At the 2017 PIAA ‘AAA’ Championships, the quartet from North Allegheny swam a 1:20.95 to break Hershey’s 200 free relay state and national public HS record. This was a one-time swim, with no prelims– the PIAA state meet was moved to Saturday-Sunday instead of Friday-Saturday because of the snowstorm that hit the east coast recently. Because of that move, the entire state meet was swum as timed finals, and diving was moved to this upcoming weekend.
Their time of 1:20.95 beat Hershey’s record of 1:21.01, and is the fastest HS time in the country this year. The previous top time this year for high school teams was Carmel’s 1:21.21, which had a 19.28 anchor leg from Drew Kibler.
SPLITS
| HERSHEY (OLD RECORD) | NORTH ALLEGHENY (NEW RECORD) | |
| David Nolan (19.58) | Jack Wright (20.64) | |
| Benjamin Bauchwitz (20.46) | Rick Mihm (19.92) | |
| Shota Nakano (20.91) | Maxwell Gonzalez (20.40) | |
| Jeffery Young (20.06) | Eben Krigger (19.99) | |
| Total | 1:21.01 | 1:20.95 |
Legendary high school swimmer David Nolan, of course, led off Hershey’s relay with an incredible 19.58, which carried them to the 1:21.01 which set the overall (public and private) record in 2011. North Allegheny had two 19’s, and an overall more consistent showing, which ended up tipping the scale by just six-hundredths. They become the first public HS team recognized by the NFHS (the organization that keeps these records) to break 1:21.00 in the 200 free relay.
That makes North Allegheny the fastest public HS team in history, and the 2nd-fastest HS team ever. The overall record is still held by the Bolles team of Ryan Murphy, Santo Condorelli, Joseph Schooling, and Emiro Goosen. They combined for a 1:19.27 in 2012, a year after Hershey’s record swim.
While Gonzalez and Krigger are seniors for North Allegheny, there’s lots of hope for the future. Wright, their lead-off leg, is only a sophomore, while Mihm is just a freshman. Additionally, they did not use Mason Gonzalez, a junior, who won the individual 50 free last weekend with a 19.99.
Are any of these great swimmers, going to the University of Pittsburgh?
One of them is committed to Penn State and another to CMU, the others are underclassmen. Sorry 🙁
Haha it’s funny seeing the reaction to ZAQ’s post above. I don’t think he was trying to be mean, I think he was actually complimentary speculating on how fast they could have gone using their fastest sprinter. How can NA still get the national record without their fastest sprinter?!!! That’s some amazing depth on the team and that’s what I think ZAQ was pointing out, not criticizing any of the swimmers in the relay. Well done NA! It’s been fun team to watch!
There is more to the story, of course. North Allegheny didn’t swim its FASTEST guy in the 200 Free Relay. He was the victor in the 50 free in the same meet. Rather, they saved him for the other two relays, including the 400 free relay. In the 400 free relay, the NA team also went faster than the national record and won the event by about 6 seconds, but, one of the starts was a tad too fast. A false start gave the NA team a DQ in the 400 free, allowing the record to live on. But, NA had so dominated the meet, the lost 32 points didn’t cost them a team victory. And, the team trophies were… Read more »
Video?
Still amazing that that Bolles relay would have probably been a 1:17 with Dressel
The same team would have set a public high school record in the 400 free relay if not for a false start (.05 sec margin). 2:58.3 was their time.
actually it was a 2:58.00
Their top sprinter was left off this, he swam anchor on the 200 medley and split a 19.31. They won by 3 seconds so they could have used him here and still won the medley. Take off the slowest guy at 20.64 and you lower the time 1.33 to a 1:19.62, doesn’t break the prep record but it comes really close
Hey buddy, I’m the leadoff on that relay (the “slow guy”). If you knew anything about swimming, you would know that the leadoff swimmer has a flat start, which you can’t compare to the other three times, which were off a relay start.
Yes, and 20.64 flat start, as a sophomore, is a remarkable swim.
Congrats Jack
That’s the spirit Jack. I don’t believe he was criticizing you at all, but more of a nod to the strength of your team. You guys made history and I’m damn proud of you. (Former NA swimmer ’81)
Anybody know what David Nolan is up to these days? Did he retire from competition?
He may not be strong at LCM but I would have thought he’d do well at SCM such as the World Cups.
He has a Stanford engineering degree. I would imagine he’s putting that to use.