PITTSBURGH — The 200-yard freestyle is not Andrew Pierre's best event, but you wouldn't have known it by watching him swim the Class AA event Thursday at the University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool.

Mars' junior swam it in a personal-best time of one minute, 44.15 seconds to claim his first WPIAL title.

“It feels really good. My (older) brother, Tommy, has been rubbing it in the last few days. He won a couple of titles on relays and was on the 2014 team that won a team championship.

“This win takes some of the pressure off of me for Friday,” Pierre said in reference to his swim in the 500 freestyle, his best event.

Pierre was seeded second prior to the meet behind Indiana's Cole Thome, who placed fourth. The former knew he was closing in on a title in the last 25 yards when he saw his coaches' emphatic cheers when he turned his head to take a breath.

“He talked about it, dreamt about it and went out and did it,” said Mars coach Todd Slobodnyak. “He had some nerves at the start of the meet, but swam the backstroke leg of our medley relay and that got the jitters out.”

Pierre admitted winning wasn't his main goal.

“I wanted to go my fastest time,” he said. “I ended up beating my (previous) best by four-tenths of a second.”

Andrew Ivory also turned in a memorable day for the Planets, vaulting from a No. 5 seed to a second-place finish in the 200 IM.

“I was hoping for a 2:01,” said Ivory, who managed a time of 1:59.23. “When I looked up at the board and saw 1:59 next to my name, I couldn't believe it.”

“It probably took him 10 seconds of looking at that board to realize what he had done,” said Slobodnyak.

Ivory was quick to deflect some of the praise for his state-qualifying effort.

“We have new coaches (Slobodnyak, Mitch Schall and Joella Baker) this year,” he said. “They came in and changed things around. They got me to focus on what I'm capable of.”

“He's listened to what we've been telling him,” said Slobodnyak. “He was ready for this, mentally and physically.”

Sevryn Napora left swimming behind a few years ago, only to pick it back up as a junior last year.

Based on his contribution Thursday, it was a wise decision.

Napora, a Penn Township resident, swam the second leg of Shady Side Academy's winning 200 freestyle relay squad, which came in at 1:29.3.

“I swam up until I was 12, then played hockey my freshman and sophomore years,” Napora said. “I started swimming again because I knew I had the talent for it and that's where my heart was.

“We really didn't have a time in mind today. We just knew we had to swim to the best of our ability.”

Knoch senior Matt Karenbauer punched his ticket to states in two events, finishing third in the 200 IM and butterfly with times of 2:00.92 and 52.38, respectively.

Girls

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic is currently in fourth place in the team standings with 129 points, 27 behind leader Shady Side Academy.

With several highly-seeded swimmers scheduled to compete Friday, CWNC coach T.J. Barry is optimistic his team can be a factor at the end.

“I think it could come down to the 400 freestyle relay (last event),” he said.

CWNC's effort has been led by Brooke and Brittney Carmazzi, who placed fourth in the IM and second in the butterfly, respectively. They both teamed with Emma Kunzmann and Julia Kocsis to place fourth in the medley relay.

Butler County resident Meredith Cummings contributed to Shady Side's stellar showing with a third-place effort in the butterfly.