By Brian Savard<\/p>\n
LEWISBURG, Pennsylvania, April 2. WINTER storms slowed down travel in the Northeast, but it certainly did not slow down the competition at the Pennsylvania Women's Class AAA State Meet. <\/p>\n
Because of the wintery conditions, both days of competition were shortened to a timed finals format.<\/p>\n
Team Scores<\/b>
\nEmmaus easily ran away with the state title, compiling 257 points over the course of the two-session meet. Bethel Park took second with 191 points while Emmaus's District 11 rival, Parkland, placed third with 178.5 points.<\/p>\n
200 medley relay<\/b>
\nEmmaus jumped out to a 40-point start to the meet with a first place finish in the 200 medley relay. The quartet of Alena Kluge, Morgan Oxley, Erin Fischer and Deidre Geroni swam National Federation Honor Roll time a time of 1:46.72. Bethel Park swam a 1:47.17 time and finished second while Wilson's contingent finished third, clocking 1:48.55.<\/p>\n
200 freestyle<\/b>
\nParkland sophomore Jaime Malandra avenged her second-place finish from the 2006 meet with a win in the 200 freestyle with a 1:49.89 time. Gettysburg's Tricia Weaner opted out of the 100 butterfly, an event she swam the past two years, to swim a second-place time of 1:50.60. Courtney Beidler from Council Rock South finished third place in 1:52.32.<\/p>\n
200 IM<\/b>
\nEmmaus pulled in a one-two finish in the 200 IM. Kluge finished first, taking her freestyle leg back in a blistering 27.30 and recording a 2:04.20 time. Teammate Mikelle Masciantonio edged out Easton's Taylor Sostarecz for second. Masciantonio clocked a 2:05.63 and Sostarecz recorded a 2:05.83.<\/p>\n
50 freestyle<\/b>
\nDowningtown East's Sam Palser touched out defending champion Christy Longacre with a 23.76 effort. Longacre finished in 23.79 and Bethel Park's Charlotte Brackett placed third in 23.83.<\/p>\n
100 butterfly<\/b>
\nKatie Nolan of Hershey nearly erased a 23-year old record in the 100 butterfly, clocking a scorching 54.14 time. Shannon Draves of Boyertown put in a runner-up performance of 57.39 while Fischer placed third with a 57.51.<\/p>\n
200 freestyle relay<\/b>
\nHershey emerged from a nearly deadlocked 200 freestyle race where only .50 seconds separated first from eighth place. <\/p>\n
The Hershey contingent of Nolan, Natazia Fistrovic, Jordan Liedholm and Erica Rapp stood atop the first place podium with a 1:37.50 time.<\/p>\n
Wilson finished .03 seconds behind with a 1:37.53 time while Souderton touched third in 1:37.68.<\/p>\n
100 freestyle<\/b>
\nNolan kicked off the second day of competition in a similar fashion to her closing out of day one. <\/p>\n
Nolan pulled out a 50.98 time en route to a gold-medal finish. Masciantonio picked up the silver medal in 51.64 while the 50 freestyle champion, Palser, took third in 51.71.<\/p>\n
Nolan, who won the swimmer of the meet award, said that it was a big change moving up from AA to AAA. <\/p>\n
"It's a bigger environment with more competition here," said Nolan. <\/p>\n
500 freestyle<\/b>
\nMalandra prevailed in the 500 freestyle, beating out the top-seeded Sostarecz. Malandra overtook Beidler at the after the 350 mark and cruised to a winning time of 4:53.76.<\/p>\n
Beidler finished second in 4:56.54 while Sostarecz fell back to third place with a 4:57.35 time.<\/p>\n
100 backstroke<\/b>
\nWeaner won the 100 backstroke for the fourth time in her tenure as a Class AAA swimmer.<\/p>\n
Weaner's 56.35 bested the field. Paige Whitmire of Souderton finished second, recording a 56.80 time while Alena Kluge of Emmaus settled for third (57.22).<\/p>\n
100 breaststroke<\/b>
\nMarianne Flynn of Wilson topped the list of 100 breaststroke competitors with a 1:03.94 time.<\/p>\n
Sarah Dunleavy from Bethel Park placed second in 1:05.36 while Lisa Colapietro touched the wall in 1:05.41 for third place.<\/p>\n
400 freestyle relay<\/b>
\nThe Emmaus foursome of Catherine Carr, Masciantonio, Kluge and Fischer ended the meet the way it started out for Emmaus, winning the 400 freestyle relay with a decisive 3:30.14 time. <\/p>\n
Seneca Valley won the fight for second place, touching out Hershey and Bethel Park with a 3:32.79 time. Hershey overtook Bethel Park on the last leg of the relay en route to snaring the third-place honor, clocking 3:32.86.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Brian Savard LEWISBURG, Pennsylvania, April 2. WINTER storms slowed down travel in the Northeast, but it certainly did not slow down the competition at the Pennsylvania Women's Class AAA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n