Hampton swimmers have strong showing at WPIAL meet

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, March 4, 2018 | 11:25 PM

The realignments for next season recently were released, and perhaps nobody was looking more than the underclassmen of the Hampton boys swimming team.

Many of the seniors who made states their freshman or sophomore seasons in Class AA did not compete last year in Hershey after the jump to Class AAA.

The bad news came first: Hampton is the smallest team in Class AAA. The good news came after: The Hampton boys performed well at the WPIAL championships Friday and Saturday.

“The boys were really incredible,” coach Morgan Zweygardt said. “They all improved significantly. They really stepped up.”

Perhaps no one improved more than senior Brett Schieb, who finished sixth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4 minutes, 44.92 seconds — six seconds better than his seed time.

“He got on the podium, so that was really cool with him being a senior,” Zweygardt said. “He checked the AA results, and he would have won with that time. He's happy to just make the top eight. It's a huge accomplishment.”

Schieb also scored for his team in the 200 individual medley, finishing 15th.

Drew Schieb, Brett's younger brother, who squeaked into WPIALs as a freshman last season, scored in one of the toughest events of the meet. He finished 15th in the 100 freestyle in 48.33. Senior Jack Lindquist finished a solid career at 24th in the same event in 49.19.

The boys 400 freestyle relay featuring the Scheib brothers, Lindquist and sophomore Matthew Belch also exceeded expectations with an 11th- place after being seeded 16th.

“We scored way more this year in the boys side,” Zweygardt said.

The girls were headlined by freshman Catie Kress, who placed ninth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:17.42. She appears to have a promising career in front of her.

“She just had an incredible meet,” Zweygardt said.

Freshmen Julia Adamczyk, Richie Donato and Ethan Apaliski qualified for the championships this year, giving both teams high hopes for next year and beyond.

“I look at it more how they're doing personally,” Zweygardts aid. “Especially as freshmen and underclassmen. I think about the years to come, what we can do to improve and make a statement for Hampton swimming in the WPIAL.”

Devon Moore is a freelance writer.

Tags: Hampton