Centre County swimmers, including 7 from Bellefonte, set for 2022 PIAA championships
Bellefonte swimming has had a great deal of success under head coach Tony Edmondson, but the team hasn’t been without its fair share of adversity.
The team travels from Bellefonte to Tyrone Area High School for practice each day, making for long days. But ahead of this weekend’s PIAA swimming and diving championships at Bucknell, Edmondson said that his team’s success is directly connected to its ability to handle adversity.
“These kids — for being a school that doesn’t have a pool, any time that we can get seven kids to states like this and seven swims at states, which is a lot of swims at Bellefonte, it shows you how hard these kids work and how hard they try to get to states,” Edmondson said. “I’m happy for them. I’m happy that they’re having the success.”
Kiaha McCool (backstroke), Finley Musser (100 breaststroke), Katelyn Packer (fly) and Emma Pringle (freestyle) won the 200-yard medley relay to open up the PIAA 2A District 6 Championships on Feb. 27. McCool won the 200-yard freestyle and Kate Rarrick won bronze.
Addie Pringle won bronze in the 50-yard freestyle and Packer also won bronze in the 100-yard fly. Musser, Emma and Addie Pringle and Rarrick won silver in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Addie Pringle finished second in the 100-yard freestyle. Rarrick claimed gold in the 500-yard freestyle, McCool placed second in the 100-yard backstroke and Musser finished second in the 100-yard backstroke. The relay team of McCool, Rarrick, Packer and Addie Pringle finished first in the 400-yard relay.
Here is more about each of Bellefonte’s competitors:
Kiaha McCool
Events: 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke
McCool was the team’s only first-team all-state swimmer, placing eighth in the 100-yard backstroke last season. She is also a two-time Mountain League Outstanding Female Swimmer.
The key for the sophomore is to keep things loose before the meet and stay focused on her goal of winning states.
“I think my best race of the season was the 200 free,” McCool said. “The time that I have right now is a 1:55:94 but I am hoping that I could get a 1:52 or 1:53. My personal goals for the meet are to better my personal records for the events that I’m doing, as well as have fun while I’m there and not stress out.”
Finley Musser
Events: 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley
Musser is a 3-time state qualifier and a 4-time district champion. She still had an uphill climb, competing against the best of the best in the district championships as a freshman, but came into her own with a great deal of hard work during the offseason in between her freshman and sophomore years.
“Winning Districts was tough because we had really good competition freshman year,” Musser said. “We still have really good competition, but there were a lot more athletes that were really focused on swimming. It was really difficult at the beginning (of my career), but I worked hard and I was able to accomplish more.”
Katelyn Packer
Events: 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay
Packer finished with a personal best in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:02. She looks to drop down to a :26 split for the200-yard medley relay and a time of :56 in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the state championships.
She is also excited for the opportunity of competing with her team one more time this season at the state championships.
“I really like swimming for a close group because it is like swimming with your best friends everyday,” Packer said. “We also know so much about each other that we know how to lift each other up and make each other feel good. It is fun everyday.”
Addie Pringle
Events: 400-yard freestyle relay
Pringle is a first-time state qualifier and won at districts this season. Her hope is to go out and enjoy her first opportunity of varsity state championships as a first-year student-athlete.
“It’s been really good because the team helps with everything,” she said. “I feel really welcomed and it’s a good community to be in and everybody is very supportive. Districts was really fun and I plan on competing my hardest at states.”
Emma Pringle
Event: 200-yard medley relay
The elder Pringle has high hopes for the 200-yard relay team, following the squad’s victory to open the district championships.
“I would like our relay to meet our best time or drop time,” Pringle said. “Being in such a tight knit team make it feels more like a family.”
Kate Rarrick
Events: 100-yard relay and the 500-yard freestyle
Rarrick is also a 3-time state qualifier and 4-time district champion. She’s enjoyed the ride that she’s had with her teammates — even the grueling 2-hour practices and the hour-long bus rides to and from practice.
“Having a successful team is really hard to do with as little people as we’ve had,” Rarrick said. “We’ve definitely had our ups and downs, but we’ve all worked through it together and I think it’s something we haven’t done in past years. Winning two district championships in a row, that’s something that I’ll never forget. I loved it.”
Boys
Carter Boone
Events: 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly
Boone finished with a time of 1:49.37 in the 200-yard freestyle at the district championships, edging out Noah Marsinko from Blacklick Valley and Liam Quigley from Penns Valley. He looks to continue his success at the 2A state championships.
“For States, one of my goals is to drop even more time than I did at Districts,” Boone said. “This is something that with some of the best competitors in the state and the work I have put into training, I know I am capable of. Additionally, I aim to make it back to finals in my events and to achieve the title of all-state for that accomplishment. Although both of these goals will be challenging, I will be up to the task and will have a great time working for them.”
Other Centre County swimmers set for states
State College is set to compete in the 3A state championships at Bucknell starting Wednesday at 7:50 a.m. with the boys preliminary events in Session 1. Session 2 begins with girls preliminary events at 10:25 a.m., followed by the boys consolation and finals at 4:20 p.m in Session 3 and the 3A girls consolation and finals at 6:50 p.m.
Bellefonte, Penns Valley and Saint Joe’s will compete beginning on Friday at 7:50 a.m. in the 2A state championships. The times will be repeated from Wednesday and Thursday’s 3A events for Friday and Saturday’s 2A events. Penns Valley girls’ Maggie Delaney will compete in the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard breaststroke, following her gold medal victories at the PIAA District 6 Class AA Championships. Rams boys swimmer Liam Quigley will compete in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke, following a third and second-place finish respectively.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 6:00 PM.
