Allison Adams, Rebecca Kanaskie, Nathanael Marino and Mark Boran know what it takes to excel in the postseason.
Returning state qualifiers, the four Schuylkill League swimming standouts got a perfect gauge of what they need to work on to get back to that level during Saturday’s annual Schuylkill Sprint Meet.
Marino and Boran each won four times, while Kanaskie and Schuylkill Haven’s Mary Zimmerman were double individual winners in the 10-event competition at Pottsville’s Ned Hampford Natatorium.
With the heart of the dual-meet season upcoming this month, Saturday’s scaled-down version of the Schuylkill League Swimming Championships gave swimmers from nine schools a chance to test themselves against the rest of the Schuylkill League.
The format followed a regular dual-meet schedule, but without diving and the 500 freestyle and with shorter distances in the IM, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke.
“This meet gives us a little sneak peak of how the competition for the later meets is going to be,” said Boran, who won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.10 and the 50 backstroke in 26.81. “I was surprised to see not as many people are at the skill level that my team is at.”
Marino set the only meet record
during Saturday’s competition, finishing the 50 breaststroke in 29.49. Marino also won the 50 freestyle in 23.02 and teamed with Boran, Stephen Johnson and Joey McLaughlin to take first place in both the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.
Marino, Boran, Johnson and McLaughlin placed 17th at states in both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays last year.
Of the 10 boys’ events Saturday, Blue Mountain won seven. Johnson completed the Eagles’ big day by winning the 100 freestyle in 52.75.
Other boys’ winners include Pottsville’s Michael Logothetides (100 IM) and Josh Marx (50 fly) and the Crimson Tide’s 400 freestyle relay team of Michael Smerlick, Charlie Botto, Logothetides and Marx.
“It was a good choice to have the meet now,” Marino said. “We get to see the other teams, how they’re doing, how they’re working in the middle of the season. Today, times weren’t the best, but it shows what our potential is.”
Zimmerman, a sophomore, used last year’s Schuylkill Sprint Meet as a coming-out party of sorts, when she won the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Last year’s Sprint Meet was held on the opening weekend of winter sports in December; this year’s meet was moved to the first weekend of January.
Zimmerman won the 200 free and 100 free again Saturday, winning each race convincingly. The Haven swim teams were hampered over the holiday break by pool problems that forced the Hurricanes out of the water for a little over a week from Dec. 18-26.
“I’m pretty happy, considering I had the flu (Friday),” Zimmerman said. “Coming out and winning both of my events, I think I did pretty well.
“(Not having a pool) was hard, because we were out of our pool for such a long time. Doing dry land ... dry land is good, but you have to be in the pool. Once we got back into it, we’ve been good.”
Adams, a state qualifier in the 50 freestyle twice in her high school career, won that event Saturday in 25.68 and placed second to Marian’s Katie Kurzinsky in the 50 backstroke.
She also teamed with Zimmerman, Taylor Felty and Elizabeth Bayliff to capture first place in the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.
A senior, Adams said her relay teams were motivated entering the races by being seeded behind Mahanoy Area in both events. The Hurricanes’ quartet was third in the 200 freestyle relay and fourth in the 400 freestyle relay last year at districts.
“We were a little skeptical going in, having Mahanoy Area seeded ahead of us,” Adams said of the two relay wins. “We all came together and said ‘We have to win this. We have to get first place.’ ”
Kanaskie reached states in the 200 IM last year as a freshman, and took top honors in the 100 IM and 50 breaststroke Saturday.
While heavy graduation losses have all but killed Tamaqua’s hopes to repeat as Schuylkill League girls’ team champions, Kanaskie said the Blue Raiders have been really working hard during the holiday break to improve individually in the hopes of making some noise at leagues and districts.
Kanaskie’s teammate, Danielle DeCindio, won the 50 butterfly in 29.82. The Pottsville quartet of Michaela Zanis, Madeline Consugar, Katie Deegan and Jessica Turnitza grabbed the day’s other victory by placing first in the 400 freestyle relay.
“We know as a team we can’t win, but individually we’re really striving for those goals,” Kanaskie said. “We have really been working hard over the winter break. Today was the result of everything we’ve been doing so far.
“This is the vital point where I need to work harder on certain little things. I can do this to get better, I can do that to get better. But you need something like this to gauge how you’re going to be in the later meets.”
