Mapletown’s Menear wins swimming gold
LEWISBURG – Mapletown High School has won only two PIAA gold medals in its sports history.
Ella Menear has each of them in her possession.
Menear, a junior, captured her second state title Friday night by winning the Class 2A 200-yard individual medley at the PIAA Swimming Championships being held at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
Menear took the lead in the first leg (butterfly) and never trailed, winning with a time of 2:00.50. Kimberly Shannon of Lewisburg, the defending state champion in the event, finished second in 2:01.20. Sara Turner of East Pennsboro was a distant third in 2:07.35.
Menear entered the finals with the fastest time (2:02.72) in the morning preliminaries.
She will compete in one more event, the 100 backstroke Saturday. Menear is the defending state champion in the event and has the fastest seed time.
Last year, Menear finished third in the 200 IM but she improved her time in the final by more than five seconds.
Menear won gold medals in both the 200 IM and 100 backstroke at the WPIAL Championships.
On Thursday night, South Fayette sophomore Maddie Berg placed seventh in the Class 3A 500 freestyle with a time of 5:00.87 and teammate Zoe Poe was 11th in 5:02.69.
Belle Vernon’s Delaney Patterson placed 21st in the Class 2A 200 IM in 2:15.99.
Ringgold’s Natalie Noll, Paige Doleno, Emily Doleno and Addision Carson placed 22nd in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:57.01.
California’s Anastasia Georgagis just missed the ‘B final’ of the 200 IM with a time of 2:14.30.