Claire Bacu is a state champion.
The North Allegheny senior finished 15th and then ninth in her first two cracks at the 200-yard individual medley at the PIAA Class 3A championships at Bucknell University.
Last year, she was the runner-up to Fox Chapel graduate Sarah Pasquella.
This year, there was nobody better than the Brown University commit.
Bacu was strong in her swim, and she pulled away over the final 25 yards to take gold in a time of 1 minute, 49.07 seconds.
“I really wanted this after coming so close last year,” Bacu said. “Going from second to first is really special. I worked hard with a lot of motivation. I was coming off an ankle injury, so six weeks ago, I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to swim at WPIALs. I was so happy to recover and be able to get these wins.
“I am normally very strong at the end of my (200 free), so that is where I like to bring it on.”
Bacu hopes for more individual gold Thursday as she is the top seed for the 500 free (4:54.88). She was the runner-up in the 500 last year after taking seventh as a sophomore.
“I feel good about dropping more time (in the 500),” she said. “I hope I can get another best time.”
It was a North Allegheny celebration in the 200 free as Tigers junior Julia Tengowski snagged a fifth-place medal in a time of 1:52.48.
Whitney Calhoun, a sophomore from rival Pine-Richland, found herself on the medals stand in eighth (1:54.41).
Shortly after Bacu’s win in the 200 free, Fox Chapel freshman Ellie Lange took home gold in the 200 individual medley.
She was in fifth place entering the third leg of her swim in the championship heat. 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 2:01.42.
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,” said Lange 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 a 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 free, 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.”
The North Allegheny girls 200 medley relay of Dani Hinkson, Tori Tieppo, Eva Ogden, and Madden Woycheck held their championship-heat seed, finishing third in a time of 1:44.46.
The Tigers, seeded fifth after finishing as the WPIAL runners-up to Fox Chapel, entered the third leg — the butterfly — in sixth but quickly made up time and space to capture bronze.
The NA 200 free relay of Bacu, Woycheck, Annie Elliott, and Sydney Dehainaut rallied past Fox Chapel (Lange, O’Toole, Josie Stanczak, Charlotte Rusche) for second place. The Tigers quartet swam to a time of 1:34.56, out-touching the Foxes (1:34.67) at the wall.
Two WPIAL swimmers earned medals in the 100 butterfly.
Upper St. Clair freshman Catherine Miller took sixth in her PIAA individual-event debut (56.15), while Hinkson was seventh (56.25).
North Allegheny and Upper Dublin are tied for first after Day 1 with 132 points apiece. State College is third (86) followed by Wilson (81), Parkland (79), and Fox Chapel (75).
Class 3A boys
The North Allegheny boys 200 medley relay quartet of Danny Lesinski, Alex Harbaugh, Mason Shantz and Zach Totin captured the WPIAL’s first championship of the two-day Class 3A event as they knocked 2.67 seconds off their seed time and outraced District 1’s LaSalle College and district rival Upper St. Clair to the wall for the title in a state-record time of 1:29.19.
The time surpassed the record of 1:29.74 set by Upper St. Clair in 2015.
“We all came to the final and had the best swims we could,” said Totin, the relay’s anchor. “Our breaststroke leg (Harbaugh) said that he wanted to get that state record, and we collectively decided right then and there that we would do whatever we could to get that record, and we were determined to do that. We did our best and got that state record. It is just a great feeling.”
The USC relay of Ben Whiteford, Danis Vakufac, Nazar Zoukovski, and Tom Howard took third (1:31.00). Peters Township medaled in seventh (1:35.14).
The Tigers bookended the first day with second relay state title. This time, the 200 free relay of Totin, Shantz, Harbaugh and Odin Hsu cut 1.80 seconds from its seed time and finished with a time of 1:22.14.
Hsu said it was awesome to join Harbaugh, Totin and Shantz atop the medals stand after they captured gold in the medley relay.
“I really wanted to be up on the podium with them,” said Hsu, the second leg of the relay that edged Upper St. Clair (Whiteford, Howard, Vakufac, Zourkovski) for the title.
The Panthers clocked a 1:22.75.
“I knew I had to do my part and be really locked in,” Hsu said. “It was awesome to win it with these guys.”
The WPIAL took home three medals in the boys 200 individual medley. Central Catholic’s Cinco Perez placed fourth (1:48.97), Lesinski took fifth (1:49.76), and Mt. Lebanon’s Rinzen Sherpa finished sixth (1:49.76).
Four from the WPIAL medaled in the 50 free as Mars’ Dom Davis placed second, dropping a half-second from the prelims to a time of 20.14. Upper Dublin’s Brady Manser won with a blazing time of 19.99.
“That was a super-fast final,” Davis said. “It really brought everything out of me. I got out well and finished strong. It feels great to finish where I did. I wanted to get a best time, and I did that.”
Zoukovski took fourth (20.51), Totin landed in fifth (20.63), and Latrobe’s Chris Heese finished seventh (20.94).
The boys 100 fly saw Bethel Park junior Jackson Edwards place fourth (48.59) and Shantz finish fifth (49.09). Edwards dropped 1.29 seconds from his seed time, and Shantz shaved off almost a second.
North Allegheny, fronted by its two relay titles, is in first place after Day 1 with 153 points. LaSalle College (110) is second, followed by Upper St. Clair (93), Parkland (84), and Upper Dublin (79).