After Allegheny Valley YMCA sent 11 swimmers to the state championships in 2024, the Gators sent another 12 in 2025.
“We had a really steady season with consistent improvement,” head coach Nathan Petrak said.
The Gators again had a strong showing at the district championships, which were held March 7-9 at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. They sent 33 swimmers to the competition, the same number that competed last year.
“We would have had 39 swimmers attend,” Petrak said, “but there were some unfortunate circumstances like schedule conflicts and health issues with a couple families that caused them to miss.”
Leading the way for the Allegheny Valley YMCA at districts was Petrak’s son, Brody, who qualified for states in all six events he swam, broke two team records and won two district championships.
Petrak, who swims on the 13- and 14-year-old team, placed first in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly. He broke a team record in the 200 with a time of 2 minutes, 7.81 seconds. His first-place time in the 100 fly was a 58.01.
He would then go on to place second in the 400 IM with a time of 4:33.57 and finished third in the 200 breaststroke, posting a time of 2:07.87.
Petrak would finish his day with fourth-place finishes in the 200 IM (2:09.74) and in the 500 freestyle (5:12.16), which would break another team record (5:12.60).
“He had himself a really great meet,” his father said.
Two more Gators qualified for states in five events, and another qualified for four, with all three breaking at least one team record along the way.
Freeport senior swimmer Mary Anne Altman will be competing in five events at the state championships March 21-23 at Mylan Park Aquatic Center on WVU’s campus.
Her highest finish was fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.75. She would pace fifth in the 50 free (25.08) and ninth in the 200 IM (2:16.26).
She also had seventh-place finishes in the 200 free, with a time of 1:59.31, and in the 400 IM, where she shattered the team’s previous record time of 5:01.45 with a time of 4:53.17.
Altman was also part of the quartet that included her sister Hannah, Addie Imler and Olivia Walewski who qualified the Lady Gators 200 and 400 free relay teams in the 15-21 age group for states.
The other Allegheny Valley swimmer to qualify for five state events was first-time qualifier Angelina George.
She gave the Gators a third district champion by swimming a 2:42.68 — breaking a team record — in the 200-yard breaststroke.
George, who is on the 11- and 12-year-old team, would bring down another team record in the 100 IM. George finished sixth in the event with a time of 1:09.51, breaking the previous mark of a 1:11.88.
She would swim a 2:40.47 in the 200 fly, good for eight place, and finish second in the 100 breast (1:16.18) and the 200 IM (2:28.27).
“Angelina made a huge leap this season,” Petrak said. “From having never qualified to qualifying for five events, she had a great year.”
The final Gator to qualify for states in multiple events was 9-year-old Derek Kincade. He will be swimming in four events in the state competition.
He broke another team record by swimming a 1:26.60 in the 100 butterfly, which beat the previous record by 2 seconds. He placed third.
Kincade then finished in the 50 fly with a time of 36.17 and had two sixth-place finishes: the 50 back (37.39) and 100 back (1:22.01).
Two more Gator swimmers who qualified for states also broke team records.
Walewski swam a 2:12.04 in the 200 back, placing fourth and besting the previous time by 6 seconds. She followed that with a third-place finish in the 200 fly, posting a record time of 2:15.31, besting the previous mark of 2:20.86.
Mackenna Dorian would finish sixth in the 200 breaststroke for the 13- and 14-year-old team with a time of 2:37.60, which would give the Gators a ninth team record broken as she snapped the previous mark of 2:38.08.
Other Gators who qualified for states were Hannah Altman, Addie Imler, Eli Hassler and Tucker Beers for the 15-21-year-old team, Elizabeth Altman for the 11- and 12-year-old team and Paige Lithgow for the 13- and 14-year-old team.
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In all, the Gators have 37 entries for states. Swimmers will compete in 35 individual events, and there are the 200 and 400 relay teams from the 15-21-year-old team. There are also four first-time qualifiers: Kincade, George, Lithgow and Elizabeth Altman.
“Each and every one of our swimmers had a great weekend,” Petrak said.
In just his second season as the team’s coach, Petrak did another great job in preparing his swimmers for the season.
“We made some adjustments from last year,” he said. “When you try something for the first time, you find what you liked and what went well for the team, but you also see where you could do better.
“One of the things we tried this year was increasing our yardage to try and help make sure our swimmers were more built up and prepared in their distance events. It worked, and the results speak for themselves as we excelled in those events during our weekend at districts.”
It’s important to get swimmers to improve on their times and be better than they were the year prior. For the Gators, they had multiple swimmers who bested their best efforts from a year ago, and a new member to the team opened a lot of eyes in their first time ever in the pool.
“Jayson Heston is a brand-new swimmer this year,” Petrak he. “He took to the sport, was a very coachable kid. He works his tail off, goes to practice every day and ended up falling in love with the sport. Where he is now to where he was in September is like night and day.”
Paige Lithgow was another swimmer who improved by leaps and bounds.
“She’s been swimming for a number of years now,” Petrak said. “But there was just a sudden change. She took it more seriously and made sure she did everything she could with it. The work she put in really paid off by the end of the year. From where she was seeded in districts, she was jumping up a dozen or more spots.”
Josie Graper, who didn’t qualify for states, was one of the hardest workers on the team, and she was pulling nearly double duty as she would go to her high school practices for Freeport and would swim again for the Gators, sometimes in the same day.
“That was a lot of dedication from her,” Petrak said.
Eli Hassler also took a big leap. He didn’t qualify for states last year but qualified for two events and just missed the cut in a handful of others.
Although he has been coaching the Gators for only two years, Petrak has been involved with Allegheny Valley YMCA swimming for 25 years. He was a swimmer in the program in his youth, and he spent multiple years as an assistant coach.
He feels that the YMCA league has a little more to offer than some other leagues.
“I think the YMCA just offers a different dynamic in terms of team building and camaraderie,” Petrak said. “Our parent group was also a great one to work with and they make it so much fun for the swimmers.”
One bit of fun that the YMCA swimmers and their families get to enjoy is the playing of the Village People’s hit “YMCA” through the speakers at districts.
“You’ll have hundreds of people singing and dancing to that song,” Petrak said. “Seeing people enjoy that type of stuff is great.”