Grabbing The Gold
LEWISBURG — Friday’s disappointment turned into Saturday’s triumph for Laura Goettler.
In the second and final day of the PIAA Class AAA Swimming Championships, Butler’s junior swam the girls 100-yard breaststroke in one minute, 1.13 seconds to earn her first state title at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
She edged out Fox Chapel’s Zoe Skirboll by one-tenth of a second.
The school-record effort came a day after Goettler came in fifth place in the 200 individual medley after being ranked first in the state entering the event.
“Friday was totally unexpected and a normal person would let that blow them away for the rest of the meet,” said Butler coach Dave Bocci. “For Laura to come back and battle Zoe (who placed first in the breaststroke in the WPIAL meet March 1), it’s a real statement on Laura’s character. It was a heck of a swim and one that she needed to have.”
Last year at states, Goettler came painfully close to winning in the breaststroke, coming in .15 seconds behind Avon Grove senior Olivia Paoletti.
“Especially after last year, winning felt really good,” said Goettler. “I was excited to be standing on top of the medal stand and extremely grateful for my coaches and teammates and all they’ve done for me.”
Before winning state gold, Goettler had to first get her mind in the right place after Friday’s competition.
“It was my mind-set entering the IM,” said Goettler. “It filtered into my race and my body tightened up.
“Afterward, I assessed the situation and figured out what I needed to do to perform my best on Saturday.”
As was the case in the IM, Goettler placed first in the preliminary round for the breaststroke with a time of 1:01.9 Saturday morning.
“I normally don’t put much weight into prelims,” said Bocci. “Obviously, the goal is to place in the top eight to get to the final and give yourself a chance to win a state title. But in this particular situation, I thought Laura’s time in prelims was very important. It showed nothing was wrong with her and that Friday’s result was not indicative of how she was going to swim on Saturday. She was getting back down to business.”
The breaststroke final was very close, but Bocci saw a good sign during the race.
“On every pullout, it was Laura who was getting the first stroke in,” he said. “When you’re forcing another swimmer to chase you the whole race like that, eventually, it’s going to wear them out.”
Goettler was in Lane 4 for the final, Skirboll in Lane 5.
“I could tell that she was close (during the race), but I didn’t know exactly how close,” Goettler said. “I tried not to focus on her, just tried to swim my own race as much as possible.”
Earning a medal in the Class AAA boys competition was Seneca Valley junior Owen Blazer. He finished seventh in the 100 backstroke with a time of 50.36.
