North’s Lamb wins state gold in 50 freestyle
LEWISBURG — Luke Lamb will be the first to tell you the 50-yard freestyle is his second-best event. But on Friday, he put all his effort and focus into it and was rewarded with his first state gold medal.
North Catholic’s junior finished in a time of 20.44 seconds to claim the PIAA Class 2A boys championship at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium. The effort came .14 of a second ahead of Blue Mountain’s Noah Powers.
“Luke’s been working so hard and it was fun seeing him come in here and compete. He’s just at a different level from where he was last year.”
Lamb’s time also broke his own school record of 20.50, which he used to win the WPIAL title earlier this month.
He qualified for districts this year in all eight individual events, but chose to compete in the 50 and the 100 backstroke.
“My time in the 50 really started to come on at the end of last year,” he said. “I kept track of where I probably would have finished in the (postseason meets) and decided to swim it at WPIALs for the first time this year.
“It felt great standing on top of that medal stand. I was hoping for this.”
In Friday morning’s preliminary swim, from which the top eight moved on to the championship heat, Lamb finished second (20.74) while Powers led the pack with a 20.22, just .22 of a second shy of the state record.
“I wasn’t that happy with how I did in prelims and I did think about the time (Powers) put up for a bit, but I was confident I could drop time in the final heat,” said Lamb. “My turn was pretty slow in the morning and I knew that was something I had to improve on. I knew what I had to do.”
On Saturday, Lamb will compete in what he refers to as his “main event”, the backstroke, in which he is ranked first in the state.
“I think winning the 50 takes some pressure off of him,” said Slobodnyak, “but Luke’s an even-keel kid. He doesn’t let nerves get to him.”
In the Class 2A girls meet, Freeport’s 200 medley relay team of Kasey Schrecongost, Kira Schrecongost, Caitlyn Brennan and Mary Anne Altman earned a medal by placing third with a time of 1:48.26.
Mount Pleasant won the state championship in the event with an effort of 1:46.78.
Kira Schrecongost also earned a pair of individual medals, placing second in the butterfly (55.87) and seventh in the individual medley (2:06.64).
Knoch’s Giona Lavorini finished fifth in the IM with a time of 2:04.42.
