Mikayla Niness breaks three pool records as Owen J. Roberts remains unbeaten

BUCKTOWN >> Mikayla Niness’ name was already up on the record board on the wall overlooking the pool at Owen J. Roberts.

The Wildcats junior swimmer owned the team record for the 50 free and was part of last year’s group that broke the team record for the 200 free relay.

Niness added her name three more times to the board on Thursday as the Owen J. Roberts girls stayed undefeated with a 97-84 win over Boyertown.

On the boys’ side, Boyertown (7-2 PAC) defeated Owen J. Roberts (2-5 PAC), 98-82. With one meet remaining, the Bears are in second place behind Spring-Ford. Boyertown lost to the Rams, 89-81, on Wednesday in a meet where first place was up for grabs.

Niness broke individual pool records in the 50 free and the 100 free and also helped the 400 free relay team break a pool record.

“She always gets excited for her races, and that’s something that she, I’m sure every day at practice, takes a peak at,”

Owen J. Roberts coach Kevin Bott said. “Down the road at some point, she’s had aspirations I’m sure of being a part of that record board … She’s obviously a hard worker and today was a special day for her to be able to do it.”

Owen J. Roberts (7-0 Pioneer Athletic Conference) and Boyertown (8-1 PAC) came into Thursday’s meet with unblemished league records. The Wildcats’ depth was ultimately too much as Owen J. stayed on top of the league standings.

Niness swam the 50 free in a time of 24.06 seconds, breaking the mark of 24.24 previously set in 2016 by Phoenixville’s Maddie Cooke, who now swims at Penn State. Her time of 53.05 in the 100 free broke the mark of former Owen J. Roberts swimmer Rachel Gadzicki, who also swam at Penn State.

Niness teamed with Abbey Malmstrom, Lauren Zelinske and Lilia Crew in the 400 free relay to set a new pool record with a time of 3:41.17.

“We were really excited and Boyertown is a very good team,” Niness said. “We were both undefeated, so it was a big head-to-head meet.”

“We just knew all around that we had to try and get every single place that we could,” she added. “The girls are really excited for the rest of the season.”

Other winners for Owen J. Roberts included Meredith Mutter (200 IM), Kendall Obara (100 fly) and Zelinske (100 back). Niness, Malmstrom, Zelinske and Mutter won the 200 IM relay, and Obara, Mutter, Veronica Roach and Ella Greenholt won the 200 free relay to round out the Wildcats’ victories.

Gabrielle McKee (200 free and 500 free), Carolyn Cooley (diving) and Angie Nelson (100 back) won races for Boyertown.

“Any time two undefeated teams compete with each other, there’s going to be an extra level of energy,” Bott said.

“Both teams responded very well, and we feel fortunate with result. (Boyertown is) a very powerful team, and they’ve got a lot of talent, and they’re going to continue to progress and have a great end of the year themselves. We hope that our end of the year is favorable as well.”

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In boys action, Nolan Benner, who won the 50 free (22.11), the 100 breast (1:02.45) and helped the 200 free and 200 IM relays to victory, was a standout for the Bears.

Noah Vivian (200 free) and Justin Morris (500 free) were the other individual winners for Boyertown. The 200 IM team of Benner, Morris, Oliver Tye and Aaron Keifer and the 200 Free team of Benner, Stephen Cisik, Keifer and Tye also won.

Jonah Kasznay (200 IM and 100 back), Tristan Olson (diving), Dalton Fink (100 fly), Zach Bowker (100 free) won individual races for Owen J. Roberts.

Boyertown coach Bill Draves noted that freshman Conner Stoudt, who finished second in the 200 free and 500 free, and first-year diver Adriano Domingueti, who finished second, have really helped his team pick up points this year.

“We’ve got one more meet left, and we’ve finished off very well, just about where we were last year,” Draves said.

“Right now, we’ve got about 98 percent of our kids qualified for PAC championships,” he added. “My goal is to keep the yardage up, taper the majority of those kids for PAC to get additional district cuts. The kids who have district cuts are going to swim through PACs and taper for districts.”