Butler’s Collins stars as boys swimmers beat Mars

January 05, 2024 Last Updated: January 05, 2024 09:13 AM Sports

Team Player

Butler's Dash Thieme swims the 200-yard individual medley against Mars at Butler High School Thursday night. Thieme won the event with a time of 2:20.10. Steven Dalton/Special to the Eagle

BUTLER TWP — Noah Collins checked off one box Thursday night.

The Butler senior swimmer is working toward marking another — in an event he’s only just recently ventured into.

Collins finished first in the 50-yard freestyle against visiting Mars, with his time of 23.02 seconds meeting the WPIAL Championship meet requirement. He also came out on top in the 500 freestyle — in 5:34.40 — as the Golden Tornado boys won, 84-59.

“Last year, I was more of just a full-on sprint guy,” Collins said. “I was nowhere near being fast at all. This year, at one of the practices over Christmas (break), Coach pulled me aside and had me doing 500 stuff. They were like, ‘You’re going to be close if you do this.’ I was like, ‘Alright.’ So, we tried it today.

“We’ve got to keep working on it, but we’ll get there.”

Collins was also part of Butler (2-2) wins in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.

“We tried something new with him tonight — and he’s willing just to step into a role that we needed,” Golden Tornado coach Troy Kroll said. “Going into it, I told him, ‘You know what? We’re just going to put a time on paper, then we’re going to go ahead and break it down. He’s a kid that you throw something at him, he’ll take it. ... One of the most coach-able kids that I’ve had here so far. He has a desire just to do things for the team.”

While helping the whole, Collins is also learning about his own abilities.

“It’s honestly pretty cool just seeing how diverse of a swimmer that I can be — (from) just thinking I was just a straight freestyle sprinter to going into the long-distance,” he said.

Dash Thieme (200 IM), Jackson Morgus (100 backstroke), and Ben Grossman (100 breaststroke) also won individual events for Butler. Five of the eight solo races on the boys’ side were decided by two seconds or fewer, including the ones that Thieme and Grossman triumphed in.

Collins’ finish in the 50 freestyle was also included in that variety. However, he beat out the Planets’ Peyton Randall by nearly 23 seconds in the 500 freestyle.

“The next time he swims it, it’ll probably be better,” Kroll said.

For Mars (0-4), Connor Liu (200 freestyle) and Gavin Best (100 butterfly) pulled out narrow victories.

“They’re really important in terms of team morale and getting everybody hyped up,” said Best, a freshman, about the close calls. “I think that just makes everybody swim faster when we have really close finishes.”

Butler (girls) 121, Mars 56

Emma Pflugh (200 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Abigail Vance (500 freestyle), Addison Vance (100 backstroke), and Addyson Traggiai (100 breaststroke) all won their individual events in a steady effort for Butler (2-2).

The Golden Tornado also swept the meet’s relays.

“They’re getting stronger,” Kroll said. “Over Christmas, they really jelled. I told them beforehand, ‘Before Christmas, we were one team. Coming out of Christmas training, perfectly a different team.’”

Sarah Maloney (50 freestyle) and Bryn Wilson (100 butterfly) took home first-place honors in the pool for the short-handed Planets (1-3).

“We’ve got low numbers again this year,” Mars coach Todd Slobodnyak said. “We’ve got seven girls, so for that, spacing out events is super tough — especially when they’ve got a big, deep team like they do over there. ... I say, ‘Win where we can win.’

“We know that we’re necessarily not going to be winning the meet in points, but how are we doing in individual events? Are we dropping time? Are we doing what we talked about in practice?”