Conestoga’s Brendan Burns leads the way for Pioneers at Districts
Conestoga’s Brendan Burns was named Swimmer of the Meet at the PIAA District 1 3A Swimming Championships March 3-4 at LaSalle University.
The Conestoga boys’ squad finished third at Districts, behind North Penn and Upper Dublin. Haverford was sixth, Radnor seventh and Harriton 27th.
Burns set a new District 1 meet record and broke former Olympic gold medalist Melvin Stewart’s pool record in the 100 fly with a 47.98. Burns also won the 100 back (48.04).
In the 200 medley relay, Conestoga’s relay of Burns, Evan Zhou, Oliver Brown and Arjun Rao broke the meet record with a 1:33.38 but came in second to North Penn (1:33.12). Haverford’s relay of Zach Given, David Abrahams, Jackson Graham and Leo Goldszal placed fourth (1:35.93).
In the 200 free, Conestoga’s Kevin Ryle (1:43.04) placed sixth; and Radnor’s James El-Deiry (1:56.36) placed seventh in the 200 IM.
In the 50 free, Radnor’s Patrick Cullen (21.06) placed third – a mere 0.04 seconds from the top finisher. Conestoga’s Oliver Brown (21.32) placed fifth, followed by Harriton’s Nick Anstadt (21.55) who placed seventh.
In the 200 free relay, Radnor’s Cullen, El-Deiry, Andrew Davis and Mlodzienski placed sixth with a 1:26.93; and in the 100 free, Radnor’s Cullen (46.31) earned fourth place.
Conestoga’s Ryle dropped 14 seconds in the 500 free to finish fifth with a 4:39.41, just edging out Haverford’s Pettit (4:39.69) who finished sixth.
In the 100 breaststroke, Haverford’s Abrahams (57.72), and Radnor’s El-Deiry (58.27) finished 5-6 respectively. In the 400 free relay, Conestoga’s Burns, Brown, Ryle and Rao placed foruth with a 3:07.19, followed by Radnor’s El-Deiry, Cullen, Davis and Mlodzienski in fifth with a 3:10.88.
Top 5 finishers in each event automatically advance to the PIAA State Championships at Bucknell University March 14-15, along with the remaining top 16 times among all 12 District Championships.
In the PIAA District 1 3A Girls Swimming Championships, Lower Merion’s Anna Kalandadze outswam all competitors in the 500 free for a first-place finish in a time of 4:50.51. Kalandadze finished second in the 200 free (1:51.46).
In the 200 Medley Relay, Conestoga’s relay of Sophia Poeta, Alex Marlow, Madison Ledwith and Lauren Diehl posted a team-record time of 1:47.94 for fifth place overall.
In the 100 fly, Conestoga’s Ledwith placed second with a time of 54.92 and placed foruth in the 100 free with a 51.07.
In the 100 back, Conestoga’s Poeta placed second with a 56.39. Radnor’s Grace Wakiyama (1:05.86) placed eighth in the 100 breaststroke.
In the final event, the 400 free relay, Conestoga’s relay of Poeta, Hay, Marlow and Ledwith (3:31.84) placed sixth.
Overall in the girls competition, Conestoga finished in sixth place (139.5 points), followed by Lower Merion in 11th place (80 points), Radnor in 28th place (11 points) and Haverford in 30th (7 points).
