WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships: Mars’ Luke Lamb earns gold in 50 free
Luke Lamb was a newcomer to the WPIAL Class 3A swimming championships. He was far from an unknown, however.
The Mars senior swimmer and reigning Class 2A champion in the 50-yard freestyle placed first in the same event at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool on Thursday.
“It is not very normal,” Planets coach Karen Guise said. “You’re usually stuck in the same division or the same group. ... I know that there have been a couple of flip-flops in the last few years, but I don’t think very many major ones.
“Your name goes down. Like, they’re going to look at it because the championship names don’t change. You know, records may change, but the championship is always there.”
Lamb finished the race in 20.43 seconds, seven hundreths of a second faster than his performance in the Class 2A meet last year.
“It was nice to be able to move up and swim against this competition, switch it up a little bit,” Lamb said. “It was meaningful to be able to do it in both divisions.”
Bethel Park sophomore Jackson Edwards finished second with a time of 21.09. North Allegheny’s Grant Regule won the 50 free at last year’s Class 3A meet. He placed third (21.40) this time around. Lamb kept tabs on both before competing against them.
“He’s well-rounded as far he knows the fast swimmers out there, and he kind of keeps an eye on all that competition,” Guise said. “He knew who he was going to be kind of competing up against this year. ... They’ve all swam with each other at different swim camps, swim clubs over the past 10 years that most of them have been swimming.
“He knew who to keep an eye out for and, you know, now just keeps checking the names off his list of who he’s going for.”
Lamb also earned a medal as part of Mars’ 200 medley relay, which placed sixth. The quartet, which included Sean Muchnok, Preston Heynes and Alexander Harrison, finished with a time of 1:37.22.
Seneca Valley’s girls placed sixth in a pair of relays. Audrey Wolfe, Lena Rothrock, Alissa Wilson and Sasha Myers came in with a time of 1:40.27 in the 200 freestyle.
Rothrock, Katie Bookwalter, Elle Alexander and Wolfe swam a 1:50.50 in the 200 medley.
