This week’s swimming notebook highlights Pennsbury’s swim-a-thon, Souderton and Pennridge’s performances at the Kinney Invitational as well as Wissahickon’s Ali McClure.
National Conference
Falcons honor coach - Pennsbury showed its holiday spirit by kicking off the break with a swim-a-thon on the Saturday before Christmas.
The event was organized by senior captain Adam Sokol, who wanted to honor former coach John ‘Doc’ Wilson. Wilson stepped down as Pennsbury’s coach after suffering from leukemia. He is currently in remission.
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is the beneficiary of the event, which has raised over $8,000 so far.
“I wanted to do something to honor Doc after all the years he put into the program,” said Sokol, a senior captain whose grandfather also suffers from the disease.
“It went really well. We had a lot of people show up. Doc was able to stop by and everyone was glad to see him and I think he was very happy to see everyone. I think we had about 30-40 alumni stop in and we went over our goal of $5,000 so we’re thrilled.
“It was awesome. Everyone had a great time. We had some fun races between alumni and current team members and we were surprised at how good some of the alumni still are. I think we each won one relay.
“This was a great experience for everyone and a great way for us to start the break off. It’s the season for giving and everybody gave. We had a lot of donations from alumni but we also got a donation from the Council Rock North boys team, which we really appreciate.
“I’ll be graduating this year but I’m hoping that Pennsbury will continue to host this event. It was a great day for a great cause and I’d love to see it continue and grow.”
Donations are still being accepted. For additional information or to make a donation, please click on the following link: http://pages.teamtraining.org/epa/broadstr13/pteamd.
Continental Conference
Indians and Rams excel at Kinney Invitational - Souderton and Pennridge both made a splash at the Kinney Invitational, held Dec. 15 at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
Alyssa Santangelo led the Indians with a victory in the 100-yard backstroke, winning in 58.42. She was also second in the 200 individual medley (2:10.89).
She also led off the winning 200 medley relay for Rickilee Hodges, Megan Furey and Erica Witoslawski (1:51.01) and the first place 200 freestyle relay for April Kichline, Hodges and Laureana Zrada (1:41.34).
Zrada took second in the 200 freestyle (1:56.07) and 500 freestyle (5:1.477), Hodges took second in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.28), Kichline was third in the 50 freestyle (25.34) and Furey was third in the 100 butterfly (1:00.08).
Freshman Hannah Zurmuhl impressed for Pennridge, winning the 50 freestyle (24.36) and taking second in the 100 freestyle (54.15). Teammate Brittany Weiss won the 100 breaststroke (1:09.28).
Kristen Shema, Chelsea Weiss, Brittany Weiss and Zurmuhl teamed up to win the 400 freestyle relay (3:42.87) and Chelsea Weiss, Devon Shaw, Emily Wolfe and Zurmuhl were third in the 200 medley relay (1:53.25).
Souderton won the girls team competition, scoring 125 points. Pennridge was third with 72.
For Souderton’s boys, Triston Loux won the 200 individual medley (2:00.94) and was second in the 100 butterfly (52.07). Matt Evers won diving for the Indians (412.40 points) and Nick Wieder was third in the 500 freestyle (4:57.68).
Wieder, Lucus Giannini, Loux and Cordell Armstrong took third in the 200 medley relay (1:43.45).
David Zurmuhl paced Pennridge with wins in the 50 freestyle (21.68) and 100 freestyle (1:48.66).
Souderton finished second in team scoring with 73.5 points while Pennridge was seventh (20).
American Conference
McClure looking to finish strong - Wissahickon’s Ali McClure loves swimming.
But basketball was also a big part of her life.
Unfortunately for her, both sports are in the winter season so she knew the day would come when she would have to choose.
“All along I knew that when I got to high school I would have to decide which sport I was going to give up,” said McClure, a senior. “I chose to keep on swimming.
“It was the right decision for me. I know it sounds corny, but every time the season comes around I get more excited and I can’t wait to race and go faster.
“Our meets are so much fun and I’ve been very lucky to have great people on the team for all four years.”
She is targeting the 100-yard butterfly at the District One Class AAA meet this year, and possibly the 500 freestyle.
“I was thinking about the individual medley, but the way the meet is divided the IM and the fly are on the same day,” she said. “Fly is my main event so I really want to focus on that so it’s probably not a good idea to swim another individual event on that day.
“It’s my senior year so I don’t want to mess with things.”
Although she hasn’t chosen a college yet, McClure is hoping to continue swimming while majoring in business.
“I swim year round so I’m committed to the sport and I think business is a good major because there are so many avenues to pursue and every college has it,” she said. “I’m taking an economics class and I’m really enjoying it so I think this will be a good major for me.”
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