Giona, Adrian Lavorini making their mark in Butler YMCA swimming
From swimming lessons to swimming standouts.
Giona and Adrian Lavorini are sister and brother — and rising stars for the Knoch High School and Butler YMCA swim teams.
Both participated in the Allegheny Mountain Age Group Championships (formerly known as Junior Olympics) in July. Adrian swam at the Senior Showdown at West Virginia University later that month while Giona attended USA Swimming Futures in Richmond, Va.
Giona qualified for the 2023 Speedo Junior National Championships in Irvine, Calif., earlier this month.
“Both of those kids really came on strong this summer,” Butler Y swim coach Corrie Jones said. “They’ve been good for each other. Adrian watched how hard Giona was working at her swimming and what she was getting out of it.
“He began working harder, saw the results, and that motivation is still there. They swim together, train together.”
Both got started in the pool through taking swimming lessons as small children.
“We were 5 and 6 years old,” Adrian said. “Our parents had us take swim lessons and we just took to the water. We enjoyed it. Swimming quickly became our sport.”
Giona agreed.
“I can’t explain it, we both loved it,” she said. “It’s fun. We’ve been swimming ever since.”
But they haven’t been swimming at the level they have this summer.
While at the Senior Showdown, Adrian broke the Y’s 15-over men’s 200 individual medley long course record with a swim of 2 minutes, 17.68 seconds.
“The impressive thing about that is Adrian’s only 15, so he’ll be swimming in that age group another three years,” Jones said. “He’s a distance swimmer and he wants to break all of our distance records — the 400 freestyle, 800, 1,500 — at some point. He’s got a pretty good shot at it.”
Giona broke the team’s 100 and 200 women’s breast stroke records this year — three times. She first broke them at the Age Group Championships, then at the USA Swimming Futures, where she placed fifth in the 200 and seventh in the 100.
She snapped her own records again while placing 31st at at the Junior National Championships. Her 100 breast stroke record is 1:12.38, the 200 record 2:36.26.
“When Giona was in the 11-12 age division, she had a shot at breaking our 50 breast stroke record that was set by Laura Goettler,” Jones said. “That was the COVID year when everything was shut down. I believe she would have gotten that record.”
Giona recalled that year, but said she wasn’t all that disappointed.
“I missed the competitive swimming, of course, but wasn’t all that upset about not breaking that record,” Giona said. “I felt like I could break some other records in the future. I have a lot of confidence that way.
“I don’t know how the breast stroke became my best event. In practice, everybody does everything. I just happen to do my best in the breast stroke.”
Both swimmers have hopes of competing in college down the road. They have high goals at Knoch and at the YMCA in the pool as well.
“You can always improve your times and expand your abilities in the pool,” Adrian said.
Other Butler Y swimmers also fared well this summer:
McCale Buser set team records of 33.27 seconds in the boys 11-12 50 butterfly amd 10:43.54 in the 800 freestyle. He joined Cody Hartle, Gianna Savannah, Rachel Smith, Caden Traggiai, Abigail Vance and Addison Vance at the Age Group Championships.
Traggiai, Abigail and Addison Vance swam at the Senior Showdown at WVU.
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