Freeport Area swimmers in good position to make waves at WPIALs

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 | 8:35 PM

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The Freeport Area girls swim team earned a fifth-place finish at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A championship meet at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

A major piece from that team, Alexis Schrecongost, graduated and now is swimming for Division I Toledo.

But many of the other key members of the team return — defending WPIAL 100-yard butterfly champion Kira Schrecongost, along with junior Caitlyn Brennan and sophomores Isabella Barton, Danielle Parke and Mary Ann Altman — and the group is eyeing another strong showing at this year’s WPIAL meet in three weeks.

“The girls are getting more and more excited as WPIALs gets closer,” Freeport coach Cheryl Schrecongost said. “We put up a pretty good fight in the dual meets. We don’t always have as many numbers as the opposing teams, for both boys and girls, but we put up a good fight. Coming out of all of the meets, they feel really confident.”

Kira Schrecongost, a sophomore, said she is in good position, with some rest and fine tuning, to surpass her school record in the 100-yard butterfly, a 56.09 seconds set in winning at last year’s WPIAL meet, and produce some top swims overall.

“I think I have gotten so much better with my training over the past year,” she said. “I am much more confident in myself and how fast I can go. The atmosphere at WPIALs last year was so intense, and the experience I had there last year will really help me. There will still be some pressure, but this time, it is the pressure of defending my (100 fly) title and trying to go faster.”

Schrecongost owns a top-three Class 2A time this year in the 100 fly, a 57.55 last Saturday at the Mark Hess Invitational at IUP.

“I was right on my best time at a club meet back in December, so I am confident that I can better it at WPIALs,” said Schrecongost, who again expects great challenges to her title from the likes of South Park junior Katelyn Jackovic and Quaker Valley junior Emily Connors.

Jackovic and Connors were second and third in the 100 fly at WPIALs last year, and both went sub 57 seconds.

She said she is close to the 200 individual medley school record, which is not much faster than the 2:08.86 she swam in earning a silver medal at WPIALs last year.

The record is 2:08.54 set by Bria Otwell in 2013 as the then-sophomore captured her second straight WPIAL 200 IM crown.

Schrecongost’s best time this year is a 2:09.09 (fifth) recorded Feb. 6 against Indiana.

She again will swim four times — two individual events and two relays — on the first day of WPIALs. She doubled that last year at states as she was a part of four finals swims in the evening of Day 1 after four preliminary swims earlier in the day.

The goal for Freeport, as it is for every WPIAL team, is to get as many swimmers to states as possible. Brennan, Barton and Parke also swam at Bucknell last year in the relays. Each owns a pair of automatic cuts in individual events.

Brennan earned her cuts — 1:03.24 (13th) in the 100 back and 1:02.04 (16th) in the 100 fly — at a section meet with Indiana on Feb. 6.

Barton achieved her two automatic cuts — 2:04.60 in the 200 free (25th) and 5:38.81 in the 500 free (28th) — at a dual meet with Northgate on Jan. 13. Parke owns automatic cuts in the 100 breast (23rd, 1:13.40) and 200 IM (40th, 2:23.27) from the Indiana dual meet.

Altman’s automatic cut in the 100 free (57.78) came at Indiana.

Freeport’s top two girls relays earned silver and bronze at WPIALs last year, and they are poised to be in the mix again.

The 200 medley relay is the fourth-fastest in Class 2A with an automatic cut of 1:54.09, while the 200 free relay is seventh (1:44.90).

“We were excited against Indiana when we went best times in our relays,” Kira Schrecongost said. “We’re all working together to make sure we have all of our starts and transitions where we need them to be to go faster at WPIALs.”

Swimmers across the board have gone fast in Class 2A this season. A number of top teams dropped down to Class 2A, increasing the competitiveness for WPIALs and upping the number of automatic qualifiers in each event.

Automatic cuts in several events have surpassed 32 entries, some by more than 20.

Swimmers with automatic cuts in more than two events will scratch out of those extra events, lowering the number of automatic qualifiers.

WPIAL swim committee chairman Dave Babik, the head coach at Penn-Trafford, said the committee is in the process of deciding if it will hold fast to the 32-entry limit for each WPIAL event it set before the season or open up the field to include the extra automatic qualifiers in each event.

Sophomore Nate Tarbi, who missed most of the season with a back injury, returned to the pool and posted a pair of boys automatic cuts at the Mark Hess Invitational.

He is 28th on the 100 free performance list (51.02) and 30th (23:15) on the 50 free list.

Both swims broke school records. The previous 50 free mark was 23.72 from 2005, and he surpassed his own 100 free record from last year (51.03) when he placed 15th in the event at WPIALs.

“All of the kids had a great meet (on Saturday at IUP), and they will be working hard the next few weeks to be fierce in the water at WPIALs,” coach Schrecongost 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: Freeport