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Seneca Valley Swimming and Diving

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11

Dec, 2020

SV Battles at Exhibition Meet

SV traveled to section rival North Allegheny to compete in a pre-season exhibition meet.  Although, the results won't count in the standings, the diving scores and swimming times count as official results.  Special thanks to NA for hosting us and to the coaches and athletic directors who worked so hard to give our kids the chance to compete!

Girls Meet Recap:

The first meet of the season kicked off at North Allegheny last Friday night with Diving to start the meet. SV Diver Ashley Felitsky qualified for WPIALs with a score of 208.40 points. Riley Smith narrowly missed qualifying with 189.25 points.

On the swimming side, the Girls 200 Medley A relay of Ria Dietz, Carly Brunello, Bella Kling and Kristen Bedell finished 2nd, the B relay of Taryn Wilson, Sydney Sweger, Dilini Ranaweera and McKenzie Van Iddekinge was 5th and the C relay of Sloan Meyers, Eva Carney, Emma Kreber, and Delaney Molinero. Next up was the 200 Free where Abby Perry came in 2nd with a WPIAL qualifying time of 1:56.54. Cara Della Toffalo place 5th with a WPIAL qualifying time as well of 2:01.73.

The 200 IM followed with Kendal Craig, Peri Gaguzis, and Edie Sawyer all achieving their cut WPIAL cut times.  Kendall Craig placed 2nd with a 2:05.53, Peri Gaguzis was 4th with a 2:08.94, and Edie Sawyer was 6th with a 2:12.41. NA has a strong group of girls in the 50 Free who swept the event by taking first, second and third. SV swimmers Annabel Morrisard (4th), Kristen Bedell (5th), and McKenzie Van Iddekinge swam well but fell just short of achieving cuts.

After the break was the 100 Fly with Ria Dietz placing 3rd with a 58.97, which was good enough for her 1st individual WPIAL cut of the season. Freshman Bella Kling swam a personal best time of 1:02.45 which placed 5th and Carly Brunello was not too far behind her with a 1:04.46.

Seneca Valley’s first win of the night came in the 100 Free, where Senior Kendall Craig dropped a 53.36 for her 2nd WPIAL cut. Joining her in the event as well was Junior Cara Della Toffalo and Bella Stefanowicz. The 2nd win of the night belonged to Peri Gaguzis in the 500 with a WPIAL cut time of 5:11:01. Abby Perry came in 3rd and picked up her second WPIAL cut time of 5:20.74. Emma Kreber almost punched her ticket as well going 5:28.95.

The SV 200 Free A relay of Kendall Craig, Taryn Wilson, Peri Gaguzis, and Abby Perry was able to narrowly secure 2nd place. The B relay of Kristen Bedell, Delaney Molinero, Emma Kreber, and Cara Della Toffalo finished in 5th place and the C Relay team of McKenzie Van Iddekinge, Sloan Meyers, Bryn Carney and Eva Carney came in 6th. Up next was a 1-2 punch in the 100 Back with Ria Dietz winning with a 58.71 and Annabel Morrisard coming in 2nd with 1:00.05, both WPIAL cut times. Bella Kling hit another best time with a 1:02.96 and Dilini Ranaweera touched in 1:07.84 in her second even.

The highlight of the meet was Edie Sawyer’s win in the 100 Breast with a new SV School Record of 1:04.45. The previous record was held by Kelly Connolly since 2006. Carly Brunello also celebrated because she snagged her first WPIAL cut of the season with a 1:11.48. Sydney Sweger’s 1:14.87 just off the 1:12.00 qualifying time.

Rounding out the meet was the 400 Free Relay where the A Relay of Bella Stefanowicz, Peri Gaguzis, Cara Della Toffalo, and Kendall Craig finished 2nd. The B Relay of Kristen Bedell, Abby Perry, Taryn Wilson, and Delaney Molinaro came in 5th and the C Relay of Annabel Morrisard, Bryn Carney, Eva Carney and Sloan Meyers placed 6th.

