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Sports

QV Swimmer Francis Strikes Gold in WPIAL Swim Final

Quakers boys finish sixth overall in Class AA

Local high school swimmers expect their best competition to come from the lanes beside them in the WPIAL Swimming and Diving Championships.

Quaker Valley junior Bobby Francis and senior Mike Allada found out they were swimming against the best all season in practice.

Francis captured the Gold Medal and Allada came earned the Silver Medal in the 100-yard breaststroke final at the WPIAL Class AA championships Friday at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

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Francis won the title in 59.71 seconds, coming off a 27.92 split at the turn.

Allada made the turn in 28.56 to finish in 1:01.33.

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Together, they added 37 team points to the Quakers boys total of 135, which was good enough for a solid fifth-place overall finish behind Indiana (261), Shady Side Academy (260), West Allegheny (174) and South Fayette (155).

Francis also took home the Silver Medal in the 200 individual medley in 1:57.71 on Thursday, adding another 17 points onto the Quakers’ total.

The Quaker Valley girls swimming team finished in 12th place with 61 points to finish ahead of Knoch (57) and Indiana (54). West Allegheny sprinted away with the girls title with 314 points.

Both the Quakers boys and girls teams ended the meet with a flourish in the 400 freestyle relays, an event which always brings the hundreds of fans in the balcony to their feet and drowns out the public address system.

The Quaker Valley boys finished fifth in the 400 freestyle relay as senior Andrew Hotchkiss, sophomore Rhet Happel, Allada and junior Bobby Francis combined to finish in 3:34.26. The girls relay took seventh as junior Caroline Heres, freshman Alexis Glenn, senior Aja Happel and sophomore Sarah Francis combined to touch the wall in 3:51.14.

Also on Friday, senior Abby Perrott took 13th in 5:39.14 and junior Amber Miller was 24th in 5:50.62 in the girls 500 freestyle. Francis finished 13th in 56.40 and Happel took 15th in 57.07 in the girls 100 freestyle. Hotchkiss placed 23rd in the boys 100 freestyle in 52.30.

On Thursday, both Quaker Valley 200 freestyle relay teams made waves. The boys finished fourth as Allada, Hotchkiss, Happel and Francis teamed up to finish in 1:32.42. The girls finished ninth combining the efforts of Heres, Glenn Happel and Francis into a 1:44.95 finish.

Rounding out the action for the girls on Thursday, Happel took a 13th-place finish in the 50 yard freestyle in 25.79; Francis placed 15th in the 200 freestyle in 2:06.07 and Perrott was 18th in 2:06.76. In the 200 medley relay, Quaker Valley was 22nd as Miller, Glenn, senior Emily Steliotes and sophomore Lauren Gedeon combined for a 2:12.01 finish.

On the boys side, Allada captured a 13th-place finish in the 100 butterfly in 55.70, while in the 50 freestyle, Hotchkiss was 19th in 23.67 and Happel was 23rd in 23.85. Junior Dillon Irwin came in 29th in 2:01.11 in the 200 freestyle. Quaker Valley’s boys 200 medley relay was 23rd as Irwin, junior John Comerci, freshman Jordan Kaye and senior Marcus Thaw finished in 1:56.91.

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