All athletes experience highs and lows at some point of their competitive sporting career. The 10-and-under Lock Haven girls got to experience both ends of the spectrum at this past weekend’s Central District Championship meet in York, PA.
The low feeling came right at the start in their opening event, the 200 yard medley relay. The girls were seeded 7th and were pumped for the upcoming race as top six automatically qualify for YMCA States. And hard-charging the foursome were as the finished in the four spot. The excitement was quickly dashed as an official notified the team that they had been disqualified on one of the relay starts.
The extreme high waited in the wings until the very last event of the day, the 200 freestyle relay. While the foursome of Ana Persun, Kate Butzler, Camryn Bair, and Lilyan Gugino were the top seed, one would think the girls would be a bit hesitant on their relay starts between swimmers. Could this hesitancy cost them valuable time and lose their position as the top seed? Nope. Not only did they win the event, they were aggressive on their starts, timing them perfectly as the next swimmer came into the wall. It was such a clean and fast swim for the girls that they broke the meet record by 1.5 seconds.
Sandwiched between the low and high of the day, was great swimming from the group. Of particular noteworthy accomplishments were Persun’s individual swims. Seeded second and tenth in the 100 individual medley and 50 fly respectively, she exploded off the blocks to win both. Those races coupled with several high finishes from her teammates allowed them to capture the 10-and-under age group over the other 25 competing teams.
It is interesting to note the success of the girl's program at the Lock Haven YMCA the past several years . Every year since 2014, incorporating all their age groups, the girls have steadily climbed the Central District rankings from 16th to 11th to 9th to 8th.
Jersey Shore had a top place-winner in Keller Griswold’s 50 yard backstroke win.
Complete results can be found here.
Teh psych sheets for next week's YMCA State meet can be found here.
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