WILKES-BARRE — Just this once, Tara Kupsky wasn’t going to let her older sister Paige get away.
The Wyoming Seminary sophomore had sights on an epic upset over Paige through the halfway point. Soon after her 100-yard turn, Tara breezed past her elder – the reigning district champion – and left her trailing in her wake for a huge three-second victory.
Tara Kupsky won the 200 yard IM at the District 2 Class 2A swimming championships Friday at the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center. She clocked in a 2:09.68 to set a new school record. Paige took second.
“Coming into the race, I knew it was going to be pretty close between me and Paige,” Tara said. “I’m just glad I got to race against her. Maybe I’ll share it with her. It was fun.”
Tara Kupsky was one of four Wyoming Valley Conference boys and girls swimmers to bring home a gold medal in the first round of competition. Scranton Prep took first in each of the eight remaining races.
Despite the Classics’ dominance, Dallas leads the girls’ team standings by 31 with 150 points. Scranton Prep holds onto a slim five-point lead over the Mountaineer boys heading into the final day of competition. The district championships conclude Saturday at noon at the CYC.
Tunkhannock’s Jacob Skoronski earned the WVC’s first gold medal of the day with a 200 free championship in a tight race. The race completely changed face after 150 yards when Scranton Prep freshman Conor McCall, whose father holds the 31-year old record in the event, swam the third leg a full second faster than Skoronski and Holy Redeemer freshman Adam Mahler to lead the race. But something happened, McCall’s momentum stalled, either from a bad turn or a premature victory celebration, and he picked his head out of water.
“I saw him out of the corner of my eye,” Skoronski said. “I wasn’t sure if he had a bad turn or he stopped. I just kept going.”
Only four-hundreths of a second separated Skoronski and Mahler heading into the final 50 yards. Skoronski said he “dug down deep and got that bucket of guts going” to touch the wall 19-hundreths of a second quicker than Mahler to clock in with a 1:49.82 victory.
Mahler had his turn later in the 100 butterfly. He and Scranton Prep’s Thomas Pfaeffle were in a virtual tie though 50 yards. Mahler kicked it into fifth gear and breezed by for a 53.45 victory to capture a 69-hundreths of a second advantage over Pfaeffle.
“I was nervous going up to the blocks,” Mahler admitted. “It wasn’t as bad in the water. That’s where I like to be. But, yeah, I hit my turn on the pad well, pushed off and kept swimming it through.”
Dallas’ Abby Zolner won her first district championship in the 100 butterfly in a heavily contested race. Facing off against Prep’s Catherine Donlon and Wyoming Seminary’s duo of Julia Baur and Nicole Rose Lukesh, Zolner jetted off the starting block and owned more than a half-second lead against the field after the first go-around. Zolner was not intimidated by Donlon’s creeping butterfly strokes, holding off for a sub-minute finish at 59.01 seconds for first place.
“I didn’t have any idea what was going to happen,” Zolner said. “I was really scared of Cat Donlon next to me. She was really intimidating. At the end, I was dying. I was so afraid she was going to catch up to me. So I just powered through in my mind.”
Scranton Prep knocked down three district records Friday. Peyton McNulty, Audrey Campo, Donlon and Lauren Lanzendorfer not only held off a talented Wyoming Seminary 200-medley team but recorded a new district mark of 1:49.38. Prior to being upset by Zolner, Donlon bid farewell to one of the district’s longest-standing records, rewriting Abington Heights grad and former Olympic swimmer Sue Heon’s 1978 record with a 1:54.36 performance. Teammate Nico Lastauskas made mincemeat of the boys 200 IM mark, previously held by Tunkhannock grad Ben Spencer, with a 1:56.26 swim.
Other WVC swimmers recorded notable performances: Tunkhannock’s Morgan Manglaviti took second in the 200 free before beating Holy Redeemer’s Emily Blaum on a touch for third place in the 200-free relay. Redeemer’s Kayla Kruk dropped six seconds in a fourth-place 200 IM swim. Dallas’ Mikhail Krochta followed teammate Porter Luksic with nearly an eight-second drop in the 200 IM for third. In a battle between two of the fastest sprinters in the commonwealth, Dallas’ Annalise Cheshire came up short to Prep’s Audrey Campo by 16-hundreths of a second in an outstanding 24.24 second finish in the 50 free. Berwick had a surprising third-place finish in the 200 free relay.
District 2 Class 2A Swimming Championships
Team Rankings
Girls
1. Dallas (DAL) 150; 2. Scranton Prep (SP) 129; 3. Wyoming Seminary (SEM) 111; 4. Holy Redeemer (HR) 108; 5. Tunkhannock (TUN) 87; 6. Valley View (VV) 64; 7. Abington Heights (AH) 41; 8. Holy Cross (HC) 40; 9. Berwick (BER) 32; 10. Elk Lake (EL) 19; 11. Coughlin (COU) 14; 12. Hanover (HAN) 13; 13. Honesdale (HON) 10; 14. Nanticoke (NAN) 6; 15. Western Wayne (WW) 5; 16. Meyers (MEY) 4; 17. Dunmore (DUN) 2; 17. Lake-Lehman (LL) 2.
