NORTH ALLEGHENY SPORTS NETWORK

Boys and Girls' Swimming

*GIRLS - WPIAL CO-CHAMPIONS*

*BOYS - WPIAL RUNNERUP*

*BOYS AND GIRLS - SECTION CHAMPIONS*

LADY TIGERS FINISH IN TIE FOR FIFTH PLACE IN PIAA MEET

* - Click here for PIAA Swimming and Diving results

Second Day Highlights:

Thanks to a strong fourth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay, the last event of the meet, the Lady Tigers finished in a tie for 5th place in the PIAA Championship meet at McCoy Natatorium at Penn State on Saturday.  Sophomore Kim Jenkins, freshman Kathy Faingold, senior Vanessa Maus, and junior Kelly Battle earned 4th-place points in the relay.  Junior Emily Tong finished in fourteenth place in the 100 backstroke.  Parkland was the team champion, followed by State College and Mt. Lebanon.

The boys' team was unable to add any team points to the total from yesterday and finished in a tie for 37th place.  The 400 free relay team swam to a 15th place in the final boys' event of the day.  North Penn was the team champion, followed by Parkland and Wilson.  Bethel Park was the top WPIAL team, finishing in 6th place.

First Day Highlights:

Coach Corky Semler's Lady Tigers are currently in a fifth-place tie at the PIAA Championships after one day of swimming at Penn State's McCoy Natatorium.  On Friday evening, the 200 freestyle relay team tied for fifth place to complete the day's swimming events.  Senior Vanessa Maus, freshman Kathy Faingold, junior Kelly Battle, and sophomore Kim Jenkins earned the highest NA finish of the day.

Junior Kelly Battle captured a sixth place in the 200 IM, the highest individual placing for the Lady Tigers.  Earning team points for NA was the 200 medley relay team with a sixth-place in the opening event.  Juniors Emily Tong and Kelly Battle, sophomore Katie Belardi, and senior Vanessa Maus picked up eighteen points for the Lady Tigers with their swim.  Sophomore Kim Jenkins finished ninth in the 200 freestyle and sixteenth in the 100 butterfly.

In the boys' competition, the 200 freestyle relay team of seniors Mike Semanchik, Stephen Shepard, Ryan Battle, and junior Scott Shearer picked up the only team points with an eleventh-place finish.  Semanchik was thirteenth in the 50 free, Shepard was sixteenth in the 100 free, and Battle was sixteenth in the 200 individual medley.  The Tigers are well back in the team standings, tied for 37th place after the first day's competition.

Diving: 

In diving competition on Thursday afternoon, Montour senior Cassidy Krug captured her third straight diving title.  Senior Emily Lutz of NA finished in 22nd place in the competition.  No NA diver qualified for the boys' competition.  Final results may be found on the PIAA results page.

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LADY TIGERS TIE FOR WPIAL TITLE, BOYS FINISH SECOND

WPIAL Meet Results (including ALL NA results)

In a meet that came down to the last event for both NA teams, Coach Corky Semler's Lady Tigers came away as co-champions of the WPIAL.  NA tied Mt. Lebanon with 176 points each.  In boys' competition, upstart Central Catholic won the 400 meter relay to win the championship with the Tigers finishing in second place.

On the second day of competition, junior Emily Tong won the bronze in the 100 backstroke, while junior Kelly Battle took home big team points with a fourth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.  The 400 freestyle relay team finished just behind Mt. Lebanon to earn second place in the event.  For the boys, junior Chris Arthur captured fifth place in the 100 backstroke with the 400 free relay team finishing in third place.

In the team standings, Mt. Lebanon's win over NA in the final event boosted them into a tie for the championship.  It is believed to be the first co-championship in WPIAL history.  Coach Semler was pleased with the effort by the Lady Tigers.  "My girls swam out of sight", said the Tiger mentor.  In the boys' meet, Central Catholic came from behind to edge out both NA and Bethel Park for the title.  It was the first WPIAL championship for the Oakland school.

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BOYS, GIRLS LEAD WPIAL SWIMMING AFTER FIRST DAY

Both Tiger swim teams are leading the scoring the scoring in the WPIAL Championships after one day of swimming at Trees Pool at the University of Pittsburgh.  The boys have a fifteen-point lead over Bethel Park, while the girls are in front of defending champion Mt. Lebanon, 114-108.  Senior Ryan Battle and sophomore Kim Jenkins led the way for NA.

In the boys' competition, Battle captured third place in the 200 individual medley and anchored the victorious 200 freestyle relay team.  Senior Mike Semanchik was second in the 50 freestyle while senior Steve Shepard took third in the 200 freestyle.  The Tigers' 200 medley relay picked up team points by finishing fifth.  Swimming for the first place 200 free relay team in addition to Battle were Semanchik, Shepard, and junior Scott Shearer.

For the Lady Tigers, Jenkins upset the top seed in the 200 freestyle, Ashley Kochanek of Mt. Lebanon, to take first place.   Jenkins came back to capture third in the 100 butterfly.  Junior Kelly Battle won the silver in the 200 individual medley.  Both relay teams earned points with the 200 medley squad finishing second and the 200 freestyle team coming in fourth.

The WPIAL championships will continue this afternoon at the University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool.  The Class AAA finals will start at 3:30 pm with finals in six events.  Events contested today are:  100 free, 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast, and 400 free relay.

NSN Sports will broadcast the meet LIVE on the internet.  We will more information and a link to the broadcasts when it is available.  We will have complete  results here on the website as soon as we receive them.

