Mercury All-Area: Spring-Ford senior Patrick Baganski rises up to lead Rams to first PAC title, earn state medal

By his own admission, Patrick Baganski is not a morning person. For the biggest individual swim of his life, he had to be.

It was the morning of March 13 at Bucknell University. The Spring-Ford senior had qualified for the PIAA state championship in the 50 freestyle, same as he had as a junior. In 2023, he placed16th in the preliminary round morning session, good enough to make the cut for that evening’s ‘B’ final but short of the top eight swimmers who advance to the ‘A’ final and guarantee themselves a state medal. Baganski finished 14th in the ‘B’ final.

This year, Baganski entered the morning swim seeded seventh, having dropped his seed time 0.23 seconds from the previous year. Everything was right in front of him, with just one key downside.

“I have never swam as well in the morning, so I had to really hype myself up,” Baganski said. “I’m usually better at night.”

On this day in 2024, Baganski flipped the script. He swam that preliminary race in 20.90 seconds, taking 0.04 more ticks off his seed time, good for fifth place and a spot in the ‘A’ final later that evening. He finished the night swim in eighth place (21.06) to earn his first state medal. In fact, Baganski, who helped lead Spring-Ford to its first Pioneer Athletic Conference championship in program history during a stellar senior season, was the only PAC boys swimmer to medal at states, earning him the nod as the 2024 Mercury All-Area Boys Swimmer of the Year.

“When I touched at 20.90 I knew I had a good chance of finaling, but I didn’t know until I walked over to the coaches,” Baganski recalled. “Once I saw the results, I was filled with ecstasy and happiness knowing that I would medal.”

This conclusion was a long time coming for Baganski, who, like many that ultimately dedicate themselves to the sport, grew up in a swimming family. At age 6 he began swimming at the Phoenixville YMCA, which remained his club team throughout high school. Baganski’s father, Mike, swam collegiately at Ursinus, and his older brother, Brendan, also swam at Spring-Ford, holding the school records in the 50 and 100 freestyle before Patrick broke both.

The first couple of years in the pool were just for fun, with Baganski starting to take it seriously around age 10 after qualifying for a big YMCA event. That, coupled with an opportune growth spurt, convinced Baganski he had what it took to excel competitively at the high school level.

“The past three years, I’ve been at the top of my game,” he said.

The pandemic drastically truncated his first season. As a sophomore, Baganski qualified for districts for the first time in the 50 free and 100 backstroke but came up short in getting to states.

Baganski’s continued rise as a junior coincided with Spring-Ford’s. For the second straight season the Rams finished in second place in the PAC behind Owen J. Roberts, but the gap was closing. In the postseason, Baganski won the 50 free at PACs and improved his placement enough in the 50 and 100 backstroke at districts to qualify for both at states. He was also a member of Spring-Ford’s 200 free and 200 medley relay teams to make it to the state meet, both of which fell just short of making it to the ‘B’ final.

“That’s when our team started getting good, with our relays doing better as well,” Baganski said. “Making it to states individually and in relays was the goal for the season. We didn’t make it to the finals in relays, but it was a good learning experience going into senior year once I knew we could get there.”

This past season, the Rams went 10-0 during the regular season, finally overtaking OJR atop the PAC. At the PAC championship, Spring-Ford won six of the 11 events, with Baganski winning the 100 backstroke (setting a school and Upper Merion pool record) and swimming on three victorious relays in the 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free. Baganski swam the three relays and one individual event instead of his usual two and two in hopes of better positioning Spring-Ford’s relay teams for districts and states, showcasing his selfless side in an individualized sport. He broke the 50 free school record while leading off the 200 free relay at PACs before breaking it again individually at states.

“I love relays — my favorite events to swim,” he said. “It’s super fun to incorporate everyone within the team. The individual records are great, but the team-oriented stuff is way more important to me. We finally won a PAC team championship and got to celebrate together, and then being able to bring so many relays to districts and states was fun to experience those bigger meets with more teammates.”

Baganski finished third in the 50 free and ninth in the 100 backstroke at districts and was on the 200 free relay team that finished third, along with fellow seniors Kyle Kruppa and Dylan Dayrit and freshman Justin Delp. At states, in addition to Baganski’s individual medal, he came up just short of the ‘A’ final in the 200 free and 400 free relays, with Spring-Ford finishing 10th in both.

“The goals were to medal in the 200 free and 400 free relays, so to be so close was a bit disappointing,” Baganski said. “Obviously we would have liked to do better, but given how much the team has improved, it also showed our resilience. To end with three finals swims in my senior year is really special.”

Spring-Ford head coach Jack Graham just finished his third season at the school but has coached plenty of elite swimmers in the area going back to his previous 18-year stint as the head coach at Perkiomen Valley through 2014, where he won 299 dual meets and 11 league titles. Baganski, Graham said, is near the top.

“Patrick’s a pro,” Graham said. “As our program matured this season, that corresponded with his development, and a program can only be successful if the best athlete buys in. Patrick has a calm, quiet confidence to the point where if he said we were going to do something, I believed it. He was willing to do whatever was best for Spring-Ford and his teammates for us to make it to states.

“It’s not often your top swimmer would give up an individual event for his teammates, but Patrick did, and that speaks volumes for him. That calm, quiet confidence he adopted was accepted and taken on by the rest of the team.”

Spring-Ford’s Patrick Baganski, center, Owen J. Roberts’ Colin Davis, left, and Owen J. Roberts’ Patrick Bowker took the top 3 spots in the 100 backstroke at the PAC Swimming Championships on Feb. 9 at Upper Merion. (Courtesy Dennis Weller)

One other Baganski anecdote from states stuck with Graham, and it had nothing to do with swimming. The Rams took enough swimmers to Bucknell to require multiple hotel rooms, and before Graham could even consider roommate assignments, Baganski took it upon himself to volunteer to bunk with Delp, who was making his first trip to states as a freshman.

“His thinking with Justin was next level,” Graham said. “He just said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be my roommate,’ to show Justin how to be serious and stay focused. What I was hoping for with the culture, Patrick took it on without me having to say anything.”

It all adds up to a spectacular swimming career, one that Baganski decided will stop here. He knows he’s talented enough to swim in college, but has decided not to in order to focus on other pursuits. He’s still figuring out his college decision and major — something STEM related, like economics, is the current frontrunner — but knows swimming won’t be a part of it, and Baganski is just fine with that.

“I’ve been swimming for 12 years, and ultimately I’m happy with my times and what I’ve accomplished,” he said. “It’s a decision I’ve struggled with going back to junior year, but I’ve done so much that I didn’t think there was anything left in the sport that I wanted to accomplish.”

It takes a maturity beyond your years to walk away from something at the top of your game, and that’s exactly where Baganski found himself, with no regrets. So while he may not be a morning person, there is no doubt he is a team-first guy. When asked about what he’d like to be remembered for most at Spring-Ford, it wasn’t his state medal or program records.

“I don’t care as much about the records,” he said. “I want to be remembered for our first PAC championship. That’s my biggest legacy as team captain. We pushed each other the whole time, and to be at the lead of helping bring more Spring-Ford swimmers to districts and states really represents the most important part of it to me.”