The Wyoming Valley Conference swimmers got seven medals on the opening day of the PIAA Class 2A Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University.
In the boys' contest, Maddoc Watkins from Dallas and Woobie Kupsky from MMI each achieved second place in individual events.
Watkins finished second in the 200 free, clocking 1:39.01 in the finals after recording a 1:41.06 in the preliminaries. He trailed winner Preston Kessler (1:38.57) of Indiana by just .44 seconds.
Kupsky took silver in the 200 IM, finishing in 1:50.45 in the finals after posting a 1:51.51 in the preliminaries. The event was won by Joseph Gardner of Mt. Pleasant in 1:49.01.
Wyoming Seminary’s Zhantore Akylbekov picked up a seventh-place medal in the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.37 in the finals. He swam a 51.22 in the preliminaries.
Seminary’s 200 medley relay team secured a fourth-place medal with a time of 1:35.90 in the finals. The team swam a 1:37.32 in the preliminaries. The top spot was taken by Mt. Pleasant in 1:32.57.
Wyoming Seminary’s 200 freestyle relay team just missed a medal. The team finished the finals in 1:29.60, only .33 seconds away from eighth place. Dallas finished 12th in the event with a time of 1:29.59 in the finals and 1:30.13 in the preliminaries. Tunkhannock’s relay team was disqualified in the final.
Tunkhannock’s Josh Gaudet came in 12th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.05 in the finals. He posted a 22.25 in a preliminary heat. Dallas’ Artem Smagin came in 16th in the same event, swimming a 22.30 in the finals and a 22.07 in the preliminaries.
In the girls' competition, Dallas’s 200 freestyle relay team of Audrey Haydu, Olivia Thomas, Peyton Stauffer, and Lydia Gonzales clinched a sixth-place medal with a finals time of 1:40.23. They swam a 1:40.54 in the preliminaries.
Gonzales also secured a fourth-place medal in the 200 IM, finishing in 2:05.11 in the finals after swimming at 2:04.12 in the preliminaries.
MMI Prep’s Mary Kate Kupsky earned a seventh-place medal in the IM, swimming a 2:06.64 in the finals after swimming at 2:07.31 in the preliminaries.
Dallas’s Peyton Stauffer finished 11th in the 200 freestyle, swimming a 1:57.39 in the finals and a 1:57.51 in the preliminaries.
In the girls' preliminary competition:
• Dallas’s 200 medley relay team finished 21st with a time of 155.50
• Dallas’ Olivia Thomas finsihed 25th in the 200 freestyle in a time of 2:011.13
• Dallas’ Erika Doran finished 18th in the 200 IM in a time of 2:16.13
In diving, Tunkhannock’s River Strauss came in 10th, totaling 344.95 points. Dallas’s Luke Karcutskie finished 24th with 94.95 points. Interboro’s Caleb Arnot won with a total of 509.10.
