All-Delco Swimming: Abruzzo, Puskovitch head star-studded group
NEWTOWN SQUARE – When the swimming careers of Mia Abruzzo and Ivan Puskovitch are over, after college and whatever else lies beyond, the high school slate of events will seem a distant memory.
Abruzzo, a sophomore at Notre Dame, has nabbed qualifying times for the 2020 U.S. Olympics Trials in the 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley. Not only are they two of the most arduous, pain-inducing events on the slate, they’re both well beyond the scope of high school, for sheer dearth of swimmers able to complete them much less excel in them.
So unusual is her area of expertise that she wears the oddity like a badge.
“I don’t know. I enjoy them,” She said. “I think we have a lot of training background, so I guess that’s why they’re on the better side of my events. … I think it’s more of a mental thing. Going into practice, instead of doing a 200 fly, we’ll do a 400. So going into the race, a 200 doesn’t really seem as much.”
Puskovitch knows that mindset. He’s excelled in the 200 IM and 500 free in high school, the two longest events. But for someone who has swum internationally in the open water discipline, covering 10 kilometers, the 500 isn’t much.
“Some people think the 500 is a distance race; I don’t consider it distance anymore,” he said. “Having done events like 10K in open water, the 500 kind of feels like a sprint.”
The Episcopal Academy senior’s future at the University of Southern California won’t entail much of even the 500, he supposes. The 1,000, the mile, the 400 IM – that’s where his future lies, plus his favored open water races, which fall outside NCAA governance.
“Mentally, it kind of makes the races feel a little bit easier during the actual race itself because I know I’m not going to be swimming for two hours,” Puskovitch said. “But the amount of endurance, the level of hard work and stamina that I gain from training from those long open-water races and the mile, it definitely helps me in the 500 because I know that when all eight people in a heat, myself included, are feeling that horrible pain on the last two laps of the 500, I always believe that I’m the one that’s most well-equipped.”
The sheer talent, in high school and beyond, is what makes Abruzzo and Puskovitch the 2019 Daily Times Swimmers of the Year.
They are joined on the All-Delco first team by: Abruzzo’s Notre Dame teammates Madison Kolessar and Ashley Kolessar; Puskovitch’s EA mates Sam Wesley and Cole Whitsett; the Garnet Valley duo of Noelle DiClemente and Catherine Weaverling; Agnes Irwin senior Maddie Aguirre; Marple Newtown freshman diver Alexandra Pastris; Haverford School’s Brian Brennan and Antonio Octaviano; Patrick Cullen of Radnor; and Alex Boeckx of Ridley.
It’s a star-studded team whose college destinations read like a who’s who of NCAA powers. Abruzzo is the swimmer of the year for the second straight year. Puskovitch is making his fourth All-Delco appearance (and was quick enough to have been an All-Delco as an eighth-grader). Brennan is making his third All-Delco appearance. Madison Kolessar, DiClemente, Aguirre, Octaviano, Whitsett and Cullen are on the team for a second time each.
All four classes are represented. Ashley Kolessar and Pastris are freshmen, while Abruzzo and Weaverling are sophomores. Save for Puskovitch and Cullen, all of the boys All-Delco team is comprised of members of a stellar class of 2020.
The All-Delco team is selected by the Daily Times in consultation with area coaches.
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For both Puskovitch and Abruzzo, the 2018-19 season brought adjustments. Notre Dame received an infusion of talent, the Kolessar sisters bolstering the squad. From a team that last year struggled to break into A finals at Easterns, the Irish were now serious medal contenders.
READ: All-Delco Swimming: Successful return for Note Dame’s Kolessar
Abruzzo has been friends with the Kolessars for years, and while they don’t train together regularly, the dynamic at meets changed with such talent, giving Abruzzo more of a leadership burden.
“It was pretty awesome to have a team that was really in it,” she said. “It was really nice because every race we had, every relay, was really exciting and close, and last year, it wasn’t as much there.”
On the personal side, Abruzzo also faced an adjustment. For years, she’d trained alongside her brother, former Germantown Academy standout Andrew. With Andrew, who capped an SEC All-Freshman season at the University of Georgia, Mia always had a natural goal to chase, trying to keep up with her brother in the same lane.
Without him, things were different.
“I think not having him around in general was a really big adjustment, but by now I’m kind of used to it,” Mia said. “I have a lot of great teammates not at my club team. … He never really had anyone to race, but I always did. Now there are still a few boys that are faster than me at my club.”
Puskovitch can relate to the increased talent. For years, coach Brian Kline has been incubating a gifted class one year younger than Puskovitch. With Wesley, his brother Ben and Whitsett, Puskovitch had skilled talents around him, fostering a greater mentorship role.
“In my entire time on this team, I’ve always tried to be a big motivator, but with the level of confidence that we had this year, it wasn’t a matter of motivating people, it was a matter of maintaining motivation,” he said. “Everyone on the team came into the season with no shortage of motivation, no shortage of confidence, from the first meet to the end.”
READ: Swimming & Diving: The All-Delco Teams
Each swimmer has two teammates on the first team, a sign of how the growth manifested at Easterns. Abruzzo won the 200 IM in 2:00.27, undercutting her county record in a 1-2 finish with Ashley Kolessar. On the same night, she won the 100 fly in 54.91 and helped the Notre Dame medley relay finish fifth.
On night two, she saved up for the 400 free relay, her split of 51.02 on the anchor bringing Notre Dame home in second place on the way to fifth as a team.
Puskovitch likewise set the tone in the IM. His 1:48.88 was an All-American time that dashed the Delco mark held since 2000 by Brendan Hansen at 1:50.15. He helped EA finish seventh in the 200 free relay.
Day 2 produced the race of the meet, with Puskovitch going stroke for stroke with Mercersburg’s Ford Blaylock. Both were under the Franklin & Marshall pool record, but Blaylock edged him to the wall by .06, Puskovitch settling for second in 4:22.36. That set the Delco record, the third time he lowered his mark in the event and five seconds faster than what he set last year at Easterns. He capped the meet in the 400 free relay, EA taking fifth to claim second place in the boys competition and earn the inaugural combined cup.
For Puskovitch, it was an apt way to cap six years on varsity, the latest in a long line of memories that has remade the boys program at EA.
“I’m never going to forget these six years,” he said. “I’m definitely going to carry a lot of the things I’ve learned about racing and team dynamic and how to hopefully lead a team into my next four years of swimming at university level. It’s definitely made me a stronger person, a smarter person and made me appreciate people for what they offer and what they bring to the table when it comes to athletics and the team.”
