Countdown to WPIALs: Mars’ Andrew Pierre excels in distance freestyle events

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 | 6:24 PM

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Tribune-Review sports reporter Michael Love and the TribLive High School Sports Network will be profiling 10 swimmers to watch leading up to the 2018 WPIAL championship meet, set for March 1-2 at the Pitt's Trees Pool.

TRIBHSSN is the exclusive audio and video home for the WPIAL Class AAA and AA championship meets, which will be broadcasted and video streamed live at TribHSSN.triblive.com.

Here is the fourth installment of a 10-part series featuring some of the area's top swimmers.

Andrew Pierre

School: Mars

Class: Junior

Events: 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle; 200 medley relay; 400 free relay.

2017 WPIAL results: 200 freestyle, 2nd (1:45.23); 500 freestyle, 3rd (4:44.56); 200 freestyle relay, 10th (1:34.89); 400 freestyle relay, 5th (3:25.14).

Andrew Pierre finished second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 500 freestyle at last year's WPIAL Class AA championships at Pitt's Trees Pool.

He was the highest finisher among underclassmen in both events. While one might think that would mean a natural ascension to the top spot in both, Pierre knows others also are after the same gold-medal accolades.

It makes for a competitive race to the championship.

“Andrew knows that there are others, including some sophomores and freshmen, that have the same championship goals,” Mars coach Todd Slobodnyak said.

“He has a target on his back, and he accepts that. He's training hard and taking nothing for granted. It's not an easy task to win two (individual titles) at WPIALs, but he's going to give it his best shot. He has a lot of work still to do before WPIALs.”

Pierre also advanced to last year's PIAA championships in both individual events, and he earned an eighth-place medal in the 500 free while taking 15th in the 200 free.

“Andrew is very motivated to train. He has pushed his body hard and is feeling it,” Slobodnyak said. “He has started tapering, and with some good rest, he expects to feel good and hit some best times.”

Pierre also helped the Mars 400 free relay team capture a fifth-place medal in 2017. The quartet dropped six seconds off their seed time to finish in 3:25.14.

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

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