Boys
1. Scranton Prep (SP) 132; 2. Dallas (DAL) 124; 3. Tunkhannock (TUN) 109; 4. Holy Redeemer (HR) 73; 5. Wyoming Area (WA) 66; 6. Elk Lake (EL) 65.50; 7. Wyoming Seminary (SEM) 54; 8. Berwick (BER) 43; 9. West Scranton (WS) 41; 10. Lake-Lehman (LL) 38; 11. Valley View (VV) 18; 12. Holy Cross (HC) 17.50; 13. Western Wayne (WW) 13; 14. Coughlin (COU) 10; 15. Hanover (HAN) 4; 16. Meyers (MEY) 3.
Girls Results
200 medley relay: 1. SP (McNulty, Campo, Donlon, Lanzendorfer) 1:49.3813; 2. SEM (P. Kupsky, T. Kupsky, J. Baur, A. Baur) 1:50.96; 3. HR ( Zeller, Blaum, Kruk, Easton) 1:54.27; 4. VV (Babarsky, Mulherin, Boyle, Sebastianetti) 1:56.06; 5. AH ( Sokalsky, Hartman, Myers, Byman) 1:57.43; 6. DAL ( Hurst, Vivian, Thomas, Nave) 1:58.29; 7. HC ( Hoban, Tomaine, Neville, McHale) 2:01.27; 8. TUN (Schultz, Sholes, Murray, Hayward) 2:03.93; 9. EL (Perry, Ofalt, Sisson, Everitt) 2:04.90; 10. BER (Levan, Stein, Decker, Dyer) 2:09.73; 11. COU (Redding, McGrane, Clarke, Dumont) 2:10.31; 12. LL (O’Brien, Bartuska, Ravert, Bartuska) 2:13.70.
200 free: 1. SP, Donlon 1:54.36; 2. TUN, Manglaviti 1:56.58; 3. SEM, Baur 2:01.15; 4. HR, Easton 2:02.61; 5. DAL, Finnegan 2:04.80; 6. TUN, Hayward 2:06.32; 7. TUN, Murray 2:06.80; 8. DAL, Nave 2:08.83; 9. HR, Bozentka 2:09.80; 10. HC, VanLuvender 2:12.05; 11. VV, Jones 2:12.72; 12. TUN, Fetter 2:14.22.
200 IM: 1. SEM, T. Kupsky 2:09.68; 2. SEM, P. Kupsky 2:12.70; 3. SP, McNulty 2:15.18; 4. HR, Kruk 2:15.80; 5. AH, Hartman 2:19.23; 6. HAN, Saltz 2:20.51; 7. SP, Lanzendorfer 2:21.65; 8. SEM, Federici 2:23.47; 9. DAL, Vivian 2:25.53; 10. HC, Neville 2:26.12; 11. VV, Mulherin 2:27.20; 12. VV, Boyle 2:27.30.
50 free: 1. SP, Campo 24.06; 2. DAL, Cheshire 24.24; 3. VV, Sebastianetti 25.60; 4. BER, Decker 25.63; 5. DAL, Ratchford 25.76; 6. TUN, Kamierski 25.89; 7. TUN, Meffitt 26.07; 8. WW, Hollmier 26.21; 9. BER, Levan 26.37; 10. HR, Smith 26.53; 11. HR, Leighton 26.88; 12. EL, Thompson 26.91.
100 fly: 1. DAL, Zolner 59.01; 2. SP, Donlon 59.98; 3. SEM, Baur 1:00.82; 4. SEM, Lukesh 1:02.01; 5. HS, Burlein 1:02.24; 6. DAL, Hurst 1:02.31; 7. VV, Boyle 1:04.53; 8. HR, Zeller 1:04.98; 9. HAN, Wadzin 1:06.91; 10. DAL, Thomas 1:08.19; 11. SEM, Sminkey 1:09.05; 12. SP, Wrobleski 1:09.22.
