Dallas swim teams deliver two more District 2 titles at Class 2A championships

Mar. 3—PLAINS TWP. — The path to the District 2 team swimming titles looked very different for Saturday's winners, but the one thing similar was the team holding the plaques at the end of the day.

Dallas swept the boys and girls' team titles for a second straight year, both Mountaineer teams coming out on top at the end of the Class 2A Swimming championships at Wilkes-Barre Area.

For the Dallas girls, the lead was never out of hand and the outcome rarely seemed in doubt, finishing almost 70 points ahead of second-place Scranton Prep.

It was a much different story for the boys, who began the day with a slight lead over Tunkhannock and briefly coughed up the lead to the Tigers before a strong finish put the Mountaineers back on top.

"The comeback that we had to do to beat Tunkhannock was stellar," Dallas coach Romayne Mosier said. "I couldn't have asked for any more."

The final lead change came with the 100 backstroke, where Dallas senior Artem Smagin held off Wyoming Seminary's Harry Feng to win gold, vaulting the Mountaineers over Tunkhannock into first place.

Entering the race, Smagin's seed time had him slightly behind Feng, with Scranton Prep swimmers Ben Kessler and Lukas Iannone both within a second of the top two with their own seed times.

On paper, the race looked tight, and the actual event delivered, with Smagin pouring it on late to beat Feng by less than two tenths of a second.

"I came here to win. ... I don't care where I'm seeded at, I'm just there to do my best and show what I could do," Smagin said. "It's great to be able to contribute to the team this much."

With a small lead heading into the final event of the meet, the 400 free relay, the Dallas boys laid the hammer down to clinch the team title.

The Mountaineers got out of the blocks fast and slammed the door on Tunkhannock's title chances with a 3:16.53 mark, winning the gold medal by over seven seconds.

Maddoc Watkins was the other big winner for the Dallas boys, starting the day strong with his second individual gold of the weekend.

Watkins cruised to victory in the 100 free, his second straight district title in the event. He clocked in at 46.12 seconds, falling just shy of breaking his own District record time of 46.01 seconds set last year.

While it was Dallas doing the celebrating at the end of the day, Saturday's single most impressive performance may have come elsewhere, as MMI Prep's Woobie Kupsky broke a District 2 record for the second straight day — and once again, it was one of his own.

Kupsky entered Saturday with three district championships in three years swimming the 500 free, setting a record time of 4:33.71 last year on his way to a 37-second victory in the race.

Somehow Kupsky was able to outdo himself. He smoked that record by more than three seconds with a time of 4:30.63 and finished 40 seconds clear of the field to win a fourth district championship in the 500 free.

"I was definitely nervous, but once I got in the pool, I don't really think about much," Kupsky said. "Honestly, I didn't feel great yesterday so I wasn't positive it was going to happen."

Dallas girls cruise to 2A team title

In the girls' competition, Dallas entered the day with a big lead over Scranton Prep and added to it from there, winning three of the day's five events to pad their lead and lock down another District 2 team title, their third in a row.

After a win from Valley View's Molly Hubal in the 100 free to open the day, Dallas swimmers Lydia Gonzales and Maria-Lucia Priore won gold in the next two events, the 500 free and the 100 back, to pad the team lead.

Gonzales, the defending champ in the 500 free and already a multi-time gold medalist this weekend, held off some stiff competition from MMI's Mary Kate Kupsky to repeat as champ.

"I felt pretty good in the beginning, my goal was just to go out fast and kind of hold on," Gonzales said. "Toward the end, I was getting a little tired, but I was happy with that time."

Priore's win was her first individual District 2 title, the sophomore outracing teammate Audrey Haydu to win with a time of 1:01.11.

"I'm very proud of myself because I've been working so hard," Priore said. "It feels amazing."

While Priore's day would come to an end after her gold-medal performance (other than a celebratory dive into the pool after the meet), Gonzales would be back in the pool one more time to close out the day with Dallas's 400 free relay team.

The outcome of the championships was not in doubt, but the Mountaineers wrapped the meet with a bang in the relay.

The team of Gonzales, Haydu, Peyton Stauffer and Olivia Thomas took an early lead and never looked back, with Gonzales guiding the Mountaineers home with an anchor leg time of 51.46 seconds to beat Elk Lake.

Dallas's total time was 3:37.97, almost 11 full seconds clear of the Elk Lake team.

In total, the Mountaineers will send five individual swimmers, three relay teams and three divers to the PIAA Class 2A Swimming and Diving championships, set for March 15 and 16 at Bucknell University.

BOYS SWIMMING

District 2 Class 2A Championships

Team Standings — 1. Dallas (DAL) 269; 2. Tunkhannock (TUN) 253; 3. Wyoming Seminary (SEM) 174; 4. Scranton Prep (SP) 143; 5. Lake-Lehman (LL) 78; 6. Wallenpaupack (WAL) 76; 7. Dunmore (DUN) 70; 8. Holy Redeemer (HR) 64; 9. Elk Lake (ELK) 49; 10. MMI Prep (MMI) 32; 11. Pittston Area (PA) 29; 12. Wyoming Area (WA) 18; 13. Western Wayne (WW) 17; 14. North Pocono (NP) 5.

