LEWISBURG — Jade Castro’s silver medal in the Class 3A girls’ 100-yard backstroke highlighted a spectacular showing at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships from Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, March 19.
Castro, the State College Area High School junior, also finished fourth with a school-record time in the 200 individual medley, scoring 32 team points for the Lady Lions. State College’s Shawn Erdley and John Brownstead and Bellefonte’s Kiaha McCool also medaled with top-eight individual finishes at Bucknell University’s Gerhard Field House.
“It’s amazing,” State College coach Aaron Workman said of Casto’s runner-up finish in the backstroke.
Castro registered a 54.33-second time in the finals of the backstroke, actually bettering the fastest preliminary time of the meet which she posted earlier in the day, 54.54. However, in the finals, Upper Dublin senior Michelle DiMartile touched the wall two-tenths of a second ahead of Castro.
Castro’s time in the finals still was a personal-best.
If that wasn’t enough, Castro’s 2-minute, 3.21-second swim in the IM finals displaced the longest standing record State College had. It was the second time in the meet Castro posted a personal best in the event, bettering her 2:04.93 in the preliminaries.
Haverford’s Katya Eruslanova won the race with a 2:00.09.
In addition to her great individual meet, Castro also swam the backstroke leg of the Lady Little Lions’ 200 medley relay. Senior Mackenzie Pagett, junior Ally Koehle and freshman Madison Watchke closed out the other three facets of the relay and State College captured fourth place with a time of 1:45.61, 1.01 better than its prelim time.
Watschke and Pagett also scored individually for State, placing 14th and 15th, respectively, in the 100 breaststroke finals. Watschke touched the wall in a personal-best 1:05.84, Pagett in 1:06.10. Pagett swam 1:06.02 in the preliminaries, while Watschke swam 1:06.26.
State College finished in 12th place as a team with 67 points.
“We lost three scoring seniors last season, so we had a younger team and they really stepped up and competed hard,” Workman said.
“We improved on our season times in all of our swims and came close to a school record in our medley relay, which is a very strong record.”
Castro, Watschke and sophomores Ditta Kowalik and Kelly Brownstead also made the finals in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:37.93, good enough for ninth in the prelims. However, the Lady Little Lions were disqualified in the finals, denying them any points.
State’s girls’ 400 free relay quartet of Koehle, Brownstead, Kowalik and senior Nora Hein didn’t make the finals, even though its 3:38.26 time was 2 seconds better than the mark that won the District 6 meet.
Erdley and John Brownstead led the State College boys to a 13th-place Class 3A team finish.
The Little Lions scored 57 points.
“I think we were very strong,” Workman said. “We moved up four spots from last season. We had everyone improve on their best times. This was a very strong men’s meet this year and it took a strong effort to return at night for a scoring swim. Our relays were great, and I think we made our seniors proud and were able to finish off their high school careers in a very exciting way.”
A junior, Erdley swam a 56.85 in the 100 breaststroke to place sixth in the event. His 56.97 was the fifth-best time in the prelims.
Erdley just missed the finals in the 200 individual medley by two places and seven-tenths of a second with a time of 1:56.43.
Brownstead, meanwhile, produced 17 points for the Little Lions by virtue of his medal-winning eighth-place showing in the 100 freestyle and his 11th-place finish in the 50 freestyle.
A senior, Brownstead PR’d in all four of his individual races. He registered a 46.01 in the 100 finals after swimming 46.26 in the preliminaries and a 21.36 in the 50 finals after timing 21.42 in the preliminaries.
“I feel good about my times and places at states. There were a lot of good parts to my swims and a lot I can still improve,” Brownstead said. “The highlights of the meet for me were going out to eat with the team and splitting 45 anchoring the 400 freestyle relay.”
Brownstead, freshman Samuel Huggins, senior Erik Witt and junior Tyler Uhlig just missed medaling in the 400 with a time of 3:11.17 in the finals. That moved them up two spots from a 3:12.63 in the prelims.
Brownstead, Erdley, Uhlig and Huggins also garnered 12th in the 200 medley relay, timing 1:36.59 in the finals, the exact same time they had in their finals qualifier.
Brownstead is the heir to a strong family tradition in swimming. The Brownstead name is all over State College’s and even the PIAA record roles.
“I first started swimming for a team when I was around 6 years old. My best event is currently the 100 free because it’s a long sprint, but throughout my high school career, it has varied,” Brownstead said. “I’m unsure whether or not I will swim in college, but the sport has meant a lot to me. I have found many friendships on my swim team, worked hard to develop a skill of which I am proud, and had a lot of fun along the way.”
Huggins also scored individually by virtue of his 1:44.43 in the finals of the 200 freestyle and 4:39.12 in the finals of the 500 freestyle, good for 15th and 16th place, respectively. In the preliminaries, Huggins was 14th with a 4:38.48.
Huggins swam 1:43.21 in the 200 prelims and 4:38.48 in the 500 eliminator.
Erdley, Witt, sophomore Todd Siekman and senior Ryan Willis swam in the 200 free relay prelims but were knocked out of the competition there. Their time was 1:31.03.
Uhlig also competed in the 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke, swimming 4:44.53 in the opening round to finish 25th in the former event and 53.82 to place 30th in the latter.
In 2A, McCool capped off her outstanding season by taking fourth in both the girls’ 100 backstroke and 200 freestyle.
“My meet was everything I hoped it would be,” McCool, a sophomore, said. “I dropped time in everything I swam. My times that I achieved this weekend are now my personal bests.
“My goals for going into the meet were to be placed higher in finals, achieve personal bests, and have a great time. Before the meet started I was really nervous. My first day was the only day I really wanted to get through just because I care a lot about my 200 free and I had a goal to go a 1:53 high and I went a 1:53:98.”
McCool finished the backstroke finals in 56.48 and the 200 finals in 1:53.98. She posted a 57.35 in the backstroke prelims and a 1:55.98 in the 200 preliminary, as well as a 51.19 in her leg of the 200 medley relay — that team, which also included junior Finnley Musser, sophomore Katelyn Packer and junior Emma Pringle, was disqualified in its first race, though.
McCool said her mom first put her in the water when she was 6 months old and she’s been swimming competitively since she was 5.
“At first I hated the 200 free,” McCool said. “It felt like it took ages to complete and I had no clue how to swim it. As time went on I started to get better at it and now I love to swim it. I have always loved to swim the 100 back. It did get frustrating because I could not drop time but now, since I dropped some time, I started to like it again.”
The Lady Raiders finished with 34 team points. Musser, Emma Pringle, freshman Addie Pringle and freshman Ashley Moretz scored in the 400 free relay by finishing 15th with a time of 3:46.04. They were slightly faster in the opening round, 3:45.46.
Kate Pringle just missed the finals in the 500 freestyle, her time of 5:24.19 placing her 17th.
Penns Valley junior Maggie Delaney just missed joining McCool in the 2A girls’ medal stand. Delaney was ninth in the 100 breaststroke with a personal-best of 1:04.48 in the finals after touching in 1:06.57 in the prelim. She also recorded a persona best of 2:18.29 in the 200 IM but it wasn’t enough to make the finals.
Carter Boone swam two events for the Bellefonte boys but was unable to advance to the finals in the 100 butterfly with a 53.48 (17th) and 200 freestyle with a 1:49.64 (23rd).
