Times at WPIALs earn Westmoreland County swimmers spot at state meet

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 | 5:45 PM

The PIAA on Tuesday released the automatic and at-large time qualifying lists for the Class AAA and AA swimming championships, set for March 14-17 at Bucknell.

Several Westmoreland County swimmers already knew they would be competing at states as they automatically qualified with a top-three finish in Class AAA or top-four finish in Class AA at the WPIAL meet last week.

Others had to wait to see if their times were good enough to earn a PIAA at-large berth. After the 16 automatic spots for each individual and relay event, eight more relays and 16 more individuals were selected based on times at district meets throughout the state.

In boys Class AA, Greensburg Salem's William Crites (200-yard freestyle), Derry's Caleb Rullo (100 butterfly, 100 free) and Yough's Noah Gebadlo (100 backstroke) earned trips to states based on time.

The same can be said for the Hempfield 200 medley relay and 200 free relay, the Penn-Trafford 400 free relay, Franklin Regional's Patrick Cavanaugh (200 IM, 100 breaststroke), Norwin's Ethan Tulenko (50 free), Penn-Trafford's Luke Babik (50 free) and Hempfield's Gavin Mayo (100 free) and Todd Wilson (100 breast) in boys Class AAA.

PIAA time qualifiers for girls Class AAA are Hempfield's Zoey Wilson (200 free) and Maddy Cisco (50 free), Franklin Regional's Abigail Ramey (200 IM, 100 breast) and Penn-Trafford's Hannah Muro (50 free, 100 back).

The Franklin Regional girls 400 free relay is a first alternate. If a relay above it scratches out or is otherwise unable to compete, the Panthers quartet will get the call.

The automatic and time lists originally were to be posted Sunday afternoon, but bad weather postponed the completion of a couple of district championship meets on the eastern side of the state.

The qualifying lists can be found at piaa.org. The final seeding lists for each event will be released in the coming days after all the scratch decisions have been made.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @mlove_Trib.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield Area, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Yough