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By Brian Weaver
Forget the hard work and the endless time in the pool.
As it turns out, all it takes to succeed in swimming is a little ‘teamery.’
“It’s not a word, just kind of an inside joke,” Souderton’s Paige Whitmire laughed after the PIAA District 1 swimming championships.
Word or joke, it’s what head coach Todd Bauer used to get the Souderton girls fired up enough to win the class AAA swimming championship, although win might be an understatement. The Indians finished with 298.5 points, a zip code away from the competition. Runners-up North Penn finished with 192. Bauer was nothing but a smile afterwards.
“There was a huge difference between this year and last year,” he said. “They came excited to win, not scared to lose.”
The Indians got points all across the lineup.
“A total team effort,” he called the runaway victory. “These girls all stepped up and moved up in the standings.”
Souderton set the tone early. Mariel Kush, Whitmire, and Angela Severn teamed with Chloe Thomas in the 200 medley relay to start the day. Not only did the Indian quartet beat the field by more than two seconds, but their 1:47.38 bested the 19-year old meet record, North Penn’s 1:47.69 in 1990.
The Indians stayed with the pack through the first three events, but they dropped the hammer in the 50 free. Whitmire led the way, touching the wall in 23.76 with Missy Doll just a half-second behind her in second place. Thomas touched in fifth, giving Souderton 51 points in one event. Suddenly, the Suburban One League Continental Conference champions found themselves 49 points clear of the field.Whitmire and Severn performed like, well, Whitmire and Severn. Severn anchored the winning 400 free relay team. She also took first in the 500 free, her 4:55.17 putting her over seven seconds clear of the field. Her performance did nothing to betray that this was her first attempt at the race at the district level.
“This year’s the first time I’ve done the 500, and I dropped seven and a half seconds, so I’m pleased,” she said afterwards.
Whitmire did her own damage, teaming with Thomas, Doll, and Katie Curzon to win the 200 free relay. She won the aforementioned 50 free and also paced the 200 medley relay. The senior placed second in the 100 back, though, a race she set the meet record for with a 57.44 back in 2007. She swam a 57.30 to tie William Tennent’s Melanie Busch, but Upper Dublin’s Megan Lafferty won with a sizzling 55.96.
But as Bauer has preached all year, Severn and Whitmire are only part of the equation. He constantly refers to his depth.
Kush and Doll proved his point. Doll kicked off the final relay, the 400 free, a record-breaking exclamation point on Souderton’s huge meet. The Indians broke Council Rock’s 2002 record, their 3:31.11 over a second and a half better. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the exciting race was its irrelevance. Despite the fact that Souderton held an insurmountable lead, the team still swam to a record.
Doll also led off the 200 free relay, another big 40 points for the victors.
“We see Angela and Paige and how good they are, and we try to do our best,” she said. “Every senior made districts this year.”
Kush chipped in valuable points with an 11th place finish in the 200 individual medley and a third in the 500 free. Thomas turned in good relay splits. Curzan and Ashley Kichline notched points in the 100 back, and Kichline added a 12th place in the 200 free.
With such huge success, Souderton hesitated to predict how the PIAA state meet would go, acknowledging that they might not even be the best team from their school in the last two decades.
“Our assistant coach Trisha Swanson was on the team the last time we [won states],” Doll said. “She keeps saying, ‘Not yet, you’re not the best yet.’”
Not yet, but maybe “not for long” is more appropriate.
“We haven’t shaved or tapered yet,” Bauer marveled. “And a lot of this is their mentality.”
Whitmire agreed.
“We were so ready. All we wanted to do was win,” she said. “The experience last year was all nerves, nervousness. This year, it was, ‘Why wouldn’t we win?’”
A district championship, tapering yet to come, and confidence in the bag.
Come the state meet, it may be a long few days for the rest of Pennsylvania.
GOOD TURNS: Megan Lafferty earned swimmer of the meet honors for AAA. She won the 100 fly and the 100 back, and was on the 200 and 400 free relay teams that placed second and third, respectively … Nicole DiBonaventura tallied 28 individual points for second-place North Penn. She also anchored the 200 free relay team that took second … Upper Dublin took fifth in the AAA meet while Pennsbury edged Council Rock North by one point to take eighth over the Indians in ninth …Springfield (Montco) took fifth and Upper Merion sixth while Upper Moreland finished in eighth in Class AA competition.
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