Fox Chapel swimmers start medal collection on 1st day of PIAA meet

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 | 9:49 PM

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Fox Chapel junior Sarah Pasquella swam a time of 1 minute, 51.08 seconds in the preliminaries of the girls 200-yard freestyle Wednesday on Day 1 of the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.

The time was identical to the one she swam in winning the WPIAL title Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

But Pasquella had designs on going faster in the championship heat in the evening.

That’s just what she did.

Pasquella, the third seed for the finals, swam to a personal-best 1:49.91 to earn third overall.

Her time was a half-second away from a silver medal.

“The support from everyone during my race was awesome,” said Pasquella, who will swim the 100 breaststroke and 400 free relay Thursday.

“Even when I was taking my breaths, I could see my team and my family in the stands. Everyone was cheering me on, and there was so much energy. That really helped me, and our whole team.

“It was a goal to get under that 1:50 mark.”

Pasquella later led off the Foxes’ 200 free relay with Josephine Stanczak, Charlotte Rusche and anchor Grace Kovach. The quartet trimmed 1.17 seconds from their prelim time and finished third (1:35.92).

Fox Chapel led a group of five WPIAL teams in the 200 free relay championship heat. North Allegheny was fifth, Mt. Lebanon sixth, Upper St. Clair seventh and Latrobe eighth.

“All of my teammates swam amazing before me, and that really motivated me to bring it home with a fast time,” Kovach said.

“It was really exciting to look up and see our time and see how much time we dropped. It is my first time on the podium at states, and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.”

Rusche, a freshman, made her PIAA debut and placed seventh in the consolation heat of the 200 free (1:55.38), putting her 15th overall.

The Fox Chapel 200 medley relay of Cameryn Brindza, Isabella Marcos, Margaret Rusche and Claudia Smith also took 15th overall and earned team points.

The Foxes sit in eighth place with 54 points heading into Thursday’s second day of action. North Allegheny is fourth (87 points), while Upper St. Clair is ninth (46), and Mt. Lebanon is tied for 10th (43).

On the boys side, Fox Chapel junior Christian Dantey found himself among a quartet of WPIAL stalwarts at the top of the seeding lineup for the Class 3A 200 free.

Four of the top five seeds were from the WPIAL.

Dantey, the WPIAL runner-up, hoped to drop time from his 1:39.45 Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

After adding time in the prelims to 1:40.28, he brought it back in the evening to place fourth overall with a time of 1:40.01.

“That wasn’t exactly how I wanted to perform today, but looking at it year to year, I see that I have improved,” said Dantey, the 12th seed for Thursday’s 100 breaststroke.

“I was still able to make the ‘A’ final and still able to earn a medal. There were positives I can take from this and know I have next year to go even faster.”

Dantey won last year’s 200 free consolation final and finished ninth overall, but he had the fifth-fastest time out of everyone in the consolation and championship heats combined.

Fox Chapel junior Owen Howell, like Dantey, added time in his 200 IM prelim swim Wednesday morning.

He went 1:52.38 in winning the WPIAL title at Pitt and came in as the No. 2 seed.

Howell recorded a 1:53.77 in the prelims but came back in the finals and lowered it to 1:53.09 for fifth overall.

“I think I swam well,” Howell said. “I felt amazing coming in, and then I saw I added time (in the prelims). That was disappointing. But I had another chance, and I was able to go faster (in the finals) against these super-fast people. Next year, I am coming back, and it’s on.”

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.