Gutshall, Padilla, Deeney excel at PAC Swimming Championships

King of Prussia >> In many ways, the Pioneer Athletic Conference Girls Swimming Championships on Friday night at Upper Merion High School unfolded as expected, with 10 of the 11 individuals or relay teams coming in with the top seed times winning their events.
But that’s not to say that there were no outstanding accomplishments.

Spring-Ford’s Ashley Gutshall managed to shave some time off a record-setting performance a couple of weeks ago in the 50 freestyle and she and teammate Maris Sadowski won four gold medals as Spring-Ford teams were victorious in all three relay events.

Phoenixville’s Kenzie Padilla won gold medals in the 200 free and 100 butterfly – the only swimmer to finish first in two individual races – and was a part of two relay teams that finished second.

And Phoenixville’s Maddy Deeney pulled off what may or may not be considered the only upset of the night when she won the 500 free and finished 1-2 in the 200 free with Padilla.

Gutshall had set a Ursinus College pool record in the final dual meet of the season, but topped that by five hundredths of a second with a time of 23.78.

“A new personal best, a new team mark,” she said. “I breathed less. I’ve been working on that for awhile. But this is the first time I actually put it to use. It’s less drag, because every time you turn your head, it’s drag.”

Gutshall was also excited with her and fellow Ram senior Sadowski’s performances throughout the evening.

“I’m very happy that I and the other seniors were first in all the relays,” said Gutshall. “It’s the first time getting four medals in PACs. That’s been our dream since freshman year.”

Sadowski also finished first in the 100 backstroke. Sydney Koehler and Abby Koehler were also part of the winning 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free relay teams.

Live championship swimming on the VC! William Spinetta McCarthy and JR Herman on the call. Join us at https://t.co/q8bBjAkMts now! @AthleticsFord @PvViking @AthleticsOjr @BashAthletics @NorristownAth @PASDPhantoms @MethactonSports @UPIndians

— Upper Merion Area School District (@UpperMerionSD) February 10, 2023

Padilla won the 200 free in 1:50.45 and the 100 fly in 55.26.

“I’m really excited with how I did today,” she said. “I think I got the All-American consideration time. I’m having a good season so far. We (she and Deeney) went 1-2 in the 200 free. That was exciting.”

Padilla beat her previous best time this season in the 200 free by almost two seconds.

“Some of the time comes with more rest and with more speed and power,” she said. “And I think I did better on some of my turns.”

“Kenzie has seven pool records this year before tonight,” said Phoenixville coach Dan Weinstein, “The two of them going 1-2 in the 200 free is really a spectacular accomplishment. They were first or second in everything they swam tonight.”

Deeney swam a 5:11.28 while winning the 500 free, knocking over 16 seconds off her previous best high school time this season and four seconds off her fastest club time.

“It was kind of crazy,” she said. ”I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting to finish first at PACs. In practice, I’ve been trying to keep more of a racing pace, so it paid off in the 500 a lot.”

Other winners were Methacton’s Madison Wimmer in the 200 individual medley, Owen J. Roberts’ Kaitlyn McGuire in the 100 free and Boyertown’s Tamara Engler in the 100 breaststroke.

Next for the PAC swimmers who have recorded district qualifying times will be the District 1 meet at the York County YMCA in two weeks. And they’ll be employing different training techniques between now and then to better their times.

“I want to fine-tune a lot of the technique stuff, and keep myself in shape,” said Gotshall. “I’ll keep training just as hard.”

Padilla will continue training for both her free and fly races.

“I’ll probably keep training hard,” she said. “I might do a small rest. I definitely enjoy doing different strokes. I also do cross country and track, so I do a variety of training.”

“We’re going back into practice on Monday,” Deeney added. “We’re going to do some different practice techniques.”

Owen J. Roberts, which won the official PAC championship by going 10-0 in dual meets, also finished first in the meet scoring on Friday. The Wildcats scored 512 points with Spring-Ford second with 362 points and Methacton third with 291.

PAC Championships

200 medley relay: 1. Spring-Ford (Maris Sadowski, Sydney Koehler, Abby Koehler, Ashley Gutshall), 1:46.60; 2. Phoenixville (Hadley Mardis, Maddy Deeney, Kenzie Padilla, Liza Barbash), 1:50.63; 3. Owen J. Roberts (Mackenzie Gorman, Jane Hummel, Emma Valbert, Kaitlyn McGuire), 1:52.80

200 freestyle: 1. Kenzie Padilla, Phoenixville, 1:50.45; 2. Maddy Deeney, Phoenixville, 1:55.41; 3. Eliana Crew, Owen J. Roberts, 1:59.05

200 individual medley: 1. Madison Wimmer, Methacton, 2:10.80; 2. Audrey Schroeder, Owen J.Roberts, 2:14.72; 3. Ella Dittmar, Perkiomen Valley, 2:16.64
50 freestyle: 1. Ashley Gutshall, Spring-Ford, 23.78; 2. Sydney Koehler, Spring-Ford, 24.97; 3. Kaitlyn McGuire, Owen J. Roberts, 25.13

100 butterfly: 1. Kenzie Padilla, Phoenixville, 55.26; 2. Eliana Crew, Owen J. Roberts, 59.84; 3. Mackenzie Gorman, Owen J. Roberts, 1:00.58

200 freestyle relay: 1. Spring-Ford (Maris Sadowski, Abby Koehler, Sydney Koehler, Ashley Gutshall), 1:37.84; 2. Phoenixville (Hadley Mardis, Liza Barbash, Maddy Deeney, Kenzie Padilla) 1:40.58; 3. Owen J Roberts (Natalie Spencer, Stefania Fedun, Brianne Cox, Eliana Crew) 1:42.17

100 freestyle: 1. Kaitlyn McGuire, Owen J. Roberts, 55.49; 2. Hadley Mardis, Phoenixville, 56.98; 3. Kate Spencer, Owen J. Roberts, 57.11

500 freestyle: 1. Maddy Deeney, Phoenxville, 5:11.28 2. Audrey Schroeder, Owen J. Roberts, 5:17.23; 3. Truly Sommer, Methacton, 5:20.43

100 backstroke: 1. Maris Sadowski, Spring-Ford, 58.17; 2. Madison Wimmer, Methacton, 59.82; 3. Beatriz Santos, Upper Perkiomen, 1:01.28

100 breaststroke: 1. Tamara Engler, Boyertown, 1:07.92; 2. Jane Hummel, Owen J. Roberts, 1:10.85; Ella Dittmar, Perkiomen Valley, 1:11.03

400 freestyle relay: 1. Spring-Ford (Ashley Gutshall, Abby Koehler, Sydney Koehler, Maris Sadowski), 3:35.75; 2. Owen J. Roberts (Kaitlyn McGuire, Audrey Schroeder, Mackenzie Gorman, Eliana Crew) 3:38.70; 3. Methacton (Truly Sommer, Lucy Michel, Ava Sgarra, Madison Wimmer), 3:48.93

Team scoring: 1. Owen J. Roberts 512; 2. Spring-Ford 362; 3. Methacton 291; 4, Phoenixville 230; 5. Perkiomen Valley 221; 6. Boyertown 182; 7. Pottsgrove 126; T-8. Upper Merion 85; T-8. Pope John Paul II 85; 10. Upper Perkiomen 74; 11. Norristown 2