SV Boys recap

The Boys dove alongside the Girls at the beginning of the meet with Matt Laslavic and Trevor Elliott qualifying for WPIALS with scores of 193.80 and 185.40 respectively. Diving in his first meet ever, Sam Hersick had a strong showing and placed 5th.

Switching to the swim side, the Boys 200 Medley A Relay of Owen Tekelenburg, Logan Hockenberry, Gavin Blazer and Brian Whitney captured 2nd and the B Relay of Danny Kane, Zach Cox, Alexander Kim and Connor Anderson came in 5th place.

In the 200 Free, Kevin Donaldson claimed 1st with a 1:44.50 and Renhan Xu swam a personal best of a 1:48.89 which was good for 3rd place. Matt Stevens came in 6th with a 1:51.46, which means all 3 boys qualified for WPIALs. Not to be outdone, Daniel Simoes and Haihan Xu scorched 1st and 2nd place finishes in the 200 IM. Daniel lowered his own SV School record by a half second down to 1:52.25 and Haihan’s 1:55.26 was a personal best by over 2 seconds! Connor Seeley’s 2:08.43 almost joined the boys in qualifying for WPIALs but just missed the qualifying time as 2:08.00. The 3 SV sprinters Brian Whitney (24.06), Zach Cox (24.30), and Danny Kane (25.99) fought hard in the 50 Free, but the NA boys were too strong and swept that event like they did on the girl’s side.

The 100 Fly saw personal best times for Gavin Blazer (52.86) and Logan Hockenberry (1:00.22) and Alexander Kim went 1:06.49 in his first high school swim. This was Gavin’s 1st WPIAL cut of the season. Up next was the 100 Free where SV took the top 2 spots again, with Daniel Simoes taking 1st with a 47.22 and Kevin Donaldson was 2nd with a 48.39. Both swims were good enough to qualify for WPIALs. Noah Petersen was the 3rd SV swimmer in the event and touched just under a minute with a 59.73.

The SV Boys had a tough task in the 500 Free as they were up again 3 strong swimmers from NA. Renhan Xu, Matt Stevens and Connor Anderson put up a good fight, with Renhan and Matt achieving their 2nd WPIAL cuts with times of 4:55.97 and 4:57.98 respectively.

The 2nd Relay of the night was the 200 Free Relay where the SV A Relay of Daniel Simoes, Brian Whitney, Danny Kane and Renhan Xu finished 3rd and the B Relay of Kevin Donaldson, Alexander Kim, Noah Petersen and Connor Anderson finished 5th.

The 100 Back was a tough battle all the way down to the final stroke, and although SV swimmers couldn’t pull out the win, both Connor Seeley (57.10) and Gavin Blazer (57.63) were able to secure WPIAL cuts in the event. Owen Tekelenburg was the 3rd SV swimmer in the event and he was a finger nail away from the 58.40 qualifying time with 58.56.

Hiahan Xu also had a battle in the 100 Breaststroke that came down to the last stroke. Although he wasn’t able to come out with the win, Haihan smashed his own 100 Breaststroke School Record by lowering it to 57.65 from 59.46. The biggest smile of the night came only a few seconds later when Logan Hockenberry touch the wall at 1:03.15 and got his first ever WPIAL cut. Zach Cox was the 3rd SV swimmer in the event and he finished with a time of 1:07.88.

The meet concluded with the 400 Free Relay, where the A Relay of Kevin Donaldson, Gavin Blazer, Haihan Xu, and Daniel Simoes finished just behind NA’s A Relay team. The B Relay team of Daniel Kane, Alexander Kim, Matt Stevens and Connor Anderson finished in 5th and the C Relay team of Brian Whitney, Owen Tekelenburg, Connor Seeley and Noah Petersen touch 6th.

The meet was run as an exhibition contest so no scoring was done. The SV Raiders will return to take on the Tigers on February 4th for a Section meet.

Full meet results

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