PIAA swim championships to wrap up in Saturday’s 3 things to watch

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, March 16, 2018 | 5:42 PM

The 2017-18 high school swimming season comes to an end in Pennsylvania with the fourth and final day of the PIAA championships Saturday at Bucknell.

The Class AA championships will conclude with the girls diving finals, along with boys and girls swimming finals in the 100-yard freestyle, 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay.

A pair of District 10 teams captured PIAA AA gold last year in the championships with Grove City boys and Villa Maria Academy girls winning overall team titles.

The WPIAL slayers

First, Allderdice knocked out the No. 1 seed from the WPIAL Class 6A boys basketball playoffs, Mt. Lebanon, then the Dragons eliminated WPIAL champion Penn Hills in Round 2. On Saturday, the fire-breathing Dragons hope to become the best in the West as they try to avoid the horns of the district runner-up Pine-Richland Rams in just another clash between these two schools on the Road to Hershey.

Two years ago, ‘Dice rolled past Pine-Richland in the second round of the PIAA playoffs 75-60. The Dragons advanced all the way to Hershey, but lost to Roman Catholic, 73-62, in the state championship game.

The Dragons and Rams locked horns again in last year's state playoffs with Pine-Richland getting the better of Allderdice, 58-47. The Rams advanced to their first PIAA title game where they lost to Reading, 64-60.

Neither team can count on luck being on their side on St. Patrick's Day as both Allderdice and Pine-Richland have green as their main school colors.

Saturday's other state quarterfinals

A pair of WPIAL teams meet for a spot in the PIAA Class 2A boys Final Four when defending state champion Sewickley Academy battles Jeannette at North Hills at 1 p.m. It's the first meeting of the year between these two district powers, but the Jayhawks had their WPIAL title hopes end in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons at the hands of the now two-time WPIAL champion Panthers.

Also in Class 2A boys basketball action Saturday, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart faces a strong District 10 champion in West Middlesex at 4 p.m. at Armstrong.

Four district girls basketball teams hit the hardwood for quarterfinals action Saturday, including three teams from Class 5A. WPIAL champion Gateway battles Mars at 1 p.m. at Canon-McMillan. The two teams met back in December when the Gators beat the Fightin' Planets, 45-38. Oakland Catholic faces Archbishop Carroll at 2 p.m. at Chambersburg.

The only girls team left from the WPIAL in Class 4A is Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic. The Trojans face Villa Maria Academy from District 10 in a clash of district champs. These same two teams met last year in the PIAA quarterfinals, with the Victors living up to their nickname with a 57-41 win over CWNC.

Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Allderdice, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, Gateway, Jeannette, Mars, North Catholic, Oakland Catholic, Penn Hills, Pine-Richland, Sewickley Academy