Franklin Regional swim team basks in WPIAL meet success

By: William Whalen
Friday, March 8, 2019 | 7:33 PM

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At the start of the swim season, Franklin Regional coach Vic Santoro was wondering what kind of team he had.

After a strong showing at the Westmorland County Coaches’ Association championships, where the girls took first place for the second year in a row and the boys finished second, Santoro thought he might have something.

And by the time the WPIAL Class AAA championships rolled around, Santoro stood atop the bleachers at Pitt’s Trees pool cheering on one of the most productive teams in his long coaching career.

“At the beginning of the season, my athletic director asked me what I thought,” said Santoro, who is in his 27th season as the Panthers coach. “I would have said that we would’ve been able to get a couple kids up there. I never would’ve imagined that we’d get this many.”

“Up there” means on the championship podium. A team with a ton of question marks to start the season made a statement at the two-day meet and came away with 20 medals.

“That WPIAL meet is pretty electrifying,” Santoro said. “The kids all know each other. I think, personally, it’s more exciting than states.”

Franklin Regional will send 14 swimmers to the PIAA Class AAA swimming championships at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium from March 15-16.

The relay teams led the way as the Franklin Regional boys and girls finished seventh and 10th, respectively, at WPIALs.

“They far exceeded my expectations on both the girls and boys side,” Santoro said. “I got all six relays — three boys and girls — and that’s an accomplishment. I didn’t think that we were going to be able to pull that one off.”

Senior Abigail Ramey, junior Evelyn Siler, freshman Annika Albright and senior Baylee Horvath combined for a 10th-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 48.91 seconds. They earned a trip to states.

Albright, Horvath, senior Laura DiNunzio and Ramey finished fourth (1:38.23) and seventh (3:35.99) in the 200- and 400- freestyle relays, respectively, to qualify for states.

Ramey is the lone Franklin Regional girls swimmer to qualify for states in an individual event.

She finished seventh in the 200 IM in 2:08.86. Santoro is also taking Marissa Mansour with the team to Bucknell. Santoro said he might sneak the freshman into one of the relays so she can get her feet wet at the state level.

“It’s not often a freshman gets a chance to make it up to states,” Santoro said. “I always do that for the kids. I get someone to make it up there for the experience.

“I get them up there when they’re young so, when they make it when they’re older, it’s not as intimidating for them.”

The boys have a few more individuals competing. Senior Mason Fishell will compete in diving and is a member of the 200-freestyle relay team.

Senior Patrick Cavanaugh will compete in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM. Cavanaugh finished fourth (57.57) and sixth (1:55.35) in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM at the WPIAL championships.

“Cavanaugh has our best shot of medaling in the 100 breast and 200 IM,” Santoro said.

Sophomore Max Wang, juniors Marshall Mao and Elias Holm and freshman Owen Holm will compete in the 200 medley relay. Owen Holm and seniors Axel Schon, Fishell and Cavanaugh will race the 200 freestyle relay. The quartet finished seventh at WPIALs with a time of 1:27.18.

In the 400 freestyle relay, junior Andrew Harris will swim the first leg followed by Schon, Owen Holm and Cavanaugh. The team finished sixth at WPIALs, turning in a time of 3:13.99.

“I will have some decisions to make as to who is gong to do which relay,” he said. “I usually give the seniors the benefit of the doubt since it’s their last year and their last opportunity to swim. That’s only with all things being equal.”

This year also marks the first time that only the district first-place finishers in each event get an automatic bid to the state meet. The rest of the field is made up of at-large swimmers whose times come in under the established qualifying times.

“This part of the state, the WPIAL, was very fast,” Santoro said. “If you look at the sheets, the WPIAL holds a lot of the top spots in qualifiers.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

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