Early leads hold up for Tornado as O'Toole snaps another record

By Sam Tallarico Eagle Staff Writer

January 18, 2013 Last Updated: January 18, 2013 01:38 PM High School

Butler 's Amelia Rashad swims in the 200-yard individual medley against Knoch Thursday night in the Golden Tornado pool. Butler won the boys and girls meets against the Knights.

BUTLER TWP — With the WPIAL Swimming and Diving Championships still more than a month away, dual meets are starting to get a little old.

The idea, however, is to persevere.

The Butler boys and girls squads jumped out to early leads and went on to post 90-81 and 95-85 triumphs, respectively, over Knoch on Thursday.

“We swam well enough to win,” Butler coach Dave Bocci said. “The kids are very tired, but they're getting used to swimming while they're tired.

“We're at a point of the season there's so many meets. It's like you're training but it's race training,” he added.

“We came into it to be competitive,” Knoch coach Rick Hassler said, “to get more kids qualified and to drop times.

“When you swim against kids like (Stephanie) O'Toole, you want kids to rise to the occasion,” Hassler added.

Speaking of O'Toole, the senior broke the Butler school record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.04, besting the mark previously held by Molly Evans (59.30 in 2007) and was one-tenth of a second from the pool record of 56.94, set by Mars' Maggie Gruber last month.

O'Toole also won the 100 backstroke (58.65) and was a part of the winning 200 medley relay (1:57.14) and the fastest time in the 400 freestyle relay (3:50.61).

Macie Pennington was the Tornado's other double individual winner (2:25.25 in the 200 I.M. and 5:33.28 in the 500 free) while Taylor Campbell won the 200 free (2:02.19) and had the fastest time in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.54) and a member of the same relays as O'Toole.

“One thing the kids are doing is applying race strategies that I've given them and they're doing well,” Bocci said.

For Knoch, Anna Cunningham won the 50 free (25.88) and Abby Jones the 100 free (56.33) while the duo teamed up with Katie Jones and Madison Whalen to win the 200 free relay (1:48.47), which exceeded the WPIAL qualifying standard.

That was the first time that relay competed, the same for the Knoch boys 200 free relay, which qualified for the event with a time of 1:39.78.

Austin Whitmer (50 free), Nathan Walls (100 back) and Ian Lindsey (100 breast) all won individual events for the Knights with Walls' time of 1:03.30 exceeding the qualifying standard.

“Dave's a good coach,” said Hassler. “I knew Butler would be fired up, swimming at home.”

The Tornado boys had double individual winners in Ian Gillan (200 free, 500 free) and Ryan Deemer (200 I.M., 100 free) to lead the way and pull the squad's record back to .500.

“Records are nice for the kids to see. It's a dual meet, head to head,” Bocci said. “But, the judge is how well you do at the WPIAL meet. How you finish is what's important. That's the true measure of what a program should be.”

Notes: Butler's Claire Weiland (177.75) and Levi Cetti (302.05) won the girls and boys diving, respectively ... Butler (girls 5-3, boys 4-4) will host Blackhawk on Monday while Knoch (boys 5-4, girls 4-5) is at Northgate on Tuesday.

Girls

Butler 95, Knoch 85

200 medley relay: 1-Butler (Stephanie O'Toole, Taylor Campbell, Jillian McElhaney, Kati Herr) 1:57.14

200 freestyle: 1-Taylor Campbell (B) 2:02.19

200 individual medley: 1-Macie Pennington (B) 2:25.25

50 freestyle: 1-Anna Cunningham (K) 25.88

1-meter diving: 1-Claire Weiland (B) 177.75

100 butterfly: 1-Stephanie O'Toole (B) 57.04

100 freestyle: 1-Abby Jones (K) 56.33

500 freestyle: 1-Macie Pennington (B) 5:33.28

200 freestyle relay: 1-Knoch (Abby Jones, Katie Jones, Madison Whalen, Anna Cunningham) 1:48.47

100 backstroke: 1-Stephanie O'Toole (B) 58.65