State College’s girls’ 200-yard medley relay team is the Centre Daily Times’ Athlete of the Winter Season
Editor’s note: This is the final Athlete of the Week poll for the winter. Thank you to all who voted in polls this winter.
The Centre Daily Times’ Athlete of the Season for the winter has been determined by our readers. State College’s girls’ 200-yard medley relay team earned the honor with 47.98% of the vote in the poll that ran from Monday to Friday on CentreDaily.com.
The relay team previously won the athlete of the week award as a team when State High swimming won the award early in the season. Then, two of the relay team members won the award on their own when Mackenzie Pagett and Maddy Koehle each took home the honor in March.
“I think it’s a huge honor,” State College swimming co-head coach Marion Ulmer told the CDT. “I think it’s really exciting for State College swimming to get the recognition it deserves. These kids really work hard day in and day out. They really bring a lot to the community. ... To get that recognition is really cool. I’m really proud of them. I’m glad that the community sees their hard work and their achievement as something extraordinary.”
The team is made up of Pagett, Koehle, Jade Castro and Colleen Adams. The medley relay is made up of four 50-yard legs — the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. Pagett swims the breaststroke, Koehle swims the butterfly, Castro swims the backstroke and Adams swims the freestyle.
Ulmer said the team tried several iterations but found that this combo worked best.
“We had tried to let them swim the other strokes to see if they go faster swimming them,” Ulmer said. “And the answer to that was, ‘no.’ This was the perfect combination of these four girls and these four strokes.”
The combination worked with resounding success. The relay team set several records this season and earned a silver medal at the PIAA Class 3A State Swimming and Diving Championships, where the Lady Little Lions finished third as a team.
They earned the nickname “The Deadly Medley,” which was original bestowed upon the former boys’ medley team — led by current Virginia Cavalier swimmer Matt Brownstead — who previously set several records. The name was passed down to the girls’ team, which kept the record-breaking tradition alive.
The relay team set the pool record at State High in the 200 medley relay this season, then re-broke that record and set the school record later in the year, before breaking both records again and then finishing second at the state meet.
“The group of girls are really good friends,” Ulmer said. “I think the excitement leading into the high school season really got them set up for the success that they had. They knew what they had to do as part of their relay. Each one of them took on their 50 as, ‘This is my job and I’m going to make it the absolute best that it can be.’ They knew they had to rely on each other to do their best.”
The relay team was one of 10 options in the poll, and finished ahead of Philipsburg-Osceola boy’s basketball player Ryan Whitehead, who finished second with 28.19% of the vote.
Check back this spring for more Centre County Athlete of the Week polls.
