Plum’s Taylor continues setting swimming records

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, March 19, 2018 | 11:00 PM

Devan Taylor now is on the Plum swimming record board in three places.

She added the 200-yard individual medley record in January, became part of the 200 medley relay record holders at the WPIAL Class AAA championships earlier this month and lowered her school-record time in the 100 breaststroke last week at the PIAA championships at Bucknell.

Taylor's 100 breast record of 1 minute, 4.13 seconds came in the preliminaries and lifted her to the championship heat (top eight).

In the finals, she swam a 1:04.47 and finished eighth.

“I just wanted to go out in the finals and have some fun,” Taylor said. “I had such a great (prelim) swim here and at WPIALs. Honestly, I was just going out there for the fun of it . I wanted to see if I could finish (as best as possible), and whatever happened happened.”

Taylor's eighth in the 100 breast came after a 19th in the event at states as a freshman and a 23rd last year. She set the 100 breast school record for the first time as a freshman and has bettered it several times since then.

“I'm really feeling a lot of excitement,” Taylor said. “It shows me that all the hard work has paid off.”

She also was the third WPIAL finisher behind runner-up Laura Goettler, a sophomore, from Butler (1:01.80) and Moon junior Leah Baker (fourth, 1:02.90).

Taylor also came within 0.04 seconds of bettering her record in the 200 IM. She lowered her seed time — a 2:09.97 from WPIALs — and finished 22nd (2:09.68).

“This year was more than I could ask for, and I am looking forward to seeing what I can do next year,” Taylor said.

Plum coach Shawn Haupt said he was excited to see Taylor swim so well.

“It's just so rewarding to finally see her up on that podium,” Haupt said. “To see her so excited, that's what its all about. You work so hard all year so you can feel good at big meets like this.”

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

Tags: Plum