200 free relay: 1. SP (Campo, McNulty, Lanzendorfer, Donlon) 1:39.32; 2. DAL (Zolner, Ratchford, Finnegan, Cheshire) 1:40.22; 3. TUN (Moffitt, Hayward, Kemierski, Manglaviti) 1:42.68; 4. HR (Kruk, Easton, Smith, Blaum) 1:42.69; 5. HC (McHale, Hoban, Neville, VanLuvender) 1:47.35; 6. VV (MacDavitt, Wasilchak, Jones, Mulherin) 1:48.20; 7. SEM (Lukesh, C. Sminkey, K. Sminkey, Federici) 1:49.98; 8. EL (Thompson, Karpov, Sisson, Everitt) 1:52.60; 9. COU (Redding, Clarke, McGrane, Dumont) 1:55.77; 10. NAN (Young, Gruber, Ramos, Stegura) 2:00.28; 11. MHS (Bruno, McMamus, Weidow, Goodeliunas) 2:05.90; 12. HON (Afflwood, Ingargiola, Klatt, Lowe) 2:05.97.
Boys Results
200 medley relay: 1. SP (Pfaeffle, Lastauskas, Durr, Bushta) 1:39.62; 2. DAL (Krochta, Luksic, Reinert, Krawetz) 1:41.22; 3. HR (Thole, Dubinski, Mahler, Smith) 1:41.55; 4. SEM (Bean, Deluna, Pall, DiLeo) 1:48.24; 5. WA (Lagrue, M. Murphy, R. Murphy, Alder) 1:49.86; 6. TUN (Spencer, Henning, Mislevy, Metens) 1:54.77; 7. VV (Babarsky, Langel, Christian, Fetcho) 1:59.99; 8. EL (Cole Orlandini, N. Grosvenor, J. Grosvenor, Chase Orlandini) 2:01.48; 9. HC (Megliola, Talbot, Smicherko, Murphy) 2:07.84; 10. BER (Hess, Miller, O’Kane, Yacuboski) 2:09.50; 11. WS (Bruno, Nee, Gowarty, Lutchko) 2:12.26; 12. LL (Wasik, Tyler Manzoni, Thomas Manzoni, Sabol) DQ.
200 free: 1. TUN, Skoronski 1:49.82; 2. HR, Mahler 1:50.01; 3. SP, McCall 1:51.84; 4. DAL, Caravaggio 1:54.62; 5. EL, Pettit 1:59.16; 6. WA, R. Murphy 1:59.71; 7. DAL, Weaver 2:03.24; 8. TUN, Mislevy 2:03.26; 9. SP, Worrell 2:03.56; 10. BER, Hartley 2:03.72; 11. EL, J. Grosvenor 2:04.91; 12. LL, Tyler Manzoni 2:05.54.
200 IM: 1. SP, Lastauskas 1:56.26; 2. DAL, Luksic 2:07.59; 3. DAL, Krochta 2:07.84; 4. LL, Wasik 2:12.77; 5. EL, Mead 2:13.47; 6. WA, M. Murphy 2:15.13; 7. HR, Smith 2:15.61; 8. LL, Thomas Manzoni 2:22.14; 9. VV, Babarsky 2:23.45; 10. EL, N. Grosvenor 2:23.64; 11. MHS, Langan 2:24.44; 12. SEM, McCarthy 2:25.97.
50 free: 1. SP, Bushta 22.50; 2. WW, Hollister 22.58; 3. DAL, Krawetz 22.64; 4. TUN, Bushre 22.89; 5. BER, Michael 23.08; 6. DAL, Motley 23.24; 7. WS, Martin 23.75; 8. HR, Dubinski 24.01; 9. EL, Delaway 24.71; 9. HC, Megliola 24.71; 11. WA, Alder 24.78; 12. MHS, Nguyen 25.08.
100 fly: 1. HR, Mahler 53.45; 2. SP, Pfaeffle 54.14; 3. DAL, Reinert 54.99; 4. SEM, Bean 55.20; 5. SEM, Pall 56.18; 6. WA, R. Murphy 56.87; 7. SP, Durr 58.38; 8. EL, Mead 59.59; 9. HAN, Connelly 1:00.08; 10. LL, Thomas Manzoni 1:02.01; 11. EL, N. Grosvenor 1:02.31; 12. COU, Gagliardi 1:02.54.
200 free relay: 1. SP (Lastauskas, Durr, Pfaeffle, Bushta) 1:31.01; 2. TUN (Fowler, Henning, Bushre, Skoronski) 1:33.44; 3. BER (Demler, Hartley, Michael, Weaver) 1:38.22; 4. DAL (Motley, Spears, Weaver, Caravaggio) 1:38.37; 5. EL (Mead, Chase Orlandini, Dolaway, Pettit) 1:39.87; 6. LL (Sabol, Thomas Manzoni, Tyler Manzoni, Wasik) 1:40.17; 7. WS (Niemiec, Kane, Bruno, Martin) 1:43.02; 8. SEM (Gaudino, Tindell, McCarthy, Deluna) 1;43.12; 9. HR (Williams, Larraide, Barnak, Smith) 1:44.87; 10. HC (R. Murphy, Talbot, Smicherko, Megliola) 1:47.87; 11. WA (White, Dymond, Earl, Chronowski) 1:54.54.
