Strong opening statement by North Penn in wins over Mount St. Joseph, St. Joseph’s Prep

TOWAMENCIN >> After a season marked by restrictions, social distancing and separate practices and meets for the boys and girls squads, North Penn was happy to have some company over Friday night.

“These kids have been dying for some competition. It’s been a long time coming,” coach Jeff Faikish said. “Coming out of the pandemic, and with all of the restrictions that happened last year, you could see that they’re thirsty for competition and and thirsty for normalcy.”

Holiday lights decorated the packed stands and North Penn was its normal December self, getting its season off to a tremendous start with victories over St. Joseph’s Prep and Mount St. Joseph.

The NP boys prevailed 104-71 over the Hawks and the NP girls were 100-78 winners over the Magic in the non-league matchups at the Rick Carroll Natatorium.

There’s still a mask mandate in place, but just about everything else about Friday started to feel more like seasons past.

“It was definitely nice to be back together as a team watching each other,” said senior Paige Mitchell. “We’re just pushing each other and getting better.”

North Penn got the meet started with a win in the 200 medley relay, thanks to the foursome of Kayla Stressman, Eva Welsh, Emma Raser and Layla Robey.

Madeline Faikish won the 200 free for the Knights, Stressman took the 200 IM and 100 back, and Raser was first in the 100 fly and 500 free. Also for North Penn, Robey won the 100 free, Welsh took the 100 breast, and the 200 free (Ava Zollars, Mikayla Potts, Faikish, Robey) and 400 free relays (Luna Hutchinson, Potts, Brenna Mancini, Welsh) were also victorious.

“It was a good meet. I felt like a lot of kids had some really fast times and a lot of people dropped time, which is good to see,” said Zollars, a senior.

“Coming out of water polo season, where the boys and girls won the state championship, they already have that drive,” coach Faikish said. “The honeymoon period is over. The beginning of the season was a little rough with some of the training, but we are now back at full swing with our practices. This is an excellent starting point for both the boys and the girls teams.

“I was really pleased. I thought some of our kids swam awesome. But it’s also an excellent opportunity to evaluate what we need to work on in practice.”

The boys were equally impressive.

North Penn’s 200 medley relay foursome of Mason Potts, Aidan Faikish, Bobby Freece and Jadyn Manning pointed the team in the right directions. Wins by Faikish (200 IM), Manning (50 free), Nathan Rawa (100 fly), Potts (100 free/100 back), and Nathan Wauls (100 breast) followed, and the 200 free (Potts, Faikish, Freece, Manning) and 400 free relays (Scott Klein, Manning, Danny Dunigan, Freece) were also fastest.

“It was a great meet,” said Klein, a senior. “We still have a lot of work to do around the edges but we’re pushing ourselves every day in practice and we’re really tired, to know we’re gonna do really well at the end of the season. So I think we’re off to a good start.”

It’s North Penn’s biggest team since 2015, and the pieces are fitting together.

Said Wauls: “A lot of good seniors left last year but it’s just a new role for us to fill. And for the juniors, sophomores and freshman as well, they’re coming into a spot that’s been left open. There’s room for changes within the team and how the team works.”

There were plenty of cheers on Friday night.

“We had a lot of tough training throughout the last two weeks. We put up some pretty good times,” Freece said. “We still have some improvements we need to make but we put up some good times. It was a crazy fun meet. We missed it. It was a lot different last year because of COVID.”

Amanda Conti had a nice meet for Mount, finishing first in the 50 free. Patrick Casey took the 200 and 500 freestyles for St. Joe’s.