North Penn swim teams bring it all together at District 1-3A Championships

TOWAMENCIN >> It’s business as usual at the Rick Carroll Natatorium, as the North Penn boys and girls swimming and diving teams — after a tremendous performance at the District One Championships — are right back to work again.

The Knights hit the water, with extra steam in their strides.

The North Penn girls surged to third place in the District 1-3A Team Standings this past weekend in York, and the NP boys, calculated as possibly a 120-point underdog, rose to the top to claim the team trophy.

“At the beginning of the season, we weren’t too sure. But we have confidence going into the state championship now,” said Mason Potts, who had one of the finest meets of his career.

“Being the underdog this year made it that much better,” said Danny Dunigan, who also had a stellar meet. “We’re really excited for states. A lot of kids who weren’t expected to get points or anything at districts are going to states. Maybe they could even score at states and win a state championship this year.”

North Penn was at its collective best at districts, with possibly more in store.

Said coach Jeff Faikish: “I told them, they have earned the right to be fast this year. They have put in so much work. This group has overcome so much adversity the past couple years with COVID and shutdowns. The one thing they did really, really well was come together as a team and train really hard this year. They stayed the course and when the time called for it, they rose to the occasion.”

The NP boys secured the team title with a silver-medal finish in a fast 400-yard freestyle relay (3:06.04). Potts, Aidan Faikish, Bobby Freece and Scott Klein brought it home.

“I had no other events on Day Two other than the 400 free relay, and I was the leadoff leg,” Potts said. “So I had to try really hard and in the end, I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do. (Waiting for that last event) was a little bit nerve-racking, having to wait around for so long. But it wound up being fine.”

Potts also raced to a silver in the 200 free (1:40.63) and a third in the 100 fly (50.48), giving the Knights a huge boost towards overcoming Conestoga.

“We were calculating (the projections) so many times,” Potts said. “We were a little nervous, and then we kind of clutched up at the end so it was really a good team effort by everyone.”

Dunigan cranked out a 4:35.70 in the 500 free, powering him to the silver.

“We weren’t expected to win, but the guys came out strong and did their best,” Dunigan said of the title. “That 500 was just really fun. I know a bunch of the guys in that race so I was just trying to stay with them and do my best to beat them.”

The 200 free relay team of Jadyn Manning, Klein, Freece, and Aidan Faikish captured the gold medal in 1:26.26.

The 200 medley relay provided a great start to the meet, with Potts, Nathan Wauls, Nathan Rawa and Manning pushing hard to the silver, in 1:34.20.

The NP girls, meanwhile, finished things off with a spectacular 400 free relay, with a team of Layla Robey, Sarah Poach, Emma Raser and Madeline Faikish hammering to a 3:32.90, good for a fifth-place medal.

Said Madeline Faikish of the weekend as a whole: “We put our heart into everything we swam.”

Faikish raced to sixth in the 200 freestyle in 1:53.32 and earned another medal in the 500 free, earning seventh in 5:08.03.

Emma Raser was sixth in the 200 IM in 2:07.38 and Eva Welsh was fifth in the 100 breast in 1:06.13.

“It’s getting us all hyped and excited for states,” Welsh said. “We worked really hard to get back together this year after COVID. Finally getting back to normalcy this year, we grew really tight and connected. It was just a really nice environment, and that helps.”