Piedmont Boys, Schroeder Girls Finish Off Victories at YMCA Nationals
The final evening of racing at the YMCA National Championships in Greensboro, N.C., saw the Piedmont and Schroeder teams complete dominant victories in the five-day event. Piedmont’s boys, led by Olympic medalist Thomas Heilman, scored 453 points this week to beat out Greater Spartanburg (405.5) and Greater Somerset County (314.5) while Schroeder’s 481 points crushed Piedmont (327) and Upper Main Line (317).
In the meet’s final session, Heilman won his fourth individual event of the meet as he swam to a time of 1:43.30 in the 200 butterfly, well ahead of Farmington Valley’s John Rusnock (1:45.36) and Lakeland Hills’ Connor Johnson (1:46.89). Later in the session, Heilman led off his team’s 400 freestyle relay in 43.22, but the team fell to second place thanks to a brilliant effort from Greater Somerset. The team of Gregory Yukhvid, Keneth Barnicle, Riqui Iturbe Cosano and Gabriele Beverini finished in 2:56.35, beating Heilman’s Piedmont team (2:56.66) and Spartanburg (3:00.29).
In other boys’ racing, Lincoln Council won the 1650 free by two seconds in 15:27.93, beating Indian Valley’s Cody Lonsberry (15:29.96) and Kennett & Jennersville’s Kyle Burk (15:33.46). Barnicle went 43.04 to win the 100 free over Indiana County’s Preston Kessler (43.30) and Piedmont’s Will Browne (43.32) while the 100 breaststroke went to Oshkosh’s Drew Gaerthofner in 53.90, with Spartanburg’s Maddex Ternes (54.79) and Piedmont’s Jack Hathaway (55.10) completing the top-three.
The final session for Schroeder saw Maggie Dickinson take out the girls’ 100 free win in 49.32. Grater Somerset’s Colleen Bull also got under 50 (49.92) while Powel Crosley’s Cora Spetz claimed third (50.43). The team of Alana Berlin, Dickinson, Anne Dickinson and Ari Zhao was dominant in the 400 free relay, touching in 3:18.85 to defeat Greater Somerset (3:23.41) and Greater Monmouth (3:26.22).
Piedmont’s Meghan Ayres finished exactly 15 seconds clear of the field in the 1650 free with her time of 16:40.55. Second and third went to Oshkosh’s Kiersten Dietschweiler (16:55.55) and Upper Main Line’s Morgan Harlan (17:03.03), respectively. York’s Molly Yacoviello was the only swimmer to crack 2:00 in the 200 fly, touching in 1:58.55 to lead Zhao (2:00.28) and Pocono’s Sydey Wolbert (2:00.90), and Northwest’s Skylar Zuleger was the winner of the 100 breast in 1:01.14, leading Berlin (1:01.23) and Piedmont’s Sara Czirjak (1:02.30).
