The WPIAL Swimming & Diving Championships wrapped up on Friday, March 1 and the Panthers had their best overall showing in several years. The boys brought home the runner-up trophy with 282 points, while the girls finished a very strong 5th place while scoring 179 points. Highlights of the second day of the swimming competition include the podium-topping performances by Senior Kaitlyn Connors in the 100 freestyle, her third consecutive WPIAL victory in that event, as well as by Sophomore Nazar Zoukovski, also in the 100 freestyle. The boys 400 free relay team of Max Shipley, Ben Whiteford, Whit Burns and Nazar Zoukovski also won the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay in exciting fashion with a .3 second victory over North Allegheny. Here is a summary of all the performances that scored points on Day 2 of the swimming competition:  Girls 100 free – Kaitlyn Connors – 1st Boys 100 free – Nazar Zoukovski – 1st, Max Shipley – 7th Girls 500 free – Freja Kile – 11th Boys 500 free – Matthew Fibbi – 16th Girls 100 back – Kendell Drew – 12th Boys 100 back – Ben Whiteford – 5th, Pavel Schabanow – 12th Boys 100 breast – Griffin Tomsheck – 5th Girls 400 free relay – Amanda Aidar, Kendell Drew, Freja Kile, Kaitlyn Connors – 3rd Boys 400 free relay – Max Shipley, Ben Whiteford, Whit Burns, Nazar Zoukovski – 1st The next and final competition of the season is the PIAA Championships held at Bucknell University on March 13-14. The Panthers have qualified the following swimmers and events for States: GIRLS: 200 medley relay, 200 IM – Amanda Aidar, 50 free – Kaitlyn Connors, 200 free relay, 100 free – Kaitlyn Connors, 400 free relay BOYS: 200 medley relay, 200 free – Nazar Zoukovski, Max Shipley, 50 free – Whit Burns, 100 fly – Ben Whiteford, 200 free relay, 100 free – Nazar Zoukovski, 100 back – Ben Whiteford, 100 breast – Griffin Tomsheck, 400 free relay

The USC boys and girls swimming and diving teams had a great first day of competition at the WPIAL swimming championships help at Trees Hall at the University. Here are all of the Panthers who have scored points in the meet so far: Girls 200 Medley Relay - 6th place - Kendell Drew, Evie Sullivan, Amanda Aidar, Clara Senchyshak Boys 200 Medley Relay - 2nd Place - Ben Whiteford, Griffin Tomsheck, Liam Tomb, White Burns Girls 200 free - Freja Kile - 11th place, Lauren Mittleider 15th place Boys 200 free - Nazar Zoukovski - 4th place, Max Shipley - 7th place Girls 200 IM - Amanda Aidar - 2nd place Boys 200 IM - Griffin Tomsheck - 10th place, Liam Tomb - 12th, Pavel Schabanow - 13th Girls 50 free - Kaitlyn Connors - 2nd place Boys 50 free - Whit Burns - 4th place Girls Diving - Livia Tranquilli - 9th place, Addison Burnette - 10th Boys Diving - Kobe Yuyi - 7th place, Carter Wells - 9th, Carter Richie - 10th Boys 100 fly - Ben Whiteford - 4th place, Liam Tomb - 10th Girls 200 free relay - 3rd Place - Kaitlyn Connors, Kendell Drew, Freja Kile, Amanda Aidar Boys 200 free relay - 2nd place - Nazar Zoukovski, Max Shipley, Griffin Tomsheck, Whit Burns The boys are currently in second place with 176 points while the girls are in 4th place with 116. The meet continues Friday morning. Good luck Panthers!

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 1st – Freja Kile – 1:58.68 3rd – Lauren Mittleider – 2:01.18 4th – Sofia Montoya – 2:01.83 – 1st ever WPIAL cut! **Erin Wells – 2:14.49** 200 free – boys 1st – Max Shipley – 1:44.43 5th – Matthew Fibbi – 1:50.20 – new WPIAL cut! 200 IM - girls 1st – Amanda Aidar – 2:08.90 3rd – Kendell Drew – 2:14.17 **Claire Clodfelter – 2:34.45** 200 IM – boys 1st – Nazar Zoukovski – 1:54.71 2nd – Pavel Schabanow – 2:01.62 3rd – Liam Tomb – 2:02.05 **Armen Pettit – 2:15.39** 50 free – girls 1st – Sylvia Roy (Mt. Lebanon) – 23.29 – POOL RECORD 2nd – Kaitlyn Connors – 23.59 3rd – Clara Senchyshack – 25.90 **Clare Larsen – 26.77** 50 free – boys 1st – Whit Burns – 21.97 (first time under 22!) 5th – Danis Vakufac – 24.06 **Hunter Talai – 31.69** 100 fly – girls 1st – Amanda Aidar – 57.54 4th – Maren Davis – 1:02.85 5th – Evie Sullivan – 1:03.98 100 fly – boys 1st – Ben Whiteford – 50.97 **Danis Vakufac – 59.10** 100 free -  girls 1st – Kaitlyn Connors – 51,81 3rd – Clara Senchyshack – 56.33 – new WPIAL cut **Clare Larsen – 59.24** - first time under 1:00! **Benny Calamari – 1:10.32** 100 free - boys 1st – Nazar Zoukovski – 46.51 **Max Kile – 56.33** 500 free – girls 1st – Lauren Mittleider – 5:21.68 2nd – Freja Kile – 5:22.12 3rd – Sofia Montoya – 5:27.17 – new WPIAL cut! **Erin Wells – 5:59.47 – first time under 6:00!** 500 free boys 1st – Max Shipley – 4:55.22 4th – Matthew Fibbi – 4:59.13 **Luke Bishop – 5:23.52** 200 free relay – girls 2nd – Kaitlyn Connors, Maren Davis, Freja Kile, Amanda Aidar – 1:38.50 – season best 200 free relay – boys 1st – Whit Burns, Max Shipley, Hasan Alhajhusain, Nazar Zoukovski (20.27 split!) – 1:28.70 100 back – girls 3rd – Kendell Drew – 59.40 5th – Bailey Wells – 1:14.42 100 back – boys 1st – Ben Whiteford – 51.47 3rd – Pavel Schabanow – 57.15 **JD Kile – 1:10.63** **Cullen Moriarty – 1:15.46** 100 breast - girls 2nd – Evie Sullivan – 1:12.23 4th – Maren Davis – 1:13.14 5th – Claire Clodfelter – 1:17.54 100 breast – boys 2nd – Griffin Tomsheck – 59.06 **Armen Pettit – 1:08.97 – 5+ second drop!)** **Luis Quiroga-Castaneda – 1:12.56** 400 free relay – girls 1st – Kaitlyn Connors, Clara Senchyshack, Kendell Drew, Freja Kile – season best 3:36.87 **Lauren Mittleider – 57.42 leadoff** 400 free relay – boys 1st – 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!

