 Daily Press file photo Pictured above are Alex Anderson, Andrew Cotter, Michael Proudfit and Seth Dippold, members of the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay teams. The 200 medley relay team placed sixth with a time of 1:39.80 while the 200 freestyle relay team placed fourth with a time of 1:28.39. Dippold also finished in fourth place in the 50 freestyle event with a time of 21.32 seconds.
By JIM MULCAHY
Staff Writer
After the first day of competition at the PIAA Class AA swimming championships at Bucknell University, the St. Marys Area Flying Dutch squad is in sixth place with a total of 41 points.
The Dutchmen’s 200 medley relay team, consisting of seniors Seth Dippold, Michael Proudfit and Alex Anderson along with sophomore Andrew Cotter medaled by placing sixth with a time of 1:39.80 in the finals held Friday night. The relay team reached the finals by placing seventh in their heat and received an automatic spot in the finals with their time of 1:39.82. They were seeded 10th at the beginning of the championships. Their time in the preliminaries shattered the previous school record of 1:40.56 set back in 2007 by the team of Dippold, Matt Snelick, Steven Forrest and Stephen Zomcik. The 200 freestyle relay team, consisting of Cotter, Anderson, Proudfit and Dippold finished in fourth place in the championship finals with a time of 1:28.39. Going into Friday’s preliminaries, this group was seeded 15th but swam their heat with a time of 1:28.97 moving up to sixth place and a spot in Friday night’s finals. Their time in the preliminaries broke their own record set last year of 1:30.93 at the 2009 District 6/9 meet. In the 50 freestyle event, Dutchman Seth Dippold medaled by placing fourth in the finals with a time of 21.32 seconds. He reached the finals by breaking his own school record of 21.31 with a time of 21.22 in the preliminaries where he finished second in his heat. That time guaranteed him a spot in the championship finals. Senior Michael Proudfit improved his 24th place seed time of 2:03.89 in the 200 yard IM with a 23rd place finish of 2:03.39. In the Class AA girls one meter diving, SMA’s Maria Holm finished 22nd in the preliminary round which was just two spots shy of advancing to the semifinals. She finished with a total of 126.55 points. Sophomore Andrew Cotter was scratched from Friday’s butterly preliminary race due to an injury.
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