Jersey Shore Tops Lock Haven YMCA Swimmers

First year Lock Haven Loggerhead YMCA head coach Joel Blesh’s expectations are completely different than his counterpart across the county line in Jersey Shore. He is slowly building the program meet by meet and adding swimmers as he goes, working on the fundamentals. “We had stacks of disqualification papers in our last meet against Bloomsburg and Bellefonte but we have been really working on technique the past few weeks,” said Blesh. The effort showed as very few of his swimmers were disqualified in Sunday’s meet against Jersey Shore.


His counterpart, Patty Kennelley, was in a similar situation several years ago but has built a strong swim program in Jersey Shore. “In years’ past, we would always come up short since we were a small team. We now have some depth in a few more age groups which will allow us to fill all the lanes during a race and add a few more relays to the mix.” This is her largest team yet with over 100 swimmers to manage.

Shore dominated the individual freestyle events in all age groups as they were able to capture 22 wins to Lock Haven’s three. The 14-and-under girls had a particular strong showing as Shore’s Hannah Runtas, Rachel Duda, and Olivia Bellomo went 1-2-3 in the 50 yard freestyle. Several events later, it was another 1-2-3 finish with Runtas, Sapphire Naugle, and Bellomo in the 100 yard freestyle.

Lock Haven’s William Logan and Dale Nolan were all that prevented a Shore sweep in the individual freestyle events. Logan was able to hold off Jersey Shore swimmer, Dylan Fox in a sprint for the finish in the 10-and-under 50 freestyle by 87/100s of a second. Nolan captured the 50 and 500 yard freestyle. The Loggerheads almost picked up another win as Michele Haftl came within 63/100s of second of out-touching Shore’s Olivia Edler in the 12-and-under 50 yard freestyle.

The final freestyle relays were equally dominated by Jersey Shore, winning 6 out of 7. The 8-and-under girls took all 3 top spots in the 100 freestyle relay. Lock Haven’s sole win came with David Orndorf, Riccardo James, Logan Williams, and Thomas Haftl touching the wall first by 17/100s of a second over Shore’s Dylan Fox, Jared Connor, Theron Sorgen, and Nash Berfield in the 10-and-under boys 200 yard freestyle relay.

Jersey Shore finished the day with a 10-0 win over Lock Haven and swim next on January 22 against Bellefonte at Lock Haven University’s Zimmerli Pool. Lock Haven’s next match-up is at Bloomsburg on January 29.