Penn-Trafford’s Patton Graziano and Mt. Pleasant’s Reegan Brown will have a busy weekend.
The two are competing in the PIAA swimming championships on Friday and Saturday with their high school teams and then will represent the Greensburg YMCA in the West Regional Championship.
The duo is among the 23 swimmers on the Greensburg squad that are competing in the state meet Saturday and Sunday at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
Because of the coronavirus, the state championship will be held in three locations, and then the times will be combined to determine the winners and place finishers. The West Regional is in Ohio.
“I feel we’ll have a few swimmers do well,” YMCA coach Kim Graziano said. “The kids have worked hard, and other than the three weeks that Governor Tom Wolf closed down the state in December, we’ve been able to hold consistent practices and been able to compete.”
The Greensburg YMCA has swimmers age 9 to 17 competing from Greensburg Salem, Greensburg Central Catholic, Hempfield, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, McKessport, Penn-Trafford, Elizabeth Forward and Winchester Thurston.
“I really don’t know what to expect from our swimmers,” Graziano said. “It’s hard to say how well they will compete, but I’m confident ours will do well. We have a couple swimmers who will compete in the PIAA tournament this weekend and for us.”
Graziano said because of the pandemic, the competition was opened for all areas from March 1-31.
The boys competing include: Teko Angelicchio of Latrobe, Ryan Ashley of Greensburg Salem, Preston Atkinson of McKeesport, Owen Busch of Hempfield, Patton Graziano of Penn-Trafford, Jack Keane-Lizano of Winchester Thurston, Joe Kvocak of Franklin Regional, Evan Schrock of Hempfield, Logan Snively of Greensburg Central Catholic, Jonathan Stetchock of Hempfield and Ryan Tucker of McKeesport.
The girls competing include: Alexandra Born of Hempfield, Reegan Brown of Mt. Pleasant, Addison Busch of Hempfield, Brianna Guinther of Greensburg Salem, Madeline Hutchins of Greensburg Central Catholic, Ashley McKernan of Elizabeth Forward, Olivia Schrock of Hempfield, Abigail Sharp of Greensburg Salem, Kaitlyn Stetchock, Haley Walko of McKeesport, Sofia Weimer of Hempfield and Kasey Williams of Hempfield.
Some swimmers are entered in as many as four or five events.
