Norwin swimmers hope to drop time at WPIAL meet

The Norwin boys and girls swimming teams will have something to prove at the WPIAL Class AAA championship meet Thursday and Friday at Pitt.

Knights coach Neil Rushnock said both were disappointed were their seeds on psych sheets released by the WPIAL.

“All the swimmers worked very hard to accomplish what they did, which was dropping time all season,” he said. “Our seeding in the relays and individuals are not as high as we were hoping, but the swimmers are practicing very hard to get their best times of the season.”

The Knights top seed is 19th in the girls 400-yard freestyle relay (3 minutes, 52.69 seconds).

Junior Carson Shipley came in 20th in the boys 100 backstroke (57.33).

Sophomore Courtney Kosanovic made the list in the 100 butterfly (1:01.51).

The boys 200 freestyle relay (1:36.90), girls 200 freestyle relay (1:45.96), girls 200 medley relay (1:58.77) and boys 200 medley relay (1:47.95) also received rankings.

“The coaches are hoping the WPIALs experience will benefit the whole team next year,” Rushnock said. “The team is very young, and the coaches are very excited about the future.

“We are expecting big things in the (coming) years.”

Senior Matt McCormley said he hopes to set a good example in the relay in which he will compete.

Freshmen Allie Plassio, Tessa Czajkowski, Kristy Juart and Ethan Tulenko; sophomore Shelby Yusko; and juniors Joey Astrab and Jarrett Defoor also are headed to the meet. Freshman Phong Tran, junior Brandon Pizzuto and senior Beau Dempsey are alternates.

The boys were 10-5 overall and 4-3 in Section 1-AAA. The girls were 8-7 overall and 3-4 in the section.

Karen Kadilak is a freelance writer.