In the pool profile: Seneca Valley’s Edie Sawyer hoping for senior success before heading to Ohio University

By: Michael Love
Sunday, January 3, 2021 | 11:26 PM

Edie Sawyer made the most of her one December swim meet.

In the 100-yard breaststroke against Section 2-AAA rival North Allegheny, the Seneca Valley senior established a school record with a time of 1 minute, 4.45 seconds. The time surpassed the previous record of 1:05.07 set in 2006 by Kelly Connolly, a 2007 graduate who went on to have a standout collegiate career at Clarion.

“I was really excited when I looked up at the board and saw that I had broken the record,” said Sawyer, who gave a verbal commitment to Division I Ohio over the summer and finalized her decision during the National Letter of Intent early-signing period in November.

“That record has been a goal of mine since I was a freshman. To be able to finally accomplish that goal, especially with it being the first meet of the season, it was a good start.”

Sawyer said the record, and simply being able to compete with her teammates that evening, was a good lead-in to the rest of the season despite the several weeks of shutdown that denied them practices and a couple of competition opportunities.

“It’s been tough,” Sawyer said of the stoppage of team activities under the orders Gov. Tom Wolf issued Dec. 10 as part of overall mitigation efforts to stop covid-19 spread.

“We were all resting and tapering down for the first couple of dual meets we had scheduled so we could get good seed times for WPIALs. The shutdown, when it happened, kind of threw everyone off a little bit. We were so lucky to get our first meet in, for sure. We’ve been doing individual dryland (workouts) and working out on our own to be ready when practices and meets resume and we can get back into the groove of things.”

The shutdown is to end Monday, and teams will be focused on getting up to speed for season competitions.

Seneca Valley coach Brian Blackwell said he does not know when his team’s first meet back will be. A meet with Pine-Richland originally scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed.

The WPIAL and PIAA are preparing to further discuss a number of issues related to governing the remainder of the 2020-21 season, including the logistics of how to stage both the WPIAL and PIAA championships.

“There is still so much uncertainty, but we all hope that we can go back and continue working towards the championships (meets),” Sawyer said. “We’re just trying to stay positive we can have the season in a safe way with all of the (covid) protocols in place.”

Sawyer, who joins senior teammate Kendall Craig (Akron) as Division I commits, said she is confident she can lower her time in 100 breast before the end of the season.

She also is on the record board as part of the 200 medley relay team which set the school all-time mark last year. She is hopeful the team can lower that mark this season.

Sawyer, who also swims regularly for the Seneca Valley Swim Club and is a past junior nationals qualifier, earned a pair of WPIAL medals last year. She finished sixth in the 100 breast, and the 200 medley relay took fourth.

The medley relay went on to place eighth at the PIAA meet in Hershey. She missed a trip to states in the 100 breast by 33 one-hundredths of a second.

Sawyer finished 13th at states in the 100 breast as a sophomore.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Seneca Valley