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Bellefonte, CM swimmers have strong showing at Mifflin County

By Kenny Varner

 

BURNHAM – With an early snow out last Wednesday that cancelled the Mifflin County/Bellefonte swim meet, the Central Mountain Meet was forced into being a dual meet as both teams battling the Huskies at the Juniata Valley YMCA Saturday night.

Despite being a Dual Meet premise, neither the Wildcats or Red Raiders officially competed against each other, just the Huskies.

Ironically, it proved to be a preview of the twos upcoming clash this week.

Central Mountain boys battled hard, coming out with a close 45-38 contest while the girls tied Mifflin County 47-47.

The Bellefonte boys also came out on top on the evening, defeating Mifflin County 56-31 while the girls fell to a pretty scrappy Mifflin County girls team, 68-24.

“ Some of the kids swam two meets today so I was pleased how their heads were still in it,” Central Mountain coach Carol Matheney said. “They really encouraged each other. I think we have a few shoulder problems but I think they were careful in the swim but they are so fast their times were still in the same ballpark and there wasn’t any drops in time. So I think they did real well.

On the girls side, the Wildcats led off the meet with a first place in the 200-yard medlay relay. The combination of Rachel Marek, Eryn Bartlett, McCartney Register and Kelsie Buckwalter proved to be too much for the pack finishing with a top time of 2:09.58.

In the boys relay, the Wildcats took a second place nod with a time of 1:58.43.

Picking up a first place was the Bellefonte squad consisting of Patrick Scordato, Chance Foster, Colin Schnars and Grey Rockey, posting a time of 1:46.84.

It was two-for-two in the boys 200-yard freestyle as Jordan Sheetz picked up the first place finish for the Wildcats with a time of 2:16.89 while teammate Mark Myers was second, placing second with a 2:23.79.

The girls in the 200-yard IM also took the first two spots in their event when Register McCartney and Kelsie Buckwalter finished one and two with times of 2:34.96 and 2:44.68, respectively. McCartney’s time was good enough to qualify her for the PIAAs.

McCartney also took top honors in the 100-yard freestyle with another PIAA qualifying time of 1:02.53.

Olivia McGhee finished in the top spot for the Wildcats in the 100-yard butterfly with a PIAA qualifying time of 1:11.73.

Another Wildcat that finished in the second spot was Rachel Marek. Marek found silver in the girls 500-yard freestyle, finishing with a top PIAA qualifying score of 6:06.43. She was only seconds behind Miranda Fedor from Bellefonte, who finished with a time of 6:00.34.

In the girls 200-yard freestyle relay, the Wildcat combination of Erin Bartlett, Register, McGhee and Marek heated up the lane with a 1:56.24 time.

The boys also took top honors in same relay event as Emre Yakut, Carter Allison, Bob Clayton and Noah Klinger chipped into finish first with a time of 1:50.77.

Bellefonte had numerous first place finishes as well which was a delight for Red Raiders coach Serena Pfaff.

“I am very excited. These kids have been working very hard and they showed some great improvement tonight. There were a lot of personal bests time so I am happy with everything,” Pfaff said.

Bellefonte took the first relay of the evening when the 200-yard medley team of Patrick Scordato, Chance Foster, Colton Schnars and Rockey Grey finished with a time of 1:46.84.

Grey also took top honors in the 50-yard freestyle where he qualified for the PIAA s with a time of 23.91.

Grey finished second in the 100-yard butterfly just behind teammate Schnars. Schnars finished with a qualifying time of 54.00 while Grey also qualified with his second place time of 1:01.96.

Schnars wasn’t done there as he captured first in the 100-yard backstroke with another qualifying time of 1:00.45.

After taking the girls 500-yard freestyle, Fedor was also a force to be rekoned with in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing with a qualifying time of 1:19.77.

Rounding out the winners for the Red Raiders on the night were Foster (100-yard breaststroke) and the 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Both teams will meet again Tuesday at the Penn State Natatorium.

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