D-11 Girls’ Swimming: Blue Mountain, Tamaqua relay teams grab gold
The Blue Mountain 200 freestyle relay team of Alayna Hensel, Julia Crossen, Isabella Lafko and Sage Kaplafka cross the bulkhead to receive their gold medals at Friday's District 11 Swimming Championships at Parkland High School (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
ALLENTOWN —- Down to the last swimmer in the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay, Blue Mountain was down, but not out.
Senior Sage Kaplafka squeaked past Schuylkill Haven’s Hope Stauffer and Saucon Valley’s Julia Cort to grab gold in the final race of Day 1 of the District 11 Class AA Swimming Championships on Friday at Parkland High School.
Kaplafka’s split of 24.12 seconds helped the Eagles’ foursome of Alayna Hensel, Julia Crossen, Isabella Lafko and Kaplafka repeat as district champions in the event in 1:43.28. Schuylkill Haven’s quartet of Teagan Wehr, Cali Stauffer, Nikki Domermuth and Hope Stauffer was second in 1:43.30, with Saucon Valley third in 1:43.53.
“When I hit the water, I knew that I needed relentless to help us come back,” Kaplafka said. “After I did my flip turn and came up I knew that I could catch back up and win. I freaked out when I saw it. I was so excited.”
The Tamaqua girls got the meet off to a hot start, as the relay team of Kate Behun, Savannah Wilson, Audrey Nattress and Ava Jones won the 200 medley relay in 1:56.15.
Strong swims by Behun in the backstroke and Wilson in the breaststroke propelled Tamaqua into the lead and the Blue Raiders never looked back. The Pottsville quartet of Gianna LaSelva, Elizabeth Martinko, Adalia LaSelva and Jillian Horvath was second in 1:59.57.
“Our goal for them was to stay strong and give it everything they got,” Wilson said. “It’s very good that we have a strong first half of the medley, because then we can get out right away, but everyone really did their best.”
Marian’s Lydia Strucko followed two races later by repeating as champion in the 200 IM, winning in 2:10.51, 3.81 seconds over Northwestern Lehigh’s Olivia Wozniak. Tamaqua’s Wilson was trailing after the backstroke, but used a strong breaststroke leg to swim back and pass Palisades’ Tori Oldford for third.
“I’m not rested at all,” Strucko said. “I went hard all week coming in.”
Both the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly saw close finishes among local swimmers.
In the 50 freestyle, Kaplafka and Hope Stauffer swam very best times, finishing third and fourth. Kaplafka was clocked in 24.32, while Stauffer finished in 24.79. Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Donja Tripp won in 23.74, with Cort was second in 23.88.
“I was very happy with my time. All those girls work really hard and to be up there with them is a great feeling,” Kaplafka said.
The last individual event of the meet, the 100 butterfly, had one of the closest finishes you can get — a .01 difference between Pottsville senior Adalia LaSelva and Blue Mountain freshman Alayna Hensel.
Going into the last lap of the race, LaSelva trailed Hensel, but utilized her past experiences to sneak by Hensel to claim the silver medal.
“I wanted to catch her,” LaSelva said. “I was pretty set on catching her. It was my last time having to swim the 100 fly and I wanted to make sure I came back and I did. I did feel like I could have gone out faster, but in the end I was able to catch up.”
Schuylkill Haven’s Domermuth was not too far behind, only finishing .85 behind Hensel and .86 behind LaSelva to finish fourth in 1:04.91.
Other local medalists include North Schuylkill’s Kamryn Wolfe, who was third in the 200 freestyle, and the Mahanoy Area 200 medley relay of Lillian Brown, Lexi Chilinskas, Urijah Fazio and Maresia Abadia, who were fourth in 2:02.56.
In its bid to win a seventh straight team title, Blue Mountain carries a 76-point lead over Saucon Valley (207-131) heading into Saturday’s Day 2.
Action continues Saturday at 10 a.m. with competition in the 100 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay.
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