The Foxes swimming team is headed for the WPIAL Class 3A championships March 3 and 4. But, even before they take their first dip in the water at Trees Pool at the University of Pittsburgh, they already have accomplished more than any other Fox Chapel Area High School swim teams have in the past.
For the first time in program history, both the boys and girls teams went undefeated in their sections and, together, won back-to-back titles. It was the second consecutive title for the boys, something that had never been achieved before, and the girls also set a new school record with their three-peat section crown. As has occurred historically, the champions are usually determined by the all-important Franklin Regional meet, the next to last one of the regular season. This year, the Foxes girls team defeated Franklin Regional, 104-77, and the boys won, 98-82.
“The Franklin Regional meet was truly a memorable night,” says coach Dan Taylor. “We talked as a team about setting the tone with the first event, and it couldn’t have been scripted any better. The girls went 1-2 (first and second place) in the 200 medley, followed by the boys winning their relay and breaking the school record by over a second. There was so much energy on the pool deck that you just knew we were going to have a great night.”
Also, during the regular season, four new pool records were set. Individually, Sophie Shao (100 fly), Payton O’Toole (200 free), and Aadil Pattada (100 back) all broke the former pool records. Likewise, the boys 200 medley relay team of Aadil Pattada, Owen Howell, Peter Manelis, and Emmanuel Drappatz set a new pool and team record time.
“I’ve been continuously working on my turns and underwaters, not just for fly, but for my other events, including the 100 free and the 200 IM,” says Sophie. “My plan this year is to swim the 200 IM and 100 fly, along with the 200-medley relay and 400-free relay. It’ll be different this year since it’s back to a normal schedule, so, hopefully, there will be plenty of time in between my events. I feel fairly confident that I will beat my time from last year’s states, considering my best time is almost half a second faster. The question now is how much I will drop.”
This is Aadil’s second time qualifying for WPIALs in the 100 backstroke, but he says this is a completely different situation than last year.
“I only barely qualified for the event getting a secondary cut of 53.48, but this year I managed to shave off more than a second, getting a primary cut of 52.03, and broke the school record,” Aadil says of his significant improvement. “I’m very excited about the future. I hope to drop more time, so currently I am working on my underwater kicking off the wall to be able to gain more distance and speed of my starts and turns.”
Now, the athletes are still training, but their focus is solely on the WPIAL Class 3A championships. The WPIAL has returned to its former format of the number of allowable qualifiers after cutting back significantly in 2021 due to the pandemic. Then, only 16 individuals and 12 relay teams per event were invited to the regional tournament. This year, up to 32 individuals and 24 relay teams will compete per event. Additionally, each swimmer who qualified in multiple events can enter in up to two individual events and two relays, or one individual event and three relays.
Coach Taylor has established a program that is now considered one of the strongest in Western Pennsylvania. He continually encourages the swimmers to push themselves to the best of their ability and introduces something new to the dryland workouts each year. This season, he added yoga.
“I try to develop a plan that allows our coaching staff to meet the needs of every swimmer on the team,” says the coach, who believes a realistic expectation going into WPIALs is for the girls team to finish in the top three and the boys in the top five. “We spend a lot of time talking with swimmers about team goals, meet goals, and practice goals. I feel we do a very good job preparing the swimmers both physically and mentally, which gives them confidence and that almost always translates into fast swimming.”
He continues, “Both the girls and boys teams have done an excellent job this season on working as a team to raise the bar for Fox Chapel Area swimming. I’m just flat-out happy and excited for the kids, especially the seniors. This was the way I hoped they would finish their regular season.”
Final list of Fox Chapel Area individual and relay teams that will compete at the WPIAL championships (Top 10 rankings noted)
*pool record
** pool and team record
Relays***
W 200 free relay: 4th – Sophie Shao, Rei Sperry, Talia Bugel, and Ariana Pasquella
W 200 medley relay: 3rd – Sophie Shao, Talia Bugel, Rei Sperry, and Ariana Pasquella
W 400 free medley: 4th – Sophie Shao, Rei Sperry, Talia Bugel, and Payton O’Toole
M 200 free relay: 8th – David Dering, Holden Smith, Nathaniel Ross, and Emmanuel Drappatz
M 200 medley relay: 4th** – Aadil Pattada, Owen Howell, Peter Manelis, and Emmanuel Drappatz
M 400 free relay: 4th – Christian Dantey, Holden Smith, Nathaniel Ross, and Emmanuel Drappatz
***Team compositions are subject to change
Individual competitors and events (Top 10 rankings noted)
W 50 free: Rei Sperry (4th), Sarah Pasquella, Gloria Wen, and Grace Kovach
W 100 free: Rei Sperry (2nd) and Gloria Wen
W 200 free: Payton O’Toole* (3rd) and Ariana Pasquella (10th)
W 500 free: Payton O’Toole (4th) and Talia Bugel (8th)
W 100 back: Talia Bugel (2nd) and Margaret Rusche (10th)
W 100 breast: Ariana Pasquella (6th), Sarah Pasquella (10th), Isabella Marcos, and Claudia Smith
W 100 fly: Sophie Shao* (1st) and Margaret Rusche (6th)
W 200 IM: Sophie Shao (1st), Rayna Huang, and Claudia Smith
M 50 free: Emmanuel Drappatz (7th) and David Dering
M 100 free: Nathaniel Ross (8th), Holden Smith (10th), David Dering, and Aadil Pattada
M 200 free: Nathaniel Ross (6th), Christian Dantey (7th), and Holden Smith (10th)
M 500 free: Philip Drappatz
M 100 back: Aadil Pattada* (5th)
M 100 breast: Owen Howell (4th), Christian Dantey (7th), Henry Koloc, and Peter Manelis
M 100 fly: Peter Manelis and Oscar Ruff
M 200 IM: Owen Howell and Henry Koloc
M Diving: Jackson Hagler placed 6th at the WPIAL diving championships held February 26 at North Allegheny High School. Jackson, a freshman, missed qualifying for states by one place finish.
The WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships will be live streamed at https://tribhssn.triblive.com/.
