TOWAMENCIN – When Methacton and North Penn get together in the pool, there is always bound to be something in the water…a little neighborhood rivalry.

Both the North Penn Boys and Girls swimming and diving teams were able to defeat Methacton. What makes this meet more significant than just fast times, is that many of the athletes were competing against their teammates and friends.

“There’s a local summer team back here for Towamencin, and a lot of the kids who swim for that summer team swim for Methacton. It’s kinda cool that before the meet started, all the summer club kids that share the team together we’re hanging out under the scoreboard before the meet started,” said Head Coach Jeff Faikish.

Swimming

To kick off the meet, both the boys and girls took 1st and 2nd place in the 200 yard medley relay. Winning for the girls with a time of 1:51.72 were seniors Maddy Koerper and Claudia Thamm, junior Haley Muth, and sophomore Nicole Chiappa. The boys won with a time of 1:38.17 with seniors Aiden Daly and Ryan Hartmann, junior Ryley Fein, and sophomore Sean Faikish.  

“As far as our performance was concerned, I was very pleased. They did a fantastic job today. Kids were dropping huge chunks of time, which for this time of the season is kind of an odd thing. Now we had three meets in a row this week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so it’s kind of crazy to see time drops like that. Three meets in a row puts a huge strain on your body. You are asking your body to go at 100 percent three days in a row in meets. We do a lot of training to support it, but it doesn’t mean it makes your body feel any better,” said Faikish.

It was hard to tell that this was the third meet in a row for the Knights after so many 1st place finishes in the meet. The Knights took first in the girls and boys 200 yard freestyle, 200 yard individual medley, 50 freestyle, 100 fly, 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay, 100 back, 100 breast, and 400 freestyle relay.   

“In the 100 free I got one of my best times so far, so it was pretty good. Teamwise, we swam great. A lot of good times and fast racing. Swimming three days in a row is pretty rough on all of us. Our coaches prepared us well for this so it was just a great swim by all of us,” said Sean Faikish.

The 100 freestyle was the race to see with exceptional performances by Faikish and senior Rosalinda Rivera. Faikish won with a personal record of 50.05. Rivera, not being a 100 freestyle swimmer, did an exceptional job. She trailed Methacton for the first two laps, but she came back and passed the swimmer on the last lap swimming a 54.15.

“I think I did pretty good because I usually don’t swim the 100 free, but I went my best time today. We’ve been working extremely hard so it went well. We’re all pretty beat right now, but personally I think we are going pretty great. We’ve got a lot of time drops, so we’ve been killing it,” said Rivera.

Taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in many races, along with having blowout races in the boys 400 freestyle relay and 50 yard freestyle, the Knights easily defeated Methacton.

“I think we just need to keep training. Every sing day, just showing up here, working your butt off is all we can do. We need to work harder off the turns also. Everyday in practice my teammates work hard off of each other because we want to win. In order to get to that goal we want to just keep preparing hard,”said Sean Faikish

With such big races and so many new records, luckily the Knights have a good break before the next meet to rest and improve even further.

“There’s a lot of areas to improve in. It’s fine tuning little things: stroke mechanics, turns, where you’re breathing, or if you’re breathing at all. All those things have a strong impact on time. In a sport where everything revolves around tenths and hundredths of seconds, how can you reduce your best effort by a tenth or a hundredth of a second, so you can see that improvement. It really does come down to the little things. We are going to address all those things. As the meet goes on, we take notes on what needs to be addressed at practice. Also, as soon as the race is over,we have a very accomplished staff ready to help the kids. I rely on each one of the coaches to give their input to the swimmers,” said Coach Faikish.

Diving

Winning Diving for the boys and girls also had a big contribution in the win for the Knights.

“Today wasn’t my best, but I have a hurt back right now, so I dove fairly well for that. I just plan to focus in on my dives and to try to stay healthy outside of diving. My points really affect the team’s score, which is a good thing because I really want to help out the team,” said Paige Burrell.

North Penn sophomores Paige Burrell and Evan Mancini both won in diving. Burrel scored a 299.05 and Mancini scored a 221.45, both exceptional performances.

“Divers are phenomenal. Our divers are some of the best in the country, and that’s something our diving coach won’t say, he’s very humble. Our diving team is very humble, but there are three or four girls on our diving team that are literally the best in the country. Paige Burrell does a dive that only 4 other girls in the country can do, college or high school. The girls that do that dive are college girls. She’s the 5th in the country, so given her talent and commitment to the sport, the sky’s the limit,” said Coach Faikish.