Nazar Zoukovski took third in the boys 100-yard freestyle at the 2024 PIAA Class 3A swimming championships.
He placed fifth last year.
On Thursday at Bucknell University, gold was on his mind.
The Upper St. Clair senior, fourth Wednesday in the 50 free, came back strong and claimed the top spot in the state with a 100-free time of 44.19, a drop of more than a second from his prelim time earlier in the day.
He had gold around his neck after his final individual high school swim.
“This feels great,” Zoukovski said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. I got two (100 free) medals before, but (winning) was the ultimate goal. It was truly a blessing to be up at the top of the podium.
“With the prelims, I didn’t have the best night of sleep, so I went back to the hotel and got a great rest, and I was ready to come back and swim my heart out.”
It was a WPIAL party in the 100 free, as Mars’ sophomore Dom Davis placed second (44.64) for his second individual silver medal in as many days (50 free).
Upper St. Clair senior Ben Whiteford placed third (44.80). North Allegheny senior Zach Totin landed in sixth (45.36).
“The WPIAL is one of the strongest districts out there, and it is so great to have all this competition throughout the season,” Zoukovski said. “We pushed each other, and it’s awesome to see all of us do well.”
Totin’s sixth in the 100 free and the 13 points that came with it was part of a two-day run of titles, medals and points won for the Tigers that added up to the program’s second straight state team title and eighth in program history.
NA’s 227 points were 37 more than runner-up LaSalle College (190). Upper St. Clair finished third with 144 points.
“I am super proud of our guys,” North Allegheny coach Patrick Wenzel said. “We lost two big, big dogs from last year (graduates Gus Miller and Grant Regule), and we came up here and won it again. They worked their butts off. They had a goal in mind, and they went out and achieved it. The session (Wednesday) night was absolutely crazy, and they won it with their swims this morning. That set the tone for the (Thursday) finals.”
North Allegheny had the title won even before the 400 free relay of Mason Shantz, Alex Harbaugh, Dylan Seiford, and Danny Lesinski took to the pool. The Tigers quartet took fourth with a time of 3:05.63 and scored 30 points. LaSalle’s relay was second with 34 points.
Central Catholic’s Cinco Perez, meanwhile, hoped for gold as the top seed for the finals of the boys 500 free.
He cut two and a half seconds from his prelim time for a personal-best 4:24.61. But Wissahickon senior Reed Harris, the swimmer of the meet, was the fastest at 4:22.43. Avon Grove junior Kyle Burk passed Perez in the final 25 yards to touch the wall in second (4:23.91), bumping Perez to third.
Whiteford finished off a rare same-day individual double with a swim in the 100 backstroke.
He dropped a half-second from his prelim time and finished fourth overall in 48.06.
Lesinski, a senior who will return to Bucknell several times as a member of the men’s swim team at the Naval Academy, was right behind Whiteford in fifth (48.13).
Bethel Park junior Jackson Edwards took sixth (48.73).
WPIAL 100 breaststroke champion Chris Heese, a senior from Latrobe, finished his high school career with a sixth-place medal in a time of 55.17 seconds.
The Swarthmore commit was the lone WPIAL representative in the championship heat.
Class 3A girls
It was the ultimate clash of the champions.
North Allegheny senior Claire Bacu and Fox Chapel freshman Ellie Lange swam in lanes next to each other in the championship heat of the Class 3A girls 500-yard freestyle Thursday evening at the PIAA championships at Bucknell University.
Bacu was the No. 1 seed who hoped to capture her second state title (200 free) in as many days.
Lange, seeded third for the finals, also hoped to add the 500 to the 200 individual medley won on Day 1 of the Class 3A meet.
The elite swimmers from the WPIAL went down to the wire as the spectators, fellow swimmers and coaches in the natatorium were whipped into a fever pitch with every stroke.
Bacu and Lange were even for much of the final length of the pool, and Bacu touched the wall first in a time of 4 minutes, 51.34 seconds. Lange touched a half second later in 4:51.82.
Bacu’s winning time is a school record.
“It definitely was really exciting, because this also was something I’ve been working on for so long,” Bacu said. “That last 50, I just gave it everything I had and hoped for the best. That school record, I was really working hard for it. I accomplished both of my goals in that race. We could hear everyone screaming. It was so loud.
“I definitely feel Ellie and I pushed each other to swim our best race. It was just a matter of who had more to be able to get ahead. I am excited to see what she does over the next couple of years.”
Lange dropped nearly 10 seconds from her WPIAL third-place time (5:00.31).
“It was really fun,” Lange said. “Claire is such a great competitor. It was really great to race her. I was happy that I was able to drop as much time as I did. I wanted to be really positive and keep the energy going from yesterday.”
North Allegheny junior Julia Tengowki placed fifth in the 500, and she was part of the top five who all broke five minutes. She clocked a time of 4:57.62.
Fox Chapel’s Delaney O’Toole won four WPIAL championships — two individually and two more as part of relays — Feb. 26-27 at Pitt’s Trees Pool.
She hoped to experience that winning feeling again, this time at the PIAA level.
After a runner-up finish in the Class 3A girls 50-yard freestyle and a third with the 200 free relay Wednesday in her state-championship debut at Bucknell University, gold was hers Thursday in an event she hopes to dominate in her four high school years.
O’Toole’s time of 54.15 seconds in Friday’s championship heat was two hundredths of a second off her WPIAL-winning time, but the view from the top of the podium at Kinney Natatorium was sweet nonetheless.
“It’s so exciting and such an honor to be called a state champion,” O’Toole said. “I felt it was the best I could do with how much I’ve been racing. I definitely gave it everything I had, and I am still really happy with my time.”
O’Toole recovered for her swim with Lange, and juniors Josie Stanczak and Charlotte Rusche in the finals of the 400 free relay.
The WPIAL-champion quartet went toe-to-toe with State College for the gold, and the District 6 champion, fronted by sprint specialist Molly Workman at anchor, won by the smallest of margins.
Workman out-touched O’Toole at the wall as State College claimed the title with a time of 3:24.98 to Fox Chapel’s 3:25.04.
The Foxes dropped 2.34 seconds from their time at WPIALs.
Bacu, Tengowski, Dani Hinkson, and Eva Ogden helped North Allegheny take third (3:26.55).
Peters Township junior Ava Komoroski twice saw the power of Workman, who won swimmer of the meet with four gold medals.
Komoroski on Wednesday finished third behind Workman and O’Toole in the 50 free.
Thursday, she finished as the runner-up to Workman in the 100 free with a time of 50.54.
“I am over the moon with how well I swam today,” said Komoroski, who won her second straight 100 free title at WPIALs. “I had been trying to go under 51 for a long time, and to go under by a full half-second feels great.”
Komoroski was 12th in the 100 free at states last year.
“My whole goal was to race Molly and get out with her the best that I could,” she said. “It was my best 50 split in a 100 ever. It’s always fun to race such fast girls.”
North Allegheny and District 1’s Upper Dublin were tied at 132 after the first day, and the Tigers went ahead when senior Maggie Lapina scored 17 points in taking second in diving Thursday afternoon.
The Tigers still were still ahead by 10 after the 100 back, but Upper Dublin’s first, fourth and fifth in the 100 breast gave them 49 points and allowed them to race past NA and eventually claim gold, 257-225.
Fox Chapel finished third by one point, 150-149, over State College.