100 Free — 1. DAL Maddoc Watkins, 46.12; 2. SEM Harry Feng, 47.74; 3. TUN Josh Gaudet, 48.87; 4. WAL Ware Stuckey, 49.61; 5. SP Ben Kessler, 49.79; 6. SEM Kevin Yang, 50.72.

500 Free — 1. MMI Woobie Kupsky, 4:30.63; 2. DAL Andrew Wilk, 5:10.31; 3. LL Connor Runquist, 5:12.52; 4. SP Liam Ong, 5:13.92; 5. TUN Braydon Christopher, 5:20.60; 6. SP Michael Devitto, 5:27.07.

100 Back — 1. DAL Artem Smagin, 54.04; 2. SEM Harry Feng, 54.24; 3. SP Lukas Iannone, 54.95; 4. SP Ben Kessler, 55.99; 5. SEM Jack Heisler, 57.17; 6. DAL Nico Wilk, 57.18.

100 Breast — 1. DUN Luke Healey, 58.77; 2. SEM Zhantore Akylbekov, 59.24; 3. TUN William Lupinski, 1:01.73; 4. SEM Kevin Yang, 1:02.65; 5. WW Adrian Agnello, 1:04.37; 6. DAL Josh Gross 1:09.08.

400 Free Relay — 1. DAL (Artem Smagin, Nico Wilk, Jacob Hoegen, Maddoc Watkins), 3:16.53; 2. TUN (Jayden Baltrusaitis, Braydon Christopher, Andrew Lance, Josh Gaudet), 3:24.01; 3. SP (Ben Kessler, Noah Lynch, Liam Ong, Lukas Iannone), 3:25.56; 4. LL (Jack Kashatus, Connor Runquist, Aiden Gallagher, Andrew Morris), 3:38.24; 5. ELK (Cohen Farrell, Chris Cona, Brydan Hitchcock, Isaiah Jones), 3:50.21; 6. SEM (Aidan Benetos, Matthaeus Mayr-Griessner, Matias Tollinen, Ricardo Delgado), 4:00.56.

GIRLS SWIMMING

District 2 Class 2A Championships

Team Standings — 1. Dallas (DAL) 323; 2. Scranton Prep (SP) 264.5; 3. Elk Lake (ELK) 153; 4. Wyoming Seminary (SEM) 147.5; 5. Lake Lehman (LL) 130; 6. Valley View (VV) 86; 7. Holy Redeemer (HR) 64; 8. Wallenpaupack (WAL) 62; 9. Wyoming Area (WA) 54; 10. MMI Prep (MMI) 26; 11. Dunmore (DUN) 18; 12. Mid Valley (MV) 15.

100 Free — 1. VV Molly Hubal, 52.71; 2. DAL Peyton Stauffer, 54.94; 3. SP Tessa Mangan, 56.27; 4. ELK Brynn Warriner, 56.64; 5. SEM Ava Betnar, 57.06; 6. LL Karissa Legaspi, 57.86.

500 Free — 1. DAL Lydia Gonzales, 5:01.11; 2. MMI Mary Kate Kupsky, 5:04.49; 3. DAL Erika Doran, 5:20.95; 4. DAL Olivia Thomas, 5:22.69; 5. SP R.C. Oakes, 5:47.76; 6. ELK Hannah Howell, 5:51.68.

100 Back — 1. DAL Maria-Lucia Pirore, 1:01.11; 2. DAL Audrey Haydu, 1:04.39; 3. SEM Ava Betnar, 1:04.72; 4. SP Sophia Galko, 1:04.76; 5. WAL Zoee Stuckey, 1:06.54; 6. SP Marin Purcell, 1:07.10.

100 Breast — 1. VV Molly Hubal, 1:06;42; 2. SP Eva Kaszuba, 1:06.85; 3. SP Ella Schofield, 1:07.62; 4. SEM Trinity Kong, 1:12.72; 5. LL Allison Vitanovec, 1:13.02; 6. HR Carley Glaser, 1:13.82.

400 Free Relay — 1. DAL (Peyton Stauffer, Audrey Haydu, Olivia Thomas, Lydia Gonzales), 3:37.97; 2. ELK (Brynn Warriner, Hannah Howell, Chelsea Grosvenor, Allison Grosvenor), 3:48.14; 3. SP (R.C. Oakes, Sophia Galko, Marin Purcell, Ella Schofield), 3:50.15; 4. SEM (Eva Blaum, Abigail Ryu, Trinity Kong, Ava Betnar), 3:56.59; 5. LL (Allison Vitanovec, Carlee Monko, Mollie Kuhar, Karissa Legaspi), 4:01.98; 6. VV (Sarah Naylor, Gabby Zurn, Reilly Sprague, Molly Hubal), 4:11.97.