Sarah Pasquella’s smile said it all. After dedicating thousands and thousands of hours to training for more than a decade, her dream finally became reality: She is the new state champion in the 200-yard freestyle event. The senior swam a time of 1:48.84 in the event to earn the coveted gold medal at the 2025 PIAA swimming championships at Bucknell University last weekend.
Last year at PIAAs, as a junior, Sarah placed third in the event, and throughout her four-year high school career, she consistently medaled at WPIALs and states, as an individual and as part of a relay team.
“I’m so excited to finally be able to call myself a state champion,” she says with a huge smile. “This has been years in the making. When I saw that I had won, I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to celebrate with my team,” an observance later marked by a great dinner and cookies, and filled with a lot laughter and treasured memories.
Profile of Achievements
Once WPIALs concluded this year, and going into states, Sarah and her teammates intensified their training, focusing on pacing, starts, and turns. She also had a clear plan of her own.
“My strategy was to get out ahead strong and really pick it up on the third 50 yards,” explains Sarah, who is Michigan-bound to continue her swimming and academic careers. “The last 50 is always whatever I have left.”
Beyond her individual gold medal, Sarah also was a crucial contributor and leadoff on the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relay teams, both of which finished fourth in the state. Her teammates, senior Grace Kovach and sophomores Josie Stanczak and Charlotte Rusche, have been together for those relays for two years, earning state medals both seasons.
During the two-day state championships, Sarah also placed fifth in the 100 yard breaststroke.
Prior to the state competition, in her final WPIAL appearance, Sarah earned gold medals in the individual 200 yard freestyle, and as a member of the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and also is this year’s second-place medalist in the 100 yard breaststroke.
Her record-breaking career is nothing short of remarkable. Sarah now ties the record of five concurrent school records, tied with Sophie Shao, also a state champion who now swims for Brown University. Sarah holds individual records in the 200 free (1:48.79), 50 free, 100 free and the 200 and 400 free relays (1:35.14 and 3:27.93, respectively). Many of those records were already hers, but she broke them multiple times.
An Uncertain Beginning
Although it might appear that becoming a champion was Sarah’s destiny, her journey didn’t always follow a smooth path.
Always a quiet child, even into her teens, Sarah got her start in the sport by following her older sister Ariana’s lead. But she recalls the times when her body and limbs were growing so quickly that she became very uncoordinated. “And I always lost my goggles on the start. I was missing the walls on the turns before we figured out, I needed glasses.”
She suffered disappointments, too, such as the years she didn’t advance with her teammates to a higher-level training group, until her youth coaches discovered there was something special about her. Instead of giving up, Sarah plowed ahead with determination that belied her age. She voluntarily attended extra practices and pushed herself in strength training, yoga, and dryland workouts. The gold medalist also hated to miss practice, so if there was a day when school was canceled, she found a pool on her own and practiced there.
“It was definitely a process,” adds 6’3” Sarah, whose climb to the top has been remarkable. Now, in addition to her high school success, she is one step away from qualifying for the Olympic Trials.
Her high school coach, Matt Mauclair, has watched her development over the years with admiration. “She is driven to become better at every practice and analyses her splits, comparing her day-to-day best efforts,” he says.
Legacy Sets a New Standard
After a short, well-deserved break, Sarah will begin preparing for NCAA Division I swimming, taking on the challenge of double practices, something she’s never done before. She’s also excited to joins the ranks with other strong women collegiate swimmers – many, like her, who stand tall at six feet and over.
She says, “I know that I will need to start training for the double practices to prepare for the intensity of the schedule at Michigan. I’m excited to see where this level up in training can take me in all my events.”
Sarah has a bright future ahead of her at Michigan, but she leaves behind a legacy full of standards that provide a blueprint for future generations of Foxes swimmers. She will be missed greatly, but she’s wrapping up her high school career on her terms, with a fitting and happy ending. Her next chapter has no boundaries.
“I’m far from being done,” she says with confidence. “This is only the beginning!”