All-Delco Swimming: For Hart and Boratto, camaraderie is reward enough

HAVERFORD >> In her stellar career, Maddie Hart has collected accolades aplenty — medals, records, trophies, All-American recognition. She’s raced the best talents in one of the country’s deepest veins of swimming excellence, establishing her place within that hierarchy.

But after four years at Haverford High, through eight states medals including two golds and three silvers, she reserves the warmest memories for something much less tangible.

“I don’t really remember any of my times throughout the year or what places I’ve finished,” Hart said. “I remember having an amazing team. I honestly don’t remember a single race, but I’ll always remember after the race, being able to hug my teammates or having my coach Matt (Stewart) give me a huge high five and have a smile on his face. That’s what makes me really proud.

“When I think back to states memories, hugging my teammates and high-fiving my team after races is the one thing that stands out.”

In two years, Alex Boratto could reach a similar position. The Haverford School standout has competed for the Fords since eighth grade, and his sophomore year was the breakout campaign that his immense ability and growth spurt to 6-foot-3 portended.

Where Hart has summited the mountain of high school competition and is looking back fondly on the journey, Boratto is still ascending, his teammates occupying a central role in his labor.

“We like to push each other,” Boratto said of a Fords program in the midst of its best stretch. “We get to say things in practice that you wouldn’t see other friends maybe say to each other to motivate each other to swim fast.”

In each luminary’s case, individual success is inseparable from the team component. And the balance they’ve struck between the two makes Hart and Boratto the 2015-16 Daily Times Swimmers of the Year.

Joining them on the All-Delco team is the six-strong contingent from Episcopal Academy: Ben Baturka, Ivan Puskovitch and Andrew Owsiany on the boys side; Alex Sumner, Emma Seiberlich and Sarah Baturka on the girls. Boratto is accompanied by teammates Matt Haigh and Charlie Ryan. Rounding out the team are Radnor’s Greg Giannella and Julia Cullen, Penncrest’s Claire Walsh and Strath Haven’s Frances Resweber.

The honorees include three former swimmers of the year: Sarah Baturka (2013), Seiberlich (2014) and Haigh (2015), while Hart garners that honor for a second straight season. Hart and Ben Baturka are four-time selections.

Resweber, Sarah Baturka and Seiberlich make their third appearances, the latter with a chance at the sweep next season. Eight of the 14 picks are multiple-time selections.

All four classes are represented, from freshmen Walsh and Puskovitch to three sophomores, three juniors and six seniors. The All-Delco team is selected in consultation with local coaches.

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Hart’s history is well chronicled. The youngest of four swimming siblings, Hart burst on to the scene as a freshman. Records and medals have followed at a steady pace, and the tide didn’t slow this season.

She won a District One Class AAA title in a district record time in the 100 butterfly, then finished runner-up to Pennridge’s Brittany Weiss in the 100 backstroke, knocking her out of contention for the Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet honor that she garnered as a junior.

At states, Hart rose to the occasion once again, dashing her Delco mark by winning the 100 fly in 53.35, an automatic All-American time. To illustrate how fast her career has been, consider that until 2014 the 100 fly Delco record had held since 1985 at 56.90 seconds, set by Garnet Valley’s Jen Ritins. Two EA swimmers (McKenzie Street and Emily Rhodes) have claimed the record for brief periods, but no one has lowered it as drastically as Hart.

At states, Hart settled for silver in the 100 back, not able to match Weiss’s speed in 54.65 seconds. Though Hart’s county record in the event was seized by Sumner, Hart set the fourth-fastest time in the 100 free (52.01) and the fastest 100 free relay split (50.76) to demonstrate her versatility.

Hart’s senior campaign was about relishing in the process. She resolved to solidify her college decision before the season began, taking visits to four Division I programs before settling on Penn State.

“I felt like I really connected on the campus with the overall atmosphere and also with the team,” Hart said. “The team was awesome and it felt super normal, and I feel like I clicked with them.”

Boratto, meanwhile, is building his way towards a Division I future, and the early leaps in that growth have been outstanding.

The Blue Bell native started swimming at age 6, and his commitment got serious later in elementary school. After a stint with Penn Charter Aquatic Club, he moved to Upper Dublin Aquatic Club, the program that furnished the high school squad that won the District One Class AAA title and was the PIAA runner-up. With UDAC, Boratto has achieved a U.S. Olympic Trials cut in the 100 back and is .11 seconds away in the 200 back.

The combination of club yardage and Haverford School coach Sean Hansen’s intensity that has added muscle to Boratto’s rangy frame has allowed him to blossom. He won Eastern Interscholastic Championships titles in the 100 fly (in 50.11 seconds) and 100 back (49.62) while aiding the Fords’ silver medal in the 400 free relay and fourth in the medley.

Boratto still fell short of his stated goals in both events — breaking 2014 Swimmer of the Year Jimmy Jameson’s team record of 49.99 in the 100 fly and downing the meet record (49.08 by Tim Wynter of Andover School) in the 100 back. But those lofty aspirations speak to Boratto’s immense upside.

Plus, the more pertinent team goal of repeating the Fords’ best-ever program finish at Easterns when they took second in 2015 was duly achieved.

“I knew we had it in us, especially when our guys looked through (the psych sheets),” Boratto said. “I think the big goal for us as a team was chasing Peddie, which we fell a little short of. That’ll always be a goal for us, getting that No. 1 spot, but I think next year’s also going to be a very big year, and I think defending that second place and shooting for first place is going to be big for us.”

Boratto has also become a central participant in the barrage of records authored by 12 All-Delco picks in the last five years, including the last four swimmers of the year, a testament to the arsenal Hansen has stocked.

“I look at that and I think, wow things keep getting faster,” Boratto said. “And that’s a huge shoutout to Sean for making us faster. We keep getting stronger and we keep getting faster, and I think those records every year are going to keep dropping.”

Hart can appreciate that perspective, given the long view she’s been privy to at Haverford. From her eldest brother Alex, to All-Delco sister Taylor and brother Connor, Maddie has been on deck for a decade. She entered high school in three-time swimmer of the year Shane Ryan’s wake, at a time when Haverford boys swimmers were fixtures on district podiums and in state meets.

Thanks to Hart’s guidance, that’s the position the girls team has been in the last four years. And Hart hopes that her influence on those younger than her will help extend that reign beyond her career’s end.

“Seeing that legacy that Shane left behind, I never thought that I could live up to it,” she said. “And it’s cool to see that I was able to accomplish some things as big as he was able to.”