Butler's O'Toole aims for WPIAL title
BUTLER TWP — Stephanie O’Toole is hoping her one season on the Butler varsity swimming team yields a WPIAL championship.
She is ranked first in the girls 100-yard butterfly entering the Class AAA meet, which runs Thursday and Friday at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool. The senior’s time in the event is 56.45 seconds.
O’Toole spent the last several years living and training in Maryland. She swam in the Olympic Trials last summer.
“If I don’t win a WPIAL title, it would be a disappointment,” said the University of Toledo recruit.
“Do I want her to win a WPIAL and state title?” asked Golden Tornado coach Dave Bocci. “Absolutely. And she is giving it all she has to get there. But my main objective is to prepare her as well as I can to be a student-athlete in college.”
O’Toole qualified for the WPIAL meet in every individual event, but wants to help Butler finish as high as it can in the relay events and is therefore swimming in just one individual race.
Making her fourth and final trip to the district meet is Butler senior Taylor Campbell, who has definite goals in the breaststroke, where she is ranked 13th.
“I want to get to the state meet in that event,” she said. “I’ve learned from high school swimming that each race gives you one shot and you have to give it all you got.”
Seneca Valley senior Katie Miller is looking to improve on her pair of No. 10 seeds, one in the 100 freestyle and the other in the 200 freestyle.
“Getting a medal (top eight) in both events would be a great way to end my high school career,” she said. “If I can do that, I would also have a good chance of getting to states. All the girls on the team, we’ve always supported each other. It’s going to be tough to leave high school swimming behind.”
Class AAA Boys
Spencer Tretter may be new to WPIAL swimming, but don’t let that fool you. Seneca Valley’s freshman is a legitimate threat in the 200 freestyle (seeded sixth, 1:46.89) and 500 freestyle (third, 4:49.02).
“Spencer has been in big meets for the Seneca Valley Swim Club the last few years,” said Raiders assistant coach Jeff Gavin. “So, we are not surprised that he has had a great freshman year.”
“His times over the last year or two have been competitive with WPIAL times,” said SV coach Brian Blackwell.
“I won’t be phased by the atmosphere,” Tretter said. “I have competed at Trees Pool before and I’m expecting to make states in both of my individual events.”
Tretter will also be a member of SV’s 200 and 400 freestyle relays, seeded eighth and seventh, respectively.
Jake Fausti, Michael Rhein and Michael Palaski will join him in both events. The 200 squad is less than five seconds from breaking the school record, while the 400 standard is just over five seconds away.
“That would be pretty cool,” Tretter said of he and his teammates possibly breaking the marks. “It would be nice to have our names up on the record board here at the pool.”
Butler junior Ryan Deemer is seeded fourth in the 500 freestyle (4:51.79) and eighth in the 200 event (1:47.98). The latter is just over 3 1/2 seconds from Butler’s school record in the 200 free (1:44.36).
Deemer swam for the high school team as a freshman, but took a year off as a sophomore.
“School was stressing me out and I just focused on that last year,” said Deemer. “I was focusing more on my 200 time for most of this season. Then I swam the 500 a few times and just got in a groove.”
“It’s not where you start, but where you finish,” said Bocci of Deemer’s emergence. “Ryan has come a long way and has done a great job for us.”
