Latrobe relay team outswims seed to earn PIAA medal

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 | 10:46 PM

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The Latrobe girls 200 free relay of Lauren Bell, Destini Homan, Hannah Carasia and Maggie Elder arrived at the PIAA Class 3A swim championships at Bucknell University on Wednesday seeded 14th.

They had designs on improving their time of 1 minute, 38.42 seconds recorded in taking fifth at WPIALs on Feb. 29 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

A time drop of 13 hundredths of a second in the preliminaries helped the Wildcats quartet earn a spot in the championship finals Wednesday evening.

Despite adding time in the championship heat to 1:38.93, the relay finished as the eighth-fastest in the state and found themselves on the medals podium.

“When we bumped ourselves up to eighth for the finals, we were all super happy with that time,” Bell said. “Even though we added time in the finals, we were all proud of ourselves. From our small town, it was cool to stand up there on the podium. We all had our own individual goals within the race, but we also had goals for each other. We’re pretty satisfied with how this race turned out.”

Bell also made the consolation finals of the 100 butterfly. As the second seed for the heat after a prelim time of 57.25, she shaved 10 hundredths and took fifth in the heat and 13th overall.

“I added some time (from WPIALs), so that wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I did drop a little time in the finals, which was good to see,” she said. “I would’ve liked to have seen a little more time drop (at states), but there is always next year.”

Bell comes back Thursday in the 100 free, where she is seeded fifth, and as part of the 400 free relay, which is seeded 10th.

Franklin Regional senior Holden Thomas, making his fourth appearance at the PIAA championships, missed the championship heat of the 100 butterfly by 10 hundredths of a second.

He added 66 hundredths of a second from his WPIAL swim in the preliminaries but came back in the consolation heat and dropped time to a 50.13 for 10th overall.

“The execution was good, but I think something was missing,” Thomas said. “I felt I should’ve gone a lot faster. Not being where you want to be is very frustrating. I just have to go and refocus for tomorrow and hope to swim faster.”

Thomas is the No. 1 seed (49.08) for the 100 backstroke, while rival and friend, Penn-Trafford senior Patton Graziano, is seeded third (49.76).

Graziano also is the sixth seed for the 100 free (45.89).

He led off the 200 free relay in Wednesday’s consolation finals, and the quartet, which included Aaron Burdell, Nick Marucci and Conner Alexander, swam to a time of 1:25.44, good for ninth overall.

The time also was faster than two teams from the championship heat, but Penn-Trafford was unable to move up past ninth.

Thursday’s prelims begin at 7:35 a.m. with the boys 100 free, 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast and 400 free relay. The girls prelims for those events start at 10:10.

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.