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LUTZ QUALIFIES FOR PIAA DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Senior Emily Lutz captured 6th place in the WPIAL Diving Championships at Pine-Richland on Saturday to qualify for the state finals at Penn State in March.  Sophomore Alex DeFazio finished in 10th place in the competition.  The top six finalists move on to the PIAA Championship.   Senior Cassidy Krug from Montour won her third straight title as she finished almost 100 points ahead of her nearest competitor, Lindsey Davis of Bethel Park.   

In the boys' competition, freshman Matt Kuhn narrowly missed qualifying as he finished in 7th place.  Kuhn was less than ten points from moving on to the PIAA finals.  Freshman Tyler Rosenberger captured 11th place in the competition.  With two freshman competing this well, things look good for NA diving in the future!  Junior Kevan Phillips of Gateway took first place with Dan Hornyak of Woodland Hills earning the silver.

The PIAA diving championships will be held on Thursday, March 13, at Penn State's McCoy Natatorium.  The WPIAL swimming championships will take place next Thursday and Friday at Trees Pool at the University of Pittsburgh.  We will have complete coverage of NA swimmers as they go for the gold!

WPIAL DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Pine-Richland High School

CLASS AAA - GIRLS

CLASS AAA - BOYS

(The top six in both boys and girls' competition advance to the PIAA Championships on March 13 at Penn State's McCoy Natatorium)

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BOTH TIGER TEAMS TAKE SECTION TITLE WITH WINS OVER SENECA VALLEY

The Tiger boys' swimming won their 13th consecutive section championship with a 99-87 victory over Seneca Valley on Thursday night at the Seneca pool.  The Lady Tigers ended three years of frustration as they had an easier time disposing of the Raiders in a 108-78 win to capture the section crown.  With the win, the boys' record improved to 5-0 in the final section standings, 8-2 overall.  For the Lady Tigers, it was 5-0 in section meets and 9-1 overall.  

The Lady Tigers won six of eleven races, including the three relay races.  In the 200 medley relay, Denise Burwinkel, Kathy Faingold, Katie Belardi, and Vanessa Maus got NA off an running with a victory.  Later, the 200 free relay, comprised of Maus, Battle, Faingold, and Kim Jenkins, took first place.  In the final event of the meet, the 400 free relay, the team of Maus, Sara Korenich, Jenkins, and Kelly Battle closed out Seneca Valley with a win.

Individually, sophomore Kim Jenkins won both the 200 free and 100 fly, while junior Kelly Battle captured the 200 IM.  Picking up valuable second place points for the Lady Tigers were freshman Kathy Faingold in both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, senior Vanessa Maus in the 50 free, sophomore Katie Belardi in the 100 fly, sophomore Tara Thompson in the 500 free, and senior Denise Burwinkel in the 100 back.  Third place points were earned by senior Sara Korenich in both the 50 and 100 free, sophomore Lauren Holly in the 500 free, and Battle in the 100 breaststroke.

Seniors Ryan Battle and Steve Shepard paced the Tigers close win over the Raiders.  Battle won both the 100 fly and 100 back, while Shepard took first place in the 200 IM and second place in the 100 free.  Freshman Peter Cai won the 100 breaststroke.  The 400 free relay team of Kevin Gasperick, Ryan Battle, Craig Bentzen, and Scott Shearer won the last event of the meet to insure the victory.

Second and third-place points were crucial to NA.  Junior Chris Arthur finished second in both the 200 and 500 freestyle races, junior Scott Shearer took silver in the 50 free and 100 fly, while senior Lee McCarthy was second in the 100 back.  Senior Mike Semanchik added a third in the 200 free and freshman Patrick Kirsch finished third in the 100 breaststroke.

Up next for the swimmers, the WPIAL Championships.  The Class AAA Diving Championships will be held next weekend, February 14 and 15, at Pine-Richland High School.  The Class AAA Swimming Championships will be held at the University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool on Thursday and Friday, February 20 and 21.  The swimming finals were moved up a day because of basketball games being played on February 22.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NA SWIMMERS!!!!!

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WPIAL BOYS/GIRLS SWIMMING – 2002-03

The Tigers will compete in Class AAA once again, with 36 teams in the boys’ alignment and 33 teams in the girls’ alignment.

The WPIAL individual diving championships will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2003.  The swimming championship events will be held on the weekend of February 22, 2003, at the University of Pittsburgh Trees Pool.  The PIAA State Championship will be at Penn State University on March 13-14-15, 2003.

Section champions will be determined by the best won/lost record in section play.  In the case of a tie, head to head results will be the tiebreaker.  National Federation scoring system will be in effect.  That system scores 6-4-3-2-1, while relay scoring will be 8-4-2 in a six-land pool.

WPIAL CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING STANDARDS

1. Teams must have a minimum of 11 competitions (swimming and/or diving) prior to the WPIAL Meet, to be eligible to score points at the WPIAL or PIAA championships. 

2. Individuals must have been in uniform and available at 75% of the team contests to be eligible for post-season competition.

3. Swimming – in order to qualify for the WPIAL championship event at Pitt, all swimmers must achieve the minimum standards established by the WPIAL.  These standards must have been met in a WPIAL meet or in an individual qualifying meet that uses an electronic timing device.  Standards are available on the WPIAL website.

4. Diving – in order to qualify for the WPIAL diving competition, all divers must meet the minimum standards that appear on the WPIAL website.

BOYS’ CLASS AAA – 36 TEAMS

GIRLS’ CLASS AAA – 33 TEAMS