).
Also for Souderton, Ezekiel Flandro of Souderton finished 14th (390.75) in diving and Loux was 22nd in the 100 butterfly (52.17).
North Penn earned a pair of medals in diving. Ian Boland Bintner was fifth (467.60) and Bryce Hoch was sixth (463.05).
The Knights 200 medley relay of Corey Smith, Harrison Friel, Aaron Jordan and David Grove was 14th (1:36.52) and the 200 freestyle relay of Friel, Aidan Daly, Grove and Ryan Yocum was 15th (1:27.61).
Also for North Penn, Smith was 11th in the 200 individual medley (1:54.52), Friel was 14th in the 200 freestyle (1:42.59), Aidan Daly was 22nd in the 200 freestyle (1:44.69), Ryan Hartmann was 22nd in the 200 individual medley (1:57.92).
Abington freshman Sam Henninger made a splash in his first state appearance, capturing the bronze in diving (487.85).
Nash Nickerson of Central Bucks South ended his high school diving career with his second consecutive fourth place medal in diving (471.60).
Brad Johnson of Central Bucks West collected his first state medal, earning a tie for fifth place in the 50 freestyle with Norman Gregory of Penn Hills (20.97). CB West’s 200 freestyle relay was disqualified.
Collin Villari of Central Bucks East was eighth in the 200 indvidual medley (1:54.32).
Bayne Bennett of Quakertown was eighth in diving (433.55).
Hatboro-Horsham’s Andy Thomas was ninth in the 200 freestyle (1:40.89) and Nick Zumpino was 10th in diving (415.10).
The Hatters’ 200 freestyle relay of Stuart Sumner, John Scully, Thomas and Tim McPoyle finished 10th (1:26.18).
Wissahickon’s Doug Boehme finished 13th in the 200 freestyle (1:42.37).
Neshaminy’s David Kneiss finished 21st in the 200 freestyle (1:44.13) while Collin Hanlon of Pennsbury was 24th in the same event (1:45.12).
William Tennent’s lone swimmer was senior Mark Preedy, who concluded his high school career with a 28th place finish in the 50 freestyle (22.15).
Upper Dublin is third in team scoring with 100 points, while Souderton is ninth (52). La Salle leads with 138.
The Class AAA meet concludes on Thursday.
- Log in to post comments
