LEWISBURG — Freshman Ellie Lange was in fifth place entering the third leg of her swim in the championship heat of the 200-yard individual medley Wednesday evening at the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell University.
But she made up three places in the 100 butterfly and finished off her first state championship with a strong final push in the freestyle to win with a time of 2 minutes, 1.42 seconds.
Her winning time was two seconds faster than the 2:03.33 she swam in winning the WPIAL title Feb. 26 at Pitt and earning the top seed for states.
“That was definitely something that I was trying to do,” Lange said of her rally in the latter half of her race. “The back splits are some of my strongest. I just wanted to race as fast as I could.
“It feels really good to be a state champion. This was a great opportunity to go up against some amazing and talented swimmers. That atmosphere was just amazing.”
Lange will come back Friday in the 500 free where she is the sixth seed (5:00.31) after taking third at WPIALs.
“(The 200 IM) really sets the mood going into tomorrow,” she said. “I just want to keep up that good energy.”
State College sprint specialist Molly Workman was able to win her third PIAA championship in the 50 freestyle, but she had two from the WPIAL, including Fox Chapel freshman Delaney O’Toole, breathing down her neck.
Workman captured gold again, this time in a state and Bucknell pool-record time of 22.22, as O’Toole, the WPIAL champion, brought home silver in a personal best 22.81. Peters Township junior Ava Komoroski, seeded fifth coming into states after taking third at WPIALs, placed a close third in a time of 23.14.
It was O’Toole’s first time going head-to-head with Workman.
“It feels nice to have great people to race against, no matter where it is,” O’Toole said. “I wish I could’ve won it, but it was a lot of fun. Molly is a great person, so it was awesome to race her.”
The championship heat was populated by five from the WPIAL as Woodland Hills’ Cameron Peretti, the WPIAL runner-up, placed fifth (23.25), and Gateway’s Aliya Rassiane took eighth (23.79).
O’Toole will come back Friday in the 100 backstroke. The WPIAL champion is the top seed (54.13).
“I am excited for tomorrow,” O’Toole said. “I’ve trained hard for opportunities like this, and I think it is going to go really well.”
Fox Chapel’s 200 free relay of Lange, O’Toole, Josie Stanczak and Charlotte Rusche was the second seed to State College for its championship heat.
The Foxes swam to 1:34.67. State College won gold in 1:33.11, but North Allegheny overtook Fox Chapel for second by a slim margin of just 11 hundredths of a second (1:34.56).
The Foxes 200 medley relay made changes from its WPIAL-winning lineup with thoughts of strategy for later in Wednesday’s meet. The quartet was not able to match the time from Feb. 26 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
Lange, Cameryn Brindza, Sarah Huang, and Tuuli Airik made the consolation final and swam to 16th in the final standings with a time of 1:49.90.
Rusche came back for the consolation final in the 200 free and took 13th overall in a time of 1:53.47, just a touch slower than her prelim time.
Kiski Area senior Leah Kunkle just missed a spot in the consolation finals of the 200 IM. She was able to drop one tenth of a second from her WPIAL time to place 17th (2:09.17).
The same happened to Stanczak in the 100 fly. She finished 17th in 57.64, nine hundredths away from 16th.
It was even closer heartbreak for Fox Chapel sophomore Nathan Agens in the boys 100 fly. Agens swam to a time of 51.08 and placed 17th, just one hundredth of a second away from a spot in the consolation final.
The Fox Chapel girls are in sixth place in the team standings with 75 points after Day 1. Upper Dublin and North Allegheny are tied for the top spot with 132 points, followed by State College (86), Wilson (81) and Parkland (79).