Long Time Coming
PITTSBURGH — Owen Blazer's swim in the 100-yard butterfly Thursday morning was eight years in the making. “I remember when I was 10-years old, my club coach talked to me about what hard work and determination could lead to.”
That coach was Brian Blackwell, who now pulls double-duty as Blazer's high school coach. He watched as Blazer won the WPIAL Class AAA title in the butterfly at the University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool.
“On the final turn, I could tell that I had a lead and at the end, I pretty much knew that I had won,” said Blazer, a senior. “I looked up at the board to see my time.”
What Blazer saw was that he had broken his own school record in the event with a time of 48.48 seconds. His old standard was 49.6 and he entered Thursday with a district-best time of 50.25.
He held a .42-second lead over North Allegheny's Branko Kosanovich after the first 50 yards and never trailed.
“I looked over at my coaches and they were going crazy,” he said. “It was a good moment, pretty surreal."
“Traditionally, I don't do as well on the fi rst day (of WPIALs) in the fly, then I take it out on the backstroke on the second day.”
He will get a chance to do something special Friday in the backstroke, where he is also ranked first. But whatever that race brings, Blazer has his WPIAL title after standing on the podium as an individual six times over the last three years for everything from second place to eighth.
“I always told myself that my time would come,” he said.
It did Thursday.
“His time is probably going to be ranked in the top 50 in the country,” said Blackwell. “All the focus and practice he's put in, and there were years when he fell a little short. To see it happen today, I'm happy for him.”
Blazer was also part of SV's 200 medley relay team that dropped the school-record time to 1:33.75. The quartet also included Haihan Xu, Daniel Simoes and Max Skeen.
Finishing one spot behind Blazer in the butterfly was Butler's David Bocci, who broke his school's record in the event with a time of 49.67.
“I was tight in warmups this morning and spent the entire session just swimming in the shallow pool, easy freestyle laps and throwing in some butterfly here and there,” Bocci said. “Bythe time of the race, everything just clicked for me, but I wasn't expecting to go 49.6.”
It was one of three Butler school records that fell.
The 200 medley relay squad of Sam Deemer, Gideon Goettler, Bocci and Ben Borvendeg now owns the best finish after swimming a 1:36.33.
Later in the meet, Borvendeg's 21.38 in the 50 freestyle topped yet another record, but he has even higher standards.
“It's a decent time, but I swam a 21.44 here (in December) and thought I could go faster,” said Borvendeg, who revealed he was not 100 percent.
“I got sick on Sunday. This is the best I've felt since then, but I had a 100-degree fever this morning.”
SV's Kevin Donaldson made a huge leap, going from a 12th seed in the 200 freestyle to a thirdplace finish with a time of 1:42.93.
“My previous best was a 1:45.9,” he said. “I wasn't in the fastest heat, so my goal was to take control of the race and give it my all.”
