Mt. Pleasant’s King is queen of the PIAA 50 freestyle, with a record time

By: Michael Love
Friday, March 18, 2022 | 10:30 PM

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LEWISBURG – Mt. Pleasant freshman Lily King familiarized herself with the top of a swimming medals podium at the WPIAL Class 2A championships earlier this month.

She was there four times in the 50 and 100-yard freestyles and also as part of the Vikings’ 200 free and 400 free relays.

King found herself there again Friday as she swam to a state championship in the 50 free with a state-record time of 22.66 seconds. The No. 1 overall seed bettered her WPIAL-winning time of 22.74.

The previous state record, 22.91, was set in 2013 by Villa Maria Academy’s Sarah Hutchens.

“It’s anyone’s race, especially one as fast as the 50 free,” King said. “I was so happy with the results I saw when I looked up to the board. All the other girls in that heat were just amazing. I am happy for my results, and happy for them as well.”

Before her 50, King swam as the freestyle anchor of the 200 medley relay and recorded a 22.02 split as the relay, also with Reegan Brown, SaraJo Gardner and McKenna Mizikar, took second in a time of 1 minute, 46.89 seconds.

“Swimming the relay earlier kind of got me familiarized with the pool,” King said. “I could work with the bulkhead and get my turns down. We also were really supporting each other throughout the race, and it really got me pumped up. I was glad I had that before my 50. ”

The medley relay cut 2.5 seconds from its WPIAL time of 1:49.46.

“We all got faster splits from this morning, and we got our best time, so that’s always good,” Gardner said. “Obviously, we were going for gold, but we’re still happy with how we did.”

Southmoreland junior Henry Miller joined King in the state-title club as he captured gold in the 100 fly. He came into states seeded sixth after finishing as the runner-up at WPIALs in a time of 51.04.

In his finals race Friday, he finished with a time of 49.83.

“With a positive outlook, I am looking to win always,” said Miller, who is the second seed for the 100 breaststroke on Saturday. “Coming in as the sixth seed, to drop 1.5 seconds in the prelims and to win it now, I couldn’t be any more happy with this day. I felt good the whole way. My race was solid. It’s been such a great time so far.”

The boys 200 medley relay was a reunion of sorts as five of the eight teams in the championship heat were from the WPIAL.

The Mt. Pleasant quartet of freshmen David Mutter and Joseph Gardner, sophomore Logan Snively and senior Joe Barrick led the way with a runner-up finish in a school-record time of 1:36.18. They edged out Hampton (1:37.15) by a half second for the silver medal.

The Vikings dropped almost two seconds from their WPIAL runner-up finish and bumped up one spot from the third overall seed.

“The race felt really amazing,” said Barrick, the relay’s anchor. “All of the hard work we put in the past two weeks since WPIALs really paid off in the end. I am really proud of all my teammates and for what we got today.”

North Catholic placed fourth (1:38.83). Northgate and Laurel Highlands tied for seventh with times of 1:39.52.

Saturday’s Class 2A boys preliminaries begin at 7:50 a.m., with the girls prelims to follow at 10:25.

The boys consolation and championship finals will be at 4:20 p.m., and the girls finals will begin at 6:50.

Class 2A boys diving

Ligonier Valley senior Nick Roddy missed out on a chance to dive at the Class 2A state championships as a sophomore in 2020 as the PIAA canceled the entire Class 2A meet at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, as the pandemic continued to toy with winter sports, Roddy decided to forgo his junior diving season and concentrate on gymnastics.

Roddy’s return to diving this year resulted in gold at the WPIAL championships Feb. 25 at North Allegheny, and Friday afternoon at Bucknell, he produced 11 dives which resulted in a second-place silver medal with 406.45 points.

“At times, I regret not competing last year, but coming back, it all worked out really well in the end,” said Roddy, who was third after the first round of five dives and also third after the three-dive semifinals.

“I am glad to have had this one final opportunity to go for it all at WPIALs and here at states.”

Susquehannock senior Max Pflieger, runner-up at states last year at Cumberland Valley, took the title with 412.75 points.

Roddy executed a back one-and-one-half somersault with a one-and-one-half twist on his final dive. The 2.5 degree of difficulty allowed him to gain a significant amount of points and overtake Cathedral Prep senior Vincent Kloecker for second place.

“I was definitely super consistent, except for one dive, my double twist, that I screwed up a little bit. My coach always says to take it one dive at a time, and that is what I did,” Roddy said.

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: Mt. Pleasant