The Upper St. Clair Swimming and Diving teams held the last dual meet of the season, on Wednesday night and it was, as always, a highly charged battle between friendly rivals. As seems to be the case most every year, the meet also determined this year’s Section champions. While our girls and boys teams have won plenty of Section titles in recent years, it’s been since 2014 that both teams won the Section title in the same year. That all changed on Wednesday night as both the Panthers’ boys and girls teams led from start to finish with a total team effort to sweep the Blue Devils and claim the Section crown. The meet started with diving and our WPIAL-bound diving corps was up to the challenge. The girls placed 1-2-3, led by Delaney Burnette with a score of 233.15, followed closely by Bella Meyer (212.05) and Livia Tranquilli (211.05). On the boys side, Mt. Lebanon’s Malcolm Thompson was victorious with a pool-record total of 281.60, but the Panthers outscored the Blue Devils by finishing 2-3-4 (Kobe Yuyi – 214.00, Carter Wells – 200.70, and Carter Richie – 133.70). After a short break, the swimmers picked up where the divers left off and won the first 6 events of the meet. The girls 200 medley relay team (Kendell Drew, Evie Sullivan, Amanda Aidar, Clara Senchyshak) reached the wall first with a very fast time of 1:49.50. In the boys medley relay, the quartet of Ben Whiteford, Griffin Tomsheck, Liam Tomb, and Whit Burns surged to victory with a season-best time of 1:35.83. Once the first relays were completed, the Panthers were swimming great and the season and personal best times kept coming. Here is a summary of those swims by event:

200 free – girls

1^st – Freja Kile – 1:58.68

3^rd – Lauren Mittleider – 2:01.18

4^th – Sofia Montoya – 2:01.83 – 1^st ever WPIAL cut!

**Erin Wells – 2:14.49**

200 free – boys

1^st – Max Shipley – 1:44.43

5^th – Matthew Fibbi – 1:50.20 – new WPIAL cut!

200 IM - girls

1^st – Amanda Aidar – 2:08.90

3^rd – Kendell Drew – 2:14.17

**Claire Clodfelter – 2:34.45**

200 IM – boys

1^st – Nazar Zoukovski – 1:54.71

2^nd – Pavel Schabanow – 2:01.62

3^rd – Liam Tomb – 2:02.05

**Armen Pettit – 2:15.39**

50 free – girls

1^st – Sylvia Roy (Mt. Lebanon) – 23.29 – POOL RECORD

2^nd – Kaitlyn Connors – 23.59

3^rd – Clara Senchyshack – 25.90

**Clare Larsen – 26.77**

50 free – boys

1^st – Whit Burns – 21.97 (first time under 22!)

5^th – Danis Vakufac – 24.06

**Hunter Talai – 31.69**

100 fly – girls

1^st – Amanda Aidar – 57.54

4^th – Maren Davis – 1:02.85

5^th – Evie Sullivan – 1:03.98

100 fly – boys

1^st – Ben Whiteford – 50.97

**Danis Vakufac – 59.10**

100 free -  girls

1^st – Kaitlyn Connors – 51,81

3^rd – Clara Senchyshack – 56.33 – new WPIAL cut

**Clare Larsen – 59.24** - first time under 1:00!

**Benny Calamari – 1:10.32**

100 free - boys

1^st – Nazar Zoukovski – 46.51

**Max Kile – 56.33**

500 free – girls

1^st – Lauren Mittleider – 5:21.68

2^nd – Freja Kile – 5:22.12

3^rd – Sofia Montoya – 5:27.17 – new WPIAL cut!

**Erin Wells – 5:59.47 – first time under 6:00!**

500 free boys

1^st – Max Shipley – 4:55.22

4^th – Matthew Fibbi – 4:59.13

**Luke Bishop – 5:23.52**

200 free relay – girls

2^nd – Kaitlyn Connors, Maren Davis, Freja Kile, Amanda Aidar – 1:38.50 – season best

200 free relay – boys

1^st – Whit Burns, Max Shipley, Hasan Alhajhusain, Nazar Zoukovski (20.27 split!) – 1:28.70

100 back – girls

3^rd – Kendell Drew – 59.40

5^th – Bailey Wells – 1:14.42

100 back – boys

1^st – Ben Whiteford – 51.47

3^rd – Pavel Schabanow – 57.15

**JD Kile – 1:10.63**

**Cullen Moriarty – 1:15.46**

100 breast - girls

2^nd – Evie Sullivan – 1:12.23

4^th – Maren Davis – 1:13.14

5^th – Claire Clodfelter – 1:17.54

100 breast – boys

2^nd – Griffin Tomsheck – 59.06

**Armen Pettit – 1:08.97 – 5+ second drop!)**

**Luis Quiroga-Castaneda – 1:12.56**

400 free relay – girls

1^st – Kaitlyn Connors, Clara Senchyshack, Kendell Drew, Freja Kile – season best 3:36.87

**Lauren Mittleider – 57.42 leadoff**

400 free relay – boys

1^st – Max Shipley, Nazar Zoukovski, Matthew Fibbi, Ben Whiteford – 3:16.10

**Boshi Dong – 52.83 split**

We had a tremendous number of great swims on the way to winning 18 of 24 events overall and 17 of the 22 swimming events. Way to go Panthers swimmers and divers! This year our team had a very tough schedule in the WPIAL by virtue of competing in a strong section and our non-section meets included perennial powerhouses North Allegheny, Fox Chapel, and Seneca Valley. Despite the tough schedules, the girls finished with a 7-3 record (6-0 in the section) while the boys had a 9-1 record (6-0 in the section). Next up for the teams will be the WPIAL Championships. The diving is held at North Allegheny High School on Saturday, February 24.The swimming championships will be at Trees Hall at Pitt on Thursday, February 29 and Friday, March 1. Best of luck to our swimmers and divers!