UNIVERSITY PARK — Molly Workman seems to subscribe to the approach that practice should be hard so the meets are easy.
“I’ve worked very hard this season, which has helped prepare me to go fast unrested,” the State College sophomore swimming sensation said. “It’s always fun to lower my own records.”
Workman had a lot of fun at the District 6 swimming and diving championships.
In a three-day event dominated by Centre County athletes, Workman set a pair of individual records and helped two Lady Little Lion relay teams qualify for states with gold-medal performances at the Penn State Natatorium on Friday, Feb. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 24. The State College girls team cruised to the Class 3A championship by more than 350 points.
Bellefonte’s Kiaha McCool and Penns Valley’s Liam Quigley also established meet records. While the State College boys and Bellefonte girls also came away with team championships in their respective classifications, the Bellefonte boys just missed joining them.
“My races were a significant performance to me because it helped show that I am ready for states,” said McCool, who completed the Class 2A girls 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 52.42 seconds to break the meet record.
Workman’s teammates, Ditta Kowalik and Madison Watschke, also won two individual events and were part of a pair of winning relays, as was Sam Huggins of the State College boys.
Quigley and Bellefonte’s Carter Boone garnered gold in two individual events.
“It was really good to be able to come back and win both individual events for the second year in a row,” said Quigley, who broke the meet record with a 58.79-second 100-yard breaststroke in addition to defending his district gold in the 100 freestyle. “In both races, I was able to go out strong and have the training and conditioning to bring it back as fast as I wanted to. Going into the meet seeded first, I was anticipating taking first but, knowing how good my competitors were, I did not look at it as a guaranteed win.”
State College swept all six relays. In all, Centre County accounted for 31 gold medals at the meet, which opened on Thursday, Feb. 22, with diving at State College Area High School.
The other individual winners were State College’s Garrett Flickinger (3A boys 200-yard individual medley), State College’s Leo Garlicki (3A boys 100 butterfly), State College’s Chris Hill (3A boys 1-meter dive), Bellefonte’s Isaiah Johnson (2A boys 200 IM), Penns Valley’s Mila Klena (2A girls 100 breaststroke), State College’s Trevor Martin (3A boys 100 backstroke), Bellefonte’s Katelyn Packer (2A girls 500 backstroke), State College’s Tassia St. Pierre (3A girls 1-meter dive), State College’s Gabby Siekman (3A girls 100 backstroke), State College’s Todd Siekman (3A boys 100 freestyle) and State College’s Inhye Sung (3A girls 100 butterfly).
All district champions automatically qualified for the state championships, which will be held at Bucknell University Wednesday, March 13, through Saturday, March 16. Several others will advance on at-large bids based on their times after all other district meets are concluded.
The State College girls had a phenomenal meet. The Lady Little Lions placed first in 12 events and finished with an astronomical 538 team points.
“Our goal was to get multiple girls qualified for the state meet,” State College coach Aaron Workman said. “I think we really put ourselves in a great position.”
Coach Workman said the highlights on the girls side were the swims in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles. Ditta Kowalik won the 200 along with the 500 freestyle. Molly Workman set her records in the 50 and 100.
The new standard in the 50 is 23.15, while the mark to beat in the 100 now is 50.15.
“Winning the 100 free meant the most because it was a fun race and I felt very strong swimming it,” Molly Workman said. “I was very surprised and happy with the times that I am going at this point in the season.”
Kowalik timed 1 minute, 53.97 seconds in the 200 and 5:12.16 in the 500. She also joined Gabby Siekman, Kelly Brownstead and Anne Horgas for a winning time of 3:38.07 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Watschke, meanwhile, topped the 200 IM field with a time of 2:08.04 and had the best mark in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:05.02.
She also joined Molly Workman on the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. Watschke and Workman along with Grace Carrington and Alayna Ohlson turned in a 1:45.99 in the former, while Watschke, Workman, Carrington and Brownstead finished the latter in 1:36.79.
Watschke was most pleased with her performance in the breaststroke. She missed much of this season with a broken hand.
“I’ve just been focusing on making progress each time. I was right around my best time, so I was really happy that I could prove to myself that I could go fast without taper,” Watschke said.
Sung achieved a long-time goal by timing 59.79 in the butterfly.
“For all of my high school swim career, my biggest goal was to go sub-minute. Finally seeing the results I wanted helped prove to myself that my hard work was finally paying off,” Sung said.
Gabby Siekman registered a 58.76 in her backstroke victory.
“I just had so much fun swimming it with my teammates, and dropping my time was also great,” Siekman said.
St. Pierre started the meet by scoring 349.65 to win the girls diving.
Huggins spearheaded the Little Lions by winning the 500 freestyle with a 4:29.33 and the 200 freestyle with a 1:40.91
He also timed 1:29.77 with Garlicki, Martin and Todd Siekman in the 200 free relay and 3:15.18 with the same three partners in the 400-yard version of the event.
“The win in the 500 meant the most to me,” Huggins said. “It was my first time this season under 4:30, and it was a nice confidence boost going into the last few weeks until states.”
Garlicki was part of all three winning Little Lion relays, joining Garrett and Luke Flickinger and David Ulmer to record a 1:42.67 in the 200 medley. He timed 53.11 to take first in the 100 butterfly.
Martin had a 55.45 in the backstroke, Todd Siekman a 48.59 in the 100 freestyle and Garrett Flickinger a 2:00.69 in the 200 IM. Chris Hill scored 347.50 in the diving competition.
State College’s boys wound up with 383 team points, 180 ahead of second-place Central Mountain.
“We had different people preparing for this meet in different ways and it worked out very well,” Aaron Workman said. “We had almost 100% in lifetime best times, and the ones that weren’t were the right swim for this meet as we start our preparation for states.”
In addition to her individual win, McCool combined with Katelyn Packer, Addie Pringle and Sarah Litten for a 1:54.77 to win the Class 2A girls 200 medley relay and with Packer, Ashley Moretz and Sydney Fetters to produce a 3:51.36 in taking the 400 medley relay.
The Lady Raiders scored 217 team points.
“Winning districts for the fourth year in a row felt really good. We only had six girls this year, which showed that when we put our minds to something we can achieve great things,” said McCool, who also was second in the 100 backstroke to Bedford’s Leah Shackley’s meet-record time.
Packer punched her ticket to states individually in the 500 freestyle, where she swam 5:16.40.
“It was my first time winning an individual event at districts,” Packer said. “To win it took a lot of hard work and difficult training to get to where I am. In winning this event, I was able to show where my hard work and determination were able to take me and end on a good note my senior year.”
Klena clocked 1:09.78 to take the breaststroke.
Quigley’s victory in the 100 freestyle came via a time of 47.91.
“In both (wins), I was able to go out strong and have the training and conditioning to bring it back as fast as I wanted,” Quigley said.
Boone posted a 1:47.63 to win the 200 freestyle and a 52.30 to capture gold in the 100 butterfly.
He also teamed up with fellow individual champ Johnson as well as Cedric Bagwell and Turner Malik to score the victory in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:46.70.
“As a senior and completing my final year of high school swimming, I was thrilled to be able to race against excellent competition, both new and old, and be able to win,” Boone said. “To be able to successfully perform the way I did, it has taken years of training, both inside and outside of the pool, and a dedication to my sport.”
Johnson timed 2:02.51 in his individual medley triumph, the second-fastest time in Red Raider history.
“I dropped a lot of time,” Johnson said. “It took a lot of hard work at practice for my performance.”
