PITTSBURGH — The nerves and pressure that come with lofty expectations were no match for Haihan Xu on Thursday.

Seneca Valley’s senior swimmer successfully defended his WPIAL Class 3A title in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of one minute, 49.64 seconds at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool.

In the day’s last event, the 200 freestyle relay, Xu teamed with Gavin Blazer, Connor Seeley and Frankie Walton as the Raiders won the crown for the second straight season.

Xu held a slim edge after the first two strokes of the IM, the butterfly and backstroke. Then the action turned to the breaststroke, his specialty. He widened his lead and out-touched runner-up Aiden Bunker of Franklin Regional by 3.69 seconds.

“The breaststroke wins the IM, at least that’s what I like to say,” said Xu. “Swimmers who are great in the IM, a lot of them are great breaststrokers.

“Everything I was working toward, I reached out and took it today. It feels really good.”

Raiders’ coach Brian Blackwell was confident Xu would close the deal with two strokes remaining.

“He’s a great all-around swimmer, but is much faster on the back end of the IM, can take over a race when he hits the breaststroke,” he said.

Xu anchored the Raiders in the 200 freestyle relay. SV was in fourth place when he dove into the water.

“I was most concerned with North Allegheny,” he said. “They were in first, ahead of us by about a second.”

NA finished in second place, .12 seconds behind SV, which was seeded third entering the day. In the other relay held, the 200 medley, the Raiders were seeded first and placed second behind North Allegheny. That Raiders’ foursome included Seeley, Logan Hockenberry, Blazer and Xu.

“We thought we had a chance at winning in both relays, but we’ll take a first and a second,” said Blackwell.

Seeley and Blazer added fourth-place efforts in the 200 freestyle and butterfly, respectively. Seeley improved from a No. 11 seed to earn his medal with a time of 1:42.97.

“Last year, I went 1:46 (and placed 14th) here,” Seeley said. “I had to go out and attack the second half of the race today and it worked out.”

In the girls meet, SV sophomore Alissa Wilson placed fifth in the IM, earning a medal that eluded her by one place in 2022.

“I think my improvement was a combination of things,” she said. “I knew I had to step up this year and had a lot more motivation, but I also feel like a stronger swimmer.”

Following are Butler County’s swimmers who earned a medal by placing in the top eight at the WPIAL Swimming Championships, which began Thursday at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool.

Class 3A

Girls

200 medley relay: 7-Seneca Valley (Bella Kling, Alissa Wilson, Sonya Dietz, Lena Rothrock) 1:49.12

200 individual medley: 5-Alissa Wilson (SV) 2:09.80

50 freestyle: 8-Claire Riehl (SV) 24.78

200 freestyle: 5-Seneca Valley (Claire Riehl, Lena Rothrock, Audrey Wolfe, Morgan Baker) 1:39.24

Boys

200 medley relay: 2-Seneca Valley (Connor Seeley, Logan Hockenberry, Gavin Blazer, Haihan Xu) 1:33.76

200 freestyle: 4-Connor Seeley (SV) 1:42.97

200 individual medley: 1-Haihan Xu (SV) 1:49.64

100 butterfly: 4-Gavin Blazer (SV) 51.14

200 freestyle relay: 1-Seneca Valley (Gavin Blazer, Connor Seeley, Frankie Walton, Haihan Xu) 1:25.45

Class 2A

Girls

200 medley relay: 4-Freeport (Caitlyn Brennan, Kira Schrecongost, Danielle Parke, Isabelle Barton) 1:51.09

200 individual medley: 3-Kira Schrecongost (F) 2:07.15; 5-Giona Lavorini (K) 2:07.90

100 butterfly: 2-Kira Schrecongost (F) 55.76

200 freestyle relay: 7-Freeport (Mary Anne Altman, Caitlyn Brennan, Isabelle Barton, Kira Schrecongost) 1:42.40

Boys

200 medley relay: 1-North Catholic (Luke Lamb, John Lamb, Matthew Littleton, Jackson Kress) 1:35.80

200 individual medley: 5-Jackson Kress (NC) 1:54.81; 8-Adrian Lavorini (K) 2:00.18

50 freestyle: 4-John Lamb (NC) 21.59