Trophy time for North Penn, as Knights win SOL Colonial title

TOWAMENCIN — North Penn pushed hard to the wall and got its postseason off to a roaring start, piling up 481.5 points to climb atop the Suburban One League’s Colonial Division.

The Knights put together a complete effort to win the team title Saturday afternoon at a packed Rick Carroll, outlasting rival Souderton Area (374.5) for the crown.

“This was a good showing of how good our team is together,” said North Penn’s Sarah Poach. “This is really good for our team.”

Poach grabbed the silver in the 100 fly (59.64). Then, she joined Layla Robey, Madeline Faikish and Emma Raser for a silver medal in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:38.94) and was soon after the bronze medalist in the 500 free (5:24.83). She and the Knights capped off the morning by racing to silver in the 400 free relay with a foursome of Poach, Stressman, Madeline Faikish and Layla Robey (3:38.63).

North Penn had significant swims in every event, even placing second and third in the 100 back (Anna Evans, 1:00.01; Emma Raser, 1:00.40).

“This is a really good start. I think we have good momentum going into districts,” said Poach.

Central Bucks East placed third at the event (341), followed by Pennridge (282), Central Bucks South (243) and Central Bucks West (228).

North Penn, which got off to a good start with the diving on Wednesday, followed through with the first swim event Saturday, as Ava Zollars, Eva Welsh, Kayla Stressman and Raser surged to a bronze medal in the 200 medley relay with a 1:51.79.

“It’s the culmination of a lot of effort, a lot of kids,” said Knights coach Jeff Faikish, who guided both the boys and girls teams to the division titles on Friday and Saturday. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of depth on this team, and today was a testament to how hard these girls have been training all season long.

“We swam some kids around in different events today and it was incredible to see everyone rising to the occasion. There were plenty of kids that swam their go-to events but there were about half of the kids that did not, and seeing how they placed is awesome.”

North Penn strengthened its lead with Mikayla Potts’ silver in the 200 free (1:57.82) and Stressman’s bronze in the 200 IM (2:15.40).

“A bunch of kids made district cuts today so we’re solidifying our roster for districts. Moving forward, these girls are definitely in the right spot,” said coach Jeff Faikish.

The dark, cold mornings of January have given way to much brighter prospects.

“We’re gonna start resting now, and the end is in sight,” Faikish said. “This is the exciting time of the year.”

Souderton Area’s 200 medley relay group of Mikayla Scardino, Jessica Burns, Abby Burns and Anna Staufer came out and won gold, pushing to a 1:48.52.

Big Red wasn’t done.

Souderton’s foursome of Stauffer, Scardino, Abby Burns and Jessica Burns won the 200 free relay (1:38.58) and came out for an encore in the 400 free, the combo of Scardino, Stauffer, Abby Burns and Jessica Burns again winning gold (3:36.97).

“We really made a point to put all of our best girls in our three relays today,” said Big Red coach Lou Williams. “We sacrificed some individual swims for the relays and we wound up winning all three, so it was really a great day for our girls.”

Jessica Burns won the 200 IM (2:11.88) and Abby Burns took the 100 fly (58.59) for Big Red.

It was a tremendous meet for Pennridge’s Lauren Scott, who wore the gold in the 200 free (1:56.76) and 100 free (53.10). Also for the Rams, Ally Ricciardi outraced everybody in the 50 free (24.07).

Central Bucks West’s Lina Hofmann was the silver medalist in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.11).