Belle Vernon swimmer resets WPIAL record
Eleanor Bailey/the Almanac
Ian Shahan shattered the WPIAL record in winning the 100-yard butterfly. The Belle Vernon junior lowered his own mark of 49.66 with a time of 49.02 time.
By Eleanor Bailey
Andrea Kassa takes a bite of air during the 200-yard freestyle race at the WPIAL Class AA championships. The Ringgold junior finished 10th.
By Eleanor Bailey
Delaney Patterson reaches through the water during the backstroke leg of the individual medley. The Belle Vernon sophomore finished eighth in the race during the WPIAL Class AA swimming championships. Her time was 2:15.00
By Eleanor Bailey
Andrew Noll coasts through the water during the butterfly leg of the individual medley. The Ringgold sophomore placed 11th in the race with a 2:03.59 time.
Ian Shahan is right where he wants to be.
Not only is the Belle Vernon junior at the top of the podium and in the WPIAL record books again, he is set up for a showdown as well as a possible PIAA record.
In winning his second 100-yard butterfly title on the first day of the WPIAL Class AA swimming championships at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool, Shahan shattered his own mark. In 2018, he won the event in 49.66. On Thursday, he lowered it to 49.02.
“That was amazing. Plain and simple. All guts,” said BV coach Robert Reda of Shahan’s race. “He’s a tough swimmer.
“He followed our plan of attack and he kept getting faster and faster as the race went on. He was very determined.”
Shahan agreed.
“Going for (the record) was definitely something that I was really looking forward to because I knew I would be faster and I would be exactly where I need to be going into states.”
While Shahan is the defending state champion in the fly, he only needs to shave a little more than a second to tie the PIAA record of 48.01 set by Brent Benedict from Corry in 2015.
The PIAA championships are set for March 11-12 at Bucknell University.
First, he has a date with Conner McBeth in the 100 freestyle today. Though Shahan is the defending WPIAL and PIAA champion, he enters the race seeded second with a 46.71 time. He won last year’s race in 45.48 though.
McBeth, who won the 50 free in 20.80, is the top seed with a 46.29 mark.
“It’s going to be a huge race,” predicted Reda. “That’s going to be a gutsy swim on both those kids part. With Ian, we have a goal time in mind. We hope he can pull it out.”
With little time to rest, Shahan almost helped the 200 free relay pull out a victory. The group, which also included Garrett Ursiny, Cody Danto and Sam West, was a mere one one-hundredth of a second away from the gold as Riverside won in 1:28.95. BV’s time (1:28.96), however, was a school record.
“It’s hard to come back especially after the fly but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love swimming relays with my team,” Shahan said. “That’s the best we’ve every placed. Plus it was a school record. We looked for first but we gave it our all.”
Reda concurred.
“That was a gutsy swim by all four boys. We’ve worked all year long and they put it together at the right time. I’m extremely pleased and happy. You can’t asked anything more than what my swimmers gave me,” he said.
West gave the Leopards a fourth-place finish in the 200 free. The junior clocked in at 1:48.86, off the winning pace (1:41.50) set by Indiana’s Kyle Thome, also a junior. Trinity’s Patrick Bryant took eighth.
Belle Vernon finished the first day of competition in seventh place with a boys’ team score of 69. Northgate is atop the standings with 133 points followed by Indiana (121) and Deer Lakes (117).
On the girls’ side, Elizabeth Forward (153), Mt. Pleasant (118) and Laurel Highlands (117) were the top three teams.
Delaney Patterson from Belle Vernon made the podium with an eighth-place finish and 2:15.00 time. She also combined with Marlee Davis, Maya Engstrom and Danielle Ferraro in medley relay. BV picked up points with a 14th-place showing.
Other top local performances included:
- Andrea Kassa (10th) from Ringgold in the 200 free. She also anchored the medley relay of Bella McGregor, Paige Doleno and Danika Evans to 11th place
- Andrew Noll from Ringgold (11th) in the 200 IM. He helped the medley relay team of Bryan Nguyen, Nathan Terrence and Ryan Gugliotti to a similar finish.