Swimmers/divers from William Tennent, CB South and Upper Dublin are featured in this year’s final notebook.
National Conference
End of an era for Preedys - Mark Preedy didn’t end his high school career the way he wanted to.
But the William Tennent senior accomplished a lot in his career.
Preedy competed in the 50-yard freestyle at the PIAA Class AAA meet. He had hopes of going out on his best time but fell a little short, posting a 22.15, shy of the 21.75 he swam to capture fifth place and an automatic state berth at the District One meet.
“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “Everything felt wrong with that swim.
“I don’t know what it was but I just didn’t have a good race. I told myself I couldn’t be too disappointed because I didn’t really expect to make it here.”
This was his third trip to the state meet but only his second swim. As a sophomore, he was the alternate for the Panthers’ 200 freestyle relay and last year, he anchored that same relay to a 13th place finish.
He began his Tennent career as a breaststroker but morphed into a sprinter.
“The decision to drop the breaststroke wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” he said. “As the season wore on, I swam the breaststroke less and less and the sprints more and more.
“I just wasn’t into swimming the breaststroke and I was really leaning toward the sprints. I made it to states so obviously it was a good decision.”
He will continue his swim career at Arcadia.
“I’m looking forward to training more there,” he said.
His graduation is the end of an era for Tennent, as he is the last Preedy to swim for the Panthers. Older siblings Matt and Megan also swam for Tennent.
Continental Conference
Nickerson finishes strong - Nash Nickerson can be proud of his high school career.
The Central Bucks South senior had his final meet at the PIAA Class AAA competition at Bucknell University, where he finished fourth in diving with his score of 471.60 points.
Nickerson was a state qualifier all four years of high school. Last year he also finished in fourth place. As a sophomore he was 12th and in his freshman year he finished 18th.
He was the District One runner up this year and finished third at the SOL Continental Conference championships.
He will continue his diving career at the United States Naval Academy, where he hopes to major in economics and minor in Arabic.
“I want to try to post for the Marine Corps overseas and I want to be able to speak Arabic so that I can communicate with the locals,” he said. “I’m very excited to be diving there and I’m really looking forward to it.”
He is a member of the National Honor Society at CB South and he played lacrosse but gave it up for diving.
“I realized that I should probably stick with diving,” he said. “I’m a little better at that. I swim a little bit too.
“High school sports you used to be able to do a lot of things but now you have to find one and stick with it, and with outside diving I’ve been traveling a lot so I thought this was the right decision for me.”
Older brother Matt dove and older sister Stephanie swam for the Titans.
American Conference
Leydens finishes on a high note - Ogden Leyens’ final swims for Upper Dublin were exactly what he 
wanted them to be.
The senior ended his standout career for the Cardinals at the PIAA Class AAA meet, where he earned four state medals.
As an individual, he finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:31.76 and sixth in the 200 freestyle (1:39.78).
He also led off two relays. The 200 medley relay finished ninth (1:26.02). Devon Polak, Scott Luttmann and Alex Flynn were the other relay members.
But the highlight of the meet was the 400 freestyle relay. Leyens, Flynn, Wyatt Amdor and Michael Jensen won in a meet record time of 2:59.58, breaking the PIAA record of 3:00.23, also by Upper Dublin.
“I’m extremely happy with the way everything turned out,” he said. “We’ve had this goal since sophomore year to break three minutes in the 400 free relay but we didn’t really know it was going to happen until it actually happened. We’re ecstatic about it.”
He was pleased with his individual events.
“I didn’t know that I was going to make an ‘A’ final,” he said. “I had strong goals last year and I didn’t reach them, but I set some nice ones this year and I really went for them.”
He began swimming as a youngster in New Orleans.
“My mom swam,” he said. “Our club had a six-under age group so I was in that and did pretty well so I just stuck with it.”
His family moved when he was in third grade, after Hurricane Katrina.
He is undecided on a college but would like to swim and major in business.
He is a member of the National Honor Society.
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