WPIAL swimmers position themselves for finals at PIAA Class 3A championships

By: Michael Love
Friday, March 17, 2023 | 12:57 PM

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LEWISBURG — WPIAL swimmers are positioned for several championship finals swims on Day 1 at the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell.

Mt. Lebanon, North Allegheny, Fox Chapel and Upper St. Clair are seeded second through sixth, respectively, in the girls 200-yard medley relay.

North Allegheny senior Lexi Sundgren is seeded fourth in the 200 free, while junior teammate Natalie Sens secured the seventh seed for the 200 individual medley.

Mt. Lebanon sophomore Sylvia Roy will challenge for the 50 free title Friday evening as the No. 2 seed. Upper St. Clair junior Kaitlyn Connors also is in the 50 free ‘A’ final as the sixth seed.

Fox Chapel senior Sophie Shao was disqualified Friday morning in the prelims of the 200 IM.

It was reportedly a violation with her underwaters in her backstroke leg. She was third in the 200 IM last year and sixth at states in 2021.

Shao did qualify as the No. 2 seed for the finals of the 100 butterfly. She is going after her second PIAA 100 fly title after taking gold in the event in 2021.

Mt. Lebanon (third seed) and North Allegheny (fifth) both qualified for the championship finals heat in the girls 200 free relay.

On the boys side, Franklin Regional sets up as the No. 2 seed for this evening’s finals of the 200 medley relay, while North Allegheny and Seneca Valley are fourth and fifth, respectively.

Seneca Valley senior Haihan Xu will swim the championship finals heat of the 200 IM as the third seed, and Franklin Regional senior Aiden Bunker is seeded fourth, while Pine-Richland senior Matthew Carper is eighth.

Hempfield senior Dominic Falcon is the lone WPIAL representative in the championship final of the 50 free. He captured the WPIAL 50 free title at Pitt on March 2.

WPIAL 100 fly champ William Gao, a junior from North Allegheny, and Mt Lebanon senior Andrei Tudorascu are the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively, for the championship heat.

The 200 free relay final heat will have Franklin Regional as the No. 4 seed.

The top 16 finishers in each boys and girls preliminary event comes back this afternoon and evening.

The girls consolation and championship heats are set to begin at 3:25, and the boys consolation and championship heats will follow at 6:05.

Those in the consolation heats are locked into places nine through 16, while the eight in each championship heat will battle it out for gold.

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.

Tags: Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny, Pine-Richland, Seneca Valley, Upper St. Clair