After building commanding leads Thursday, the North Allegheny boys and girls swim teams captured WPIAL Class 3A championships Friday at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
The Tigers boys won their fourth straight title with a score of 483 points.
On the girls side, the Tigers claimed their 18th straight championship and 29th overall, the most in WPIAL history.
“We definitely get a little nervous every year,” North Allegheny senior Claire Bacu said. “It’s definitely really exciting, especially since that’s been around since most of the seniors were born.”
The North Allegheny boys 400 freestyle relay team captured the day’s final gold medal, a back-to-back win for the Tigers.
Bacu, a Brown commit, who won a 200 freestyle gold medal Thursday, was the Tigers’ only individual gold medalist on Day 2, winning the 500 freestyle in 4 minutes, 54.88 seconds. It was her second straight gold medal in that event.
“I’m coming off an ankle injury,” Bacu said. “So coming in, I was just looking to race with the main goal being states right now. I feel like I swam a smart beginning of the race, and I was able to bring it home.”
Peters Township junior Ava Komorowski won her second straight gold medal in the 100 freestyle in 51.06 seconds.
It was also back-to-back golds on the boys’ side, as Arizona-bound senior Nazar Zoukovski from Upper St. Clair won in 44.82.
For the second straight year, it was a Central Catholic winner in the boys 500 freestyle. Last year it was Mac Clark, who now swims at Tennessee. This year, it was senior Cinco Perez in 4:31.33.
Fox Chapel freshman Delaney O’Toole won her second gold medal, finishing in 54.13 in the 100 backstroke. O’Toole was also part of the Foxes’ winning 400 freestyle relay team.
Bethel Park junior Jackson Edwards won his second gold medal in the 100 backstroke (48.88).
In the 100 breaststroke events, Kiski Area’s Leah Kunkle (1:05.02) and Latrobe’s Chris Heese (54.49) were the winners.
It was the second straight breaststroke gold medal for the Swarthmore-bound Heese.
Fox Chapel (357), Pine-Richland (210), Armstrong (183) and Seneca Valley (116) followed North Allegheny in the girls’ team standings.
The Mt. Lebanon boys 400 freestyle relay team earned a silver medal, and that pushed the Blue Devils ahead of Upper St. Clair for second place in the boys’ standings, 255 to 224. Peters Township (159) and Bethel Park (154) rounded out the top five.
The PIAA championships are up next March 11-14 at Bucknell. Only the WPIAL champion in each event earns an automatic bid to the state meet. The remaining at-large entries will be determined based off times at each district meet.
The North Allegheny boys won the PIAA title last year, while the girls finished fourth.
Bacu, who won silver medals in the 200 and 500 freestyle at states last year, spoke about what her and her teammates need to do to be successful this year.
“Julia (Tengowski silver in the 500 freestyle) had a really good performance today, so I am definitely hoping that we can one-two in the 500 at states,” she said. “That would put up some really good points for the team. Our relays are really strong right now, so just focusing on those will help. I just feel like staying confident in the biggest thing.”