At Ned Hampford Natatorium
Teams participating: Blue Mountain (BM), Halifax (Hal), Mahanoy Area (MA), Marian (Mar), Millersburg (Mil), Pottsville (P), Schuylkill Haven (SH), Tamaqua (T), Weatherly (W)
GIRLS
200 medley relay — 1. Schuylkill Haven (Adams, Felty, Zimmerman, Bayliff) 2:01.00, 2. Blue Mountain 2:02.84, 3. Tamaqua 2:05.43, 4. Mahanoy Area 2:05.61, 5. Pottsville 2:08.24, 6. Pottsville 2:09.22
200 freestyle — 1. Zimmerman (SH) 2:08.60, 2. R. Donohue (BM) 2:12.74, 3. M. Consugar (P) 2:14.60, 4. M. Krause (BM) 2:21.17, 5. Burke (MA) 2:25.22, 6. Freeman (BM) 2:25.97
100 IM — 1. Kanaskie (T) 1:06.53, 2. Van Horn (MA) 1:09.32, 3. Felty (SH) 1:10.42, 4. Alexander (Hal) 1:10.97, 5. Krupko (Mar) 1:11.41, 6. Frantz (Hal) 1:12.08
50 freestyle — 1. Adams (SH) 25.68, 2. Kurzinsky (Mar) 26.23, 3. N. Bernardyn (MA) 26.81, 4. E. Donohue (BM) 27.50, 5. Alexander (Hal) 27.73, 6. Corse-Campion (P) 27.79
100 freestyle — 1. Zimmerman (SH) 56.73, 2. Kurzinsky (Mar) 56.90, 3. DeCindio (T) 59.16, 4. N. Bernardyn (MA) 1:00.02, 5. R. Donohue (BM) 1:01.22, 6. Deegan (P) 1:01.30
50 butterfly — 1. DeCindio (T) 29.82, 2. Alexander (Hal) 30.13, 3. Muthersbaugh (SH) 30.24, 4. Laughlin (BM) 30.34, 5. Berdanier (P) 30.56, 6. Felty (SH) 30.83
200 freestyle relay — 1. Schuylkill Haven A (Adams, Bayliff, Felty, Zimmerman) 1:47.06, 2. Tamaqua A 1:51.10, 3. Blue Mountain A 1:51.88, 4. Blue Mountain B 1:54.74, 5. Mahanoy Area A 1:55.37, 6. Pottsville A 1:57.75
50 backstroke — 1. Kurzinsky (Mar) 29.72, 2. Adams (SH) 29.91, 3. Corse-Campion (P) 32.47, 4. Van Horn (MA) 32.75, 5. Frantz (Hal) 32.81, 6. Pascuzzo (BM) 33.18
50 breaststroke — 1. Kanaskie (T) 33.88, 2. E. Donohue (BM) 35.06, 3. Miller (Hal) 35.54, 4. Krupko (Mar) 36.24, 5. Fellows (P) 36.37, 6. Sternick (P) 36.47
400 freestyle relay — 1. Pottsville A (Zanis, M. Consugar, Deegan, J. Turnitza) 4:12.72, 2. Blue Mountain A 4:25.05, 3. Pottsville B 4:22.15, 4. Mahanoy Area A 4:25.05, Schuylkill Haven A 4:27.92, 6. Blue Mountain B 4:31.45
BOYS
200 medley relay — 1. Blue Mountain (Boran, Marino, Johnson, McLaughlin) 1:46.61, 2. Pottsville 1:51.95, 3. Mahanoy Area 1:52.68, 4. Schuylkill Haven 1:58.47, 5. Pottsville 2:04.96, 6. Blue Mountain 2:05.31
200 freestyle — 1. Boran (BM) 1:55.10, 2. Dando (Mar) 1:56.08, 3. Smerlick (P) 2:00.14, 4. Kerby (P) 2:15.28, 5. Boyer (BM) 2:18.03, 6. Hughes (BM) 2:22.28
100 IM — 1. Logothetides (P) 1:03.70, 2. Steinhart (P) 1:03.74, 3. Reed (Mil) 1:05.51, 4. McGowan (SH) 1:06.00, 5. Wessner (BM) 1:06.79, 6. Romberger (SH) 1:12.20, 6.
50 freestyle — 1. Marino (BM) 23.02, 2. Johnson (BM) 23.51, 3. J. Marx (P) 23.78, 4. McLaughlin (BM) 24.36, 5. Antolick (MA) 24.48, 6. Sirkot (W) 24.74
100 freestyle — 1. Johnson (BM) 52.75, 2. Antolick (MA) 54.47, 3. Smerlick (P) 54.68, 4. Sirkot (W) 55.71, 5. Botto (P) 55.78, 6. Scanlan (P) 56.40
50 butterfly — 1. J. Marx (P) 25.85, 2. Logothetides (P) 26.67, 3. Mansell (MA) 26.79, 4. Reed (Mil) 27.42, 5. Turrano (T) 27.55, 6. Raymond (SH) 28.06
200 freestyle relay — 1. Blue Mountain A (Marino, Johnson, Boran, McLaughlin) 1:34.84, 2. Pottsville A 1:39.90, 3. Schuylkill Haven A 1:41.41, 4. Mahanoy Area A 1:41.68, 5. Blue Mountain B 1:46.68, 6. Pottsville B 1:50.06
50 backstroke — 1. Boran (BM) 26.81, 2. Mansell (MA) 28.21, 3. Botto (P) 29.70, 4. Wessner (BM) 30.42, 5. Boyer (BM) 31.63, 6. Cullen (W) 31.64
50 breaststroke — 1. Marino (BM) 29.49*, 2. Sirkot (W) 30.71, 3. Boxter (MA) 31.45, 4. Steinhart (P) 32.09, 5. Reed (Mill) 33.25, 6. Usuka (BM) 33.78
400 freestyle relay — 1. Pottsville A (Smerlick, Botto, Logothetides, J. Marx) 3:45.11, 2. Blue Mountain A 4:06.11, 3. Pottsville B 4:14.74, 4. Tamaqua A 4:24.07, 5. Schuylkill Haven B 4:31.94
* Meet record