The 2022 PIAA Swimming Championships are slated to begin this week at Kinney Natatorium located on the campus of Bucknell University.
For the Riverside Panthers, winners of WPIAL Gold in the 200 and 400-yard Freestyle relay events among others earlier this month, they will look to showcase its talent at the championships that begin with Class 2A prelims Friday.
Head coach Bill Valli is very excited and optimistic about the chances of the athletes to reach Saturday’s finals.
Both relay teams are seed first in their respective 200-yard and 400-yard freestyles. Each relay team will compete in the heat four of the prelims.
“Seed times at the state level especially for relays don’t carry a lot of weight,” says Valli.
“At our WPIAL championships we compete against almost 50 teams. In order to get on the podium you have to be your best. Many other districts have a fraction of the number of teams as the WPIAL.”
Valli adds that coaches have the freedom to be more creative with their line ups and relays.
“Some of the relays we face at states will have completely different members competing in them than the ones that achieved the seed time from districts.”
Individually, seniors Alexander Roth and Ryan Turner are seeded in the top ten in both of their events. Each are competing in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle events.
“If they swim well in preliminaries they should each have a good shot at making finals later in the day,” says Valli.
Joeseph Roth is seeded third in the 50-yard freestyle and first in the 100-yard backstroke.
“We feel pretty good about his chances of making finals in both events,” adds Valli.
Roth, a 6’8″ sophomore, set a WPIAL record in the 100-yard backstroke earlier this month with an impressive 50.00 flat time, breaking his own record set just last year, and also took gold in the 50-yard freestyle (21.28).
Michael Styn is seeded back around 28th in the 500-yard freestyle but, according to Valli, may move up in the standing considerably if he can drop some time.
“These races will come down to fractions of a second,” concludes Valli. “They almost always do.”
Watch the PIAA Swimming Championships LIVE on March 16-19 on cable and streaming on PCN Select. Stream the PIAA Diving Championship Finals LIVE with PCN Select. Pre-recorded Diving Finals will follow on cable.
WEBSITE: www.pcntv.com/swim
Be the first to comment on "Panthers Set to Compete At PIAA Swimming Championships"