Three Lock Haven YMCA Swimmers Win Pentathlon

Eight central Pennsylvania YMCA Swim Teams competed in the Zoltoski Pentathlon on February 23 at Lock Haven University’s Zimmerli Pool with several Lock Haven and Jersey swimmers walking away with top honors. This is a meet where each athlete competes in five events; the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley (IM) to determine the meet’s best all-around swimmer. The first four events are randomly seeded and the last swim of the day, the IM, is seeded based on the overall time of the first four swims. The overall Pentathlon winners are determined by adding the five times for each swimmer, with the lowest combined time winning. A swimmer must successfully complete swims in all five events to be eligible for final scoring.
 

The closest contest occurred in the boys 14-and-under age group where Lock Haven swimmer, Ethan Dale, had a combined time from the five events just 5/100s of a second faster than Bellefonte’s Tommy Hall. Hall won four of the five events; the 100 yard fly (by 5.39 seconds), 100 back (by .60 secs), 100 free (by .92 secs), and the IM (by .52 secs) but it was the 100 yard breaststroke that propelled Dale to the podium. His winning time was 7.48 seconds faster than Hall which was enough, when added to the other four times, to have the lowest combined times at the end of the day.
 

Lock Haven Y swimmer, Phil Rodo, had an equally exciting afternoon as his combined time in the boy’s 15-and-over grouping was only 6/100s of a second faster than Juniata Valley’s Evan Becker. Rodo won the 100 fly, back, and free while Becker took the 100 breast and 200 IM. Lock Haven’s Tyler Sheets came in third.
 

Several swimmers from the 15-and-over boys from

 left to  right; Benjamin Jones -Lock Haven,

Jewayne Marshall- Lock Haven,

Zack Bonson- Juniata Valley, Tyler Sheets

- Lock Haven , Evan  Becker- Juniata Valley,

and Phil Rodo- Lock Haven.

Lock Haven’s other winner was in the boys 8-and-under with Simon Lins combined time for the five events propelling him over East Lycoming’s Evan Hamm by 65/100s of a second. Ryan Hause of Danville tied up third place.
 

The most exciting age group of the afternoon was with girl’s 10-and-under age group where 22 swimmers battled for the top spots. It was a jumble of placings throughout the five events with Bellefonte’s Sophie Gerhart, Brookeville’s Alayna Murray, and Jersey Shore’s Taylor Fleming eventually taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in combined times. Fleming won the fly (Gerhart 2nd and Murray 3rd), Gerhart the back (Murray 3rd and Fleming 4th) and free (Murray 2nd and Fleming 4th), and Murray the breast (Fleming 4th and Gerhart 5th) and IM (Fleming 2nd and Gerhart 3rd).
 

There were no such close calls for Jersey Shore’s Kendra White and Sam Keegan. White dominated the 14-and-under girl’s competition by winning all five events in commanding fashion. Keegan squared off against seventeen other swimmers and she too prevented any swimmer from taking the top spot in any of the five events.

Results of Zoltoski Pentathlon can be found here

The combined times from all 5 events of the pentathlon can be found here.