The Upper St. Clair Swimming and Diving team hosted Bethel Park last night as they celebrated Senior Recognition before the meet. Both the boys and girls teams picked up wins as the boys won 98-85 and the girls won 92-89. Seniors Amanda Aidar and Kaitlyn Connors completed the "WPIAL Sweep" as they both have now qualified for the WPIAL Championships in all eight individual events. Top Panther finishers from last night's meet include: Kendell Drew - 1st place in 100 and 200 freestyle Ben Whiteford - 1st place in 200 freestyle Griffin Tomsheck and Liam Tomb - 1st and 2nd place in 200 IM, respectively Kaitlyn Connors, Lauren Mittleider and Freja Kyle - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in 100 back, respectively Team of Griffin Tomsheck, Nazar Zoukovski, Max Shipley, and Ben Whiteford - 1st place in 400 free relay while posting a season best time of 3:16.35 Delaney Burnette and Livia Tranquilli - 1st and 2nd place in diving, respectively Kobe Yuyi, Carter Wells, and Carter Richie - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in diving, respectively With the victories the boys team record now moves to 6-1 and the girls move to 5-2 setting up a highly anticipated showdown with Peters Township. The Panthers will travel to take on the Indians next Thursday and the meet is scheduled for a 6:00 pm start.

The Upper St. Clair Swimming and Diving team traveled to South Fayette last night to take on the Lions. Both the boys and girls teams came away with victories as the boys won 100-72 and the girls won 98-83. Carter Richie qualified for the WPIAL Championships as now all six Panther divers have qualified. Event winners from last night were: Girls: Delaney Burnette - Diving Kaitlyn Connors - 200 IM and 100 Breast Amanda Aidar - 50 Free Boys: Griffin Tomsheck - 200 Free Ben Whiteford - 200 IM Pavel Schabanow - 50 Free and 500 Free Nazar Zoukovski - 100 Fly and 100 Back Matthew Fibbi - 100 Breast With the win the boys team now moves to 5-1 on the year and the girls move to 4-2. The Panthers will return to action next week when they will host Bethel Park. The meet will start at 5:00 and senior recognition will start at 4:30 pm.

The USC Swimming and Diving team traveled to Seneca Valley for our annual Tri Meet with Seneca Valley and Canon Mac. The girls split their meets, beating Canon Mac 139.5 to 44.5 while losing to a strong Seneca Valley team by the score of 114-71. Meanwhile the boys won both of their meets, beating Canon Mac 134-49 and Seneca 125-61. The girls record is now 2-2 on the season while the boys are 3-1. The highlight of the meet came from our divers, with Freshmen Livia Tranquilli and Carter Wells both qualifying for WPIALs. Livia eclipsed the 190 qualifying score with a dive total of 192.8 while Carter crushed the qualifying score of 170 with his personal best total of 208.45. Four of our six divers have now qualified for WPIALs, which is the most divers we’ve qualified in at least the past 15 years—and perhaps ever. Way to go USC divers and Coach Todd Hillman!   On the swimming side strong performances were achieved by the following swimmers: Max Kile 32.95 breaststroke split on the 200 medley relay Amanda Aidar 2:12.14 winning time in the 200 IM Danis Vakufac and Armen Pettit in the 500 free. Danis swam a 5:44.77 and Armen broke 6 minutes for the first time with a time of 5:46.48.    A special shout-out to Clare Larsen, who swam on 3 relays and also achieved a 28.72 time in the 50 free. Clare has returned early from knee surgery and the fact that she’s competing at all is somewhat miraculous and a testimony to her dedication to get back into the lineup as soon as possible. Way to go, Clare!   Our next meet is Wednesday, January 10 at home vs. Trinity. The meet starts at 5 p.m.

The Panthers Girls and Boys swimming and diving teams both fell to strong North Allegheny teams Wednesday night. The girls score was N.A. 96 USC 82 and the boys score was N.A. 97 USC 86. Despite the losses the Panthers had a lot to cheer for. Individual event winners included: Amanda Aidar - 200 IM Kaitlyn Connors - 50 and 100 free Max Shipley - 500 free Griffin Tomsheck - 100 breaststroke (59.62--his first time breaking one minute!) Nazar Zoukovski - 100 and 200 Free USC also had many new WPIAL Championship qualifying times and we'd like to give a special shoutout to Senior Boshi Dong who earned his first WPIAL cut with a  5:09.14 time in the 500 free. The team starts its Christmas training Thursday, 12/21 and will compete next at the Cumberland Valley Invitational on Wednesday, 12/27.