PIAA Boys’ Swimming: Blue Mountain’s Powers caps career with silver in 100 freestyle
Blue Mountain's Noah Powers gets set to compete in the boys' 100 freestyle finals Thursday at the PIAA Swimming Championships at Bucknell University (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
LEWISBURG — It wasn’t supposed to end like this for Noah Powers.
The Blue Mountain superstar has dominated the Schuylkill League, District 11 and PIAA Class AA swimming circuits for the past four years, shattering records everywhere he went and hauling in a bevy of medals at every level.
After winning a gold medal in the 50-yard freestyle Wednesday, the stage was set for the senior standout to cap his sensational high school career with a gold medal in the 100 freestyle Thursday at the PIAA Swimming Championships.
Sometimes, however, no matter how good you are, there’s somebody better.
That was the case Thursday night at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. Just barely.
Powers’ high school career came to an end with a silver-medal performance in the 100 freestyle finals. Indiana’s Preston Kessler edged Powers by eight-hundreths of a second to grab the gold, with Kessler being clocked at 43.28 and Powers finishing in 43.36.
“It was definitely a great race,” Powers said afterward. “I definitely knew it was going to be a great race coming into it.
“Good competition … I’ve been versus him all four years. It was going to take everything I had to win this race, but it wasn’t enough. It was still really exciting.”
It was the fourth straight year the two stars had waged war in the 100 freestyle final at states. Kessler captured gold in 2022 (44.96) and 2023 (44.54), with Powers taking fourth both times. Last year, Powers won gold in 43.82, with Kessler second in 44.01.
This year, they finished 1-2 in the morning preliminaries, with Kessler blazing to a Heat 4 win in 44.27 and Powers coasting to a Heat 3 victory in 46.32.
The two were side-by-side for Round 4. Kessler got out to a fast start, going 22.73 seconds over the first 50 yards. Powers stayed right with him and then pulled even over the final 25 yards before Kessler won the photo finish.
Kessler dropped 0.99 seconds from the morning to the evening, while Powers dropped 2.96 seconds.
Powers’ time of 43.36 is a new area and Blue Mountain school record.
“He had a better start than me,” Powers said. “I knew he was going to go out fast. The goal was to stick with him the best I could. I probably should have gone out faster, felt like I could have. I felt like I made up a lot of ground toward the second half. I was excited.”
Powers’ time drops at states during his high school career have been amazing, in both the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
In the 100 free alone, he’s gone 46.80, 45.92, 43.82, 43.36 in the four finals.
“It’s all thanks to my coaches and my teammates,” Powers said. “I have some of the best coaches in our area and they push us every single day. I couldn’t be more glad to have a team like I do that pushes me every day. I have the best training partners in the world.”
