Conestoga’s Burns grabs another state title; named Swimmer of the Meet

LEWISBURG >> Even if you didn’t know that Conestoga’s Brendan Burns was the most outstanding swimmer at the PIAA Class 3A Swimming and Diving Championships, it was pretty easy to figure it out. He was the guy who had to stop numerous times after every race to allow selfies from a bunch of fellow competitors.

Yes, Burns is a statewide swimming celebrity now.

During the second and final day of competition on Thursday at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium, the junior successfully defended his state crown in the 100-yard butterfly, and then led off the Pioneers’ 400 freestyle relay that finished third and shattered the school record.

“Brendan is one in a million. He’s a hard working kid, and it doesn’t matter what he’s doing, he is focused on it,” Conestoga head coach Mark Tione said.

“I really like tense racing atmospheres,” Burns acknowledged. “The louder the crowd cheers, the more my heart gets racing and the better I swim. I like it nice and rowdy when I swim.”

In all, Burns nabbed a pair of individual golds and two more bronze medals in the relays to power Conestoga to a fifth place team finish with 106.5 points. And to top it all off, he was officially named the “Swimmer of the Meet.”

“I was a little disappointed I didn’t get it last year, so to come back and get it against really good competition is a great honor,” Burns said. “It was definitely on my mind.”

West Chester Henderson (15th overall), Kennett (21st) and Oxford (30th) were also among the team leaders. In all, local swimmers took home four individual medals and grabbed seven top-10 finishes.

For the second straight day, Kennett’s Emils Jurcik had to settle for a runner-up finish to North Allegheny’s Rick Mihm — this time in the 500 freestyle. But the senior bettered his time by two full seconds from a year ago with a 4:28.04.

“Anybody who goes 4:24 (like Mihm did) deserves to win,” Jurcik said.

Downingtown East’s Ben Doyle and West Chester Henderson’s Liam Pitt also made appearances in the finals, but Burns was clearly the center of attention. Even though he hadn’t tapered at all for the state meet, Burns cruised to the title in the 100 backstroke, establishing a personal best time of 46.93, which is also a school record.

“Brendan just exploded off the first turn,” Tione said. “He came off that wall with his legs driving. He got a body length right there, and that was it. Lights out.

“Because you know he’s not slowing down until he hits that wall.”

According to Tione, backstroke is Burns’ third best stroke behind freestyle and the butterfly — and he won his second straight state crown in the 100 butterfly on Wednesday. And this week, everybody was gunning for him.

“But I think he feeds off that,” Tione said.

“I was not expecting a 46.9. My turns felt really good,” Burns added. “Hopefully I can go into YMCA Nationals in a couple weeks when I’m shaved and tapered and drop some more time.”

To end the meet, Burns teamed with Oliver Brown, Owen Neumann and Kevin Ryle in the 400 freestyle relay. The time of 3:10.58 was good for a bronze medal.

“It was a school record by far, and I’m sure it is going to stick around for a while,” Tione predicted.

“The relay was absolutely incredible,” Burns added. “It was probably the best relay I’ve even been on.”

Jurcik led midway through the 500 freestyle but was soon caught by Mihm. He was second on Wednesday in the 200 IM.

“I went out faster than I expected and I kind of died at the end,” said Jurcik. “I’m usually behind at that point. It was a lot of adrenaline. But I wasn’t as shaky as I was last year.”

A sophomore, Doyle’s time of 57.6 was good enough for sixth place in the 100 breaststroke. And Pitt wrapped up his high school career with an eighth place finish in the 100 freestyle (45.83).

“Considering that I’ve been practicing daily with my club team, I think my performance was pretty good,” Doyle said. “I thought my start was good but I have to work on my turns a little bit.”

Pitt’s performance was a mere two-hundredths of a second off his career best set in the district meet.

“I dropped some time from the morning and I felt it was a better swim,” Pitt said.