Three PIAA Records Fall as North Allegheny Girls, North Penn Boys Repeat as 3A Champions

Pennsylvania High School 3A State Championships

• March 13-14, 2024
• Kinney Natatorium
  • Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
• SCY (25 yards)
• Championship central

Girls Team Scores

1. North Allegheny – 211
2. Upper Dublin – 203
3. Hatboro-Horsham – 164
4. State College – 139
5. Wilson – 118

Two PIAA 3A girls records went down last week as North Allegheny repeated as state champions just eight points ahead of Upper Dublin.

North Allegheny placed 4th behind runner-up Dublin in the final race of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, but it was enough for the defending champs to escape with a single-digit victory. Senior Natalie Sens was the lone individual winner for North Allegheny with a 1st-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.48). The George Washington commit knocked more than a second off her previous-best 1:02.53 from last month.

Hatboro-Horