District One Championships: Upper Perk’s Fresa swims to gold

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PHILADELPHIA >> Upper Perkiomen’s Noel Fresa took a peek at the adjacent lanes and had a few jitters.
“I was really nervous, actually,” the junior said afterwards with a smile, “because I lost to both (Kayla Lichtner of Nazareth and Springfield Montco’s Maura Fluehr) last year. So I was like ‘I might lose again.’ I was happy I won.”
This time around, it was Fresa outracing the competition, as the Indians standout rose to gold-medal status in the District 1-2A 100-yard freestyle.
“It feels pretty great. I was really excited,” said Fresa, who finished with a time of 51.67 seconds to win the title at La Salle University Sunday.
Fresa got the bronze a season ago, but this year overcame strong performances by Fluehr (51.85) and Lichtner (52.96) to take top honors. It was Fresa’s second gold of the weekend — she raced to first in the 200 free on Saturday with a time of 1:52.14.
“I worked really hard this season and I feel like I got faster,” she said. “I like this pool a lot. It’s really fast. I always drop time.
“I’m excited going into states. I should have good seeds and have a good chance to medal again.”
The Indians surged to fifth in the team scoring in Class 2A, with Madison Modugno placing sixth in the 100 free and Darragh Martin racing to sixth in the 100 back. Also, Upper Perk’s 400 free relay team of Fresa, Devin Romanowski, Bailey McCausland and Madison Modugno earned the silver.
Pottsgrove’s Sydney Schwanbeck pushed to seventh in the 100 free and the Falcons’ Molly Krock notched seventh in the 100 back.
Later in the day, Upper Perk’s Kyle Kovalenko earned silver in the 3A 100 breast, touching in 57.79.
Perkiomen Valley’s Jacob Replogle medaled in the 500 free, placing fourth with a 4:40.72. In that same race, Spring-Ford’s Luke McKenna raced to seventh in 4:45.13.
Also, Dalton Frink of Owen J. Roberts earned eighth in the 100 back with a 52.42.
The Upper Merion 400 free relay team of Michael Lemishko, C.J. Besz, Andrew Hoy and Aidan McNally raced to seventh in 3:13.07.

 

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Kev Hunter

Kevin Hunter
Kev Hunter is a sports reporter for Montco Media. He has been a staff writer for The Reporter Newspaper in Lansdale since 2000. Prior to that, he covered sports for The Day Newspaper in New London, Conn. He began his writing career at The Courier-Post in South Jersey, along with covering prep football in Pa. for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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