Mar 3, 2023 2 min read

PITTSBURGH – Mapletown’s Ella Menear added to her gold medal total Friday at the WPIAL Swimming Championships held at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

Menear successfully defended her title in the girls Class 2A 100-yard backstroke. Menear, who entered the meet with the best seed time, finished first in 54.36 seconds. The Mapletown senior finished two seconds ahead of Hampton freshman Lainey Sheets. Ringgold’s Natalie Noll was sixth in 59.49.

Menear wasn’t the only local gold medalist. South Fayette’s Zoe Poe won the Class 3A grueling 500-yard freestyle in 4:58.27.

“On the last flip turn, I could see people around me. I had a feeling that I was ahead but you can’t really tell,” said Menear.

Menear was hoping to touch the wall with a better time.

“I wanted to be a little faster. I was trying to break 54 (seconds),” explained Menear. “The record (54.10, which she set last year) was on my mind.

“Records are meant to be broken, but medals are forever.”

The two two gold medals by Menear in this year’s championships enabled Mapletown to finish 16th in the team standings. The win Friday gives Menear six WPIAL championships, three each in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.

The Greene County school is not likely have another swimmer like Menear cross into the halls.

“It’s definitely an honor to be so blessed to put Mapletown on the map,” said Menear, adding, “God has blessed me so much.”

Poe helped South Fayette dominate the 500 freestyle. Her teammate, Maddie Berg, placed third in 5:01.98 and the Lions’ Carolyn Morelock was seventh in 5:23.22.

South Fayette’s 400 freestyle relay team that included Poe, Berg, Abby Poe and Macy Koerner placed fourth in 3:36.51.

The Lions finished seventh in the girls team standings with 152.5 points.

South Fayette’s Josh Grimenstein swam to a fifth-place finish in the boys 100 backstroke in a time of 52.05.

Canon-McMillan’s Logan Cole finished fifth in the Class 3A boys 100 freestyle with a time of 47.07.

Ringgold had three top-10 finishes. In addition to Noll’s sixth, the Rams’ Gionni Traeger was seventh in the boys 100 backstroke in 48.82 and Benjamin Carpeal was eighth in the boys 500 freestyle in 4:57.94.

Belle Vernon’s Nick Reda placed sixth in the Class 2A boys 100 backstroke and California’s Anastasia Georgagis was sixth in the Class 2A girls 100 breaststroke in 1:07.89.