Diving
The 3A PIAA Diving Championships started off with the Boys on Wednesday afternoon beginning the preliminary round of diving in a field of 24 amazing divers from the state. After 5 rounds, a cut was made to the field, to 20, both Trevor and Matthew advanced to the semi finals in 16th and 17th places respectively. After the 8th round of dives, cutting to 16 divers, Trevor was just above the bubble at 15th, advancing him to the final 3 rounds. Sadly, but not without his strong efforts, Matthew did not quite capture the opportunity to show his last 3 dives. He finished in the 18th spot. Trevor, with all his grace and focus placed 15th in the state overall for his Seneca Valley team. So happy for these boys and their accomplishments. At WPIALS, previous year as sophomores, 13th and 14th to this year as juniors, 2nd and 5th earning a trip to the state championship meet. Can't wait to see where they'll go next year!
Patiently waiting to show her talents, Kenzie began her diving competition Thursday afternoon. Here for her 2nd time at states in her very short 3 year diving career, she was in a field of 24 girls vying to be the best of the best. Kenzie performed her dives beautifully. Passing from prelims into the semi final round in 19th position, she was faced with the challenge of coming from behind to get into the finals round. So with a heavy heart, we left the last 3 rounds bottled up and ready for the beginning of her college career at Penn State. Kenzie finished 17th overall. Seneca Valley has been blessed by her talents these 2 years and amazing accomplishments in her fast paced diving path.
I congratulate our three state divers for all they brought to our team.
-Coach Nancy
Swimming
The 3A PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships started off with the Boys on Wednesday morning with the 200 Medley Relay. Coming off of a 2nd place finish at WPIALs, the boys were seeded 4th after the morning session heading into finals. The relay team of Owen Blazer, Haihan Xu, Daniel Simoes and Kevin Donaldson set a new school record (1:33.29) and finished 4th.
Daniel Simoes and Haihan Xu had a quick turnaround from the relay with the 200 IM up next. Daniel set a new school record in the 200 IM by improving his seed time in prelim (1:52.76) and took home 8th place at finals. Shortly after the IM Daniel was back up again for the 100 Fly in which he took 16th place.
Owen Blazer also swam the 100 Fly and dropping even more time from his WPIAL Championship swim, placing 2nd in a new school record time of 47.95.
The Girl’s session opened with the SV Girls not wanting to be outdone, with hopes of their Medley relay making the top 8 final like the boys. Seeded 11th, they had a chance, but it would require an improvement in time for sure. The relay of Ria Dietz, Edie Sawyer, Julia Listwak and Kendall Craig dropped just enough time to edge their way into the final by dropping .32 off their seed time. They returned at night to crush their morning time with a new school record of 1:45.72 and taking home 8th place.
With the only individual swim for the girls, Kendall Craig was up next in the 200 IM. She fought the entire race and ended with a 7th place finish, which was Seneca Valley’s 1st individual medal at PIAA’s in the past 10 years.
Day 2 looked to be a big day for SV, with Kevin Donaldson in the 100 Free, Owen Blazer as the top seed in the 100 Back, Haihan Xu in the 100 Breast, and the Boys 400 Free Relay seeded 5th. Owen Blazer was out at the 50 with the fastest split of the morning and cruised his way to the 3rd seed for finals. The Boys 400 Free relay of Kevin Donaldson, Daniel Simoes, Max Skeen and Owen Blazer had a fantastic morning swim, which improved their seed time with a new school record of 3:07.38 and was seeded 6th for finals.
Kendall Craig’s 100 Free was the last swimming event for the girls. She was only a few tenths of her seed time, and ended up placing 22nd.
After eating lunch, the boys said goodbye to the girls since their meet was done, and returned to the hotel to rest up for finals. As soon as boys reached the hotel, they were met with the news that the PIAA decided to cancel the finals session due to scares of COVID-19. They were forced to accept the morning times as a timed final and told they would receive awards for the positions they currently held. A tragic end to a fantastic meet.
-Coach Brian