Sports
State Champs! Villa Maria Swims to PIAA AA Title
Hurricanes used stellar finals finishes to become the best in Pennsylvania.
Villa Maria has a new state championship trophy for the display cases outside of the school's gymnasium.
While many felt the next piece of hardware from the PIAA would belong to the Hurricanes' stellar basketball program, it was the school's swim team that garnered the gold medals on Thursday to be crowned the best in Pennsylvania during the finals held at Bucknell University.
Villa used a big day in the pool to finish with 178.5 points and the PIAA AA Swimming and Diving Championships team title, outswimming West Allegheny, who finished with 145 points. In previous years, the Hurricanes had finished no higher than fourth in state competition.
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The list of accomplishments for Cathy Hay's swimmers was impressive. Among them were:
- Sarah Hitchens, first place in 100-yard freestyle in 51.45. Teammates Molly O'Brien and Julia Wisler were 11th an 15th with a time of 53.46. and 54.15, respectively. Hitchens outdistanced second-place finisher Adrianna Grabski of Mifflinburg, who had a time of 51.66.
- Olivia Tierney, second place on the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:06:08, trailing winner Madison Burns of Northwest Lehigh's time of 1:03.72.
- The 400 freestyle relay team of O'Brien, Wisler Julia Murphy and Hitchens who were first with a time of 3:32.30. The Villa squad bested West Allegheny's time of 3:32.88.
During Thursday's preliminary rounds, Hitchens was fourth in the 100 freestyle with a 52.62, O'Brien was 12th in 53.84, Wisler 13th in 54.14.
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The 500 freestyle prelims saw Rachel Law at 27th with a time of 5:27.53 and Lauren Law at the 32nd spot in 35.47.
Kaitlin Alvanos finished 19th in the 100-yard backstroke with a 1:01.64 finish and Tierney was sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke preliminaries with a 1:06.071.
Brien, Wisler, Murphy and Hitchens took the 400 freestyle prelims with a time of 3:34.16, edging West Allegheny who swam the event in 3:34.98.
The Villa swimming team dedicated the state title to Hay's husband, John, an assistant coach for the Hurricanes, who passed away last year.
