PIAA Championships: Hatboro-Horsham girls lead Class 3A after Day One
LEWISBURG — The spectators had barely gotten settled in their seats Wednesday night and the Hatboro-Horsham girls already had themselves a state gold medal.
“It’s crazy. We have three freshmen in this relay so it’s just crazy we got to be state champs,” said a smiling Sarah Parker.
The Hatters raced to gold in the 200-yard medley relay, and they were just getting started. Hatboro-Horsham, after an overwhelming performance on Day One at the PIAA Championships at Bucknell University, lead Class 3A with 141 points (Hershey is second with 78).
“We’re so young. It’s really exciting. Hopefully, more to come,” said Emmy Erikson.
The La Salle boys are second in Class 3A after a strong opening day, trailing Liberty 109-105.
The girls diving will be held Thursday at 2:30, followed by the boys consolations and finals at 6:05 and the girls consolations and finals at 8:30.
“We all worked really hard for this so I feel like all of our efforts are paying off,” said Annie Jia of the Hatters.
Annie Jia had the kind of day freshmen dream about but seldom get to live out: she was a member of the gold-medal medley relay, and then later in the evening, she set a state record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.04.
Hatboro-Horsham was also awarded a silver in the 200 IM, thanks to Kathy Jia’s time of 2:01.36, and a fourth-place medal in the 50 free, with Parker touching in 23.27.
In the same manner that the medley foursome of junior Kathy Jia, freshmen Emmy Erikson, freshman Annie Jia and freshmen Sarah Parker started the meet, the 200 free relay group of Kathy Jia, Sarah Parker, senior Hannah Parker and senior Vivi Vergara finished it.
The Hatters bookended Day One with gold-medal relays, as Hatboro surged to a first-place time of 1:33.22 in the 200 free.
“I can’t even put it into words – I’m just so happy,” said Kathy Jia.
And there could be plenty more to come on Thursday.
Also from the area, North Penn’s Madeline Faikish raced to eighth in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.16.
In that free relay, Upper Dublin (Meghan DiMartile, Hannah McKeown, Maya Gondek, Korinna Pesti) placed fourth in 1:36.40, and North Penn (Sarah Poach, Kayla Stressman, Emma Raser, Madeline Faikish) was eighth in 1:37.58.
Abington’s Conor Gesing captured the state gold in the boys diving, compiling an impressive score of 559.40.
La Salle got its states started with a fourth-place medal in the 200 medley relay, as Matthew Sherry, Gavin Brooke, Tim Grossi and Andrew Acker went 1:32.90.
Also for the Explorers, Quinn Buck was third in the 50 free (20.41), Grossi was third in the 100 fly (48.91), and the free relay of Buck, Brooke, Acker and Andrew Boles was third in 1:24.06.
North Penn is fourth in the team standings in Class 3A, led by Mason Potts in the 200 free (eighth, 1:41.59) and Aidan Faikish in the 200 IM (sixth, 1:53.17).
The Knights’ 200 free relay of Potts, Jadyn Manning, Faikish and Robert Freece surged to sixth in 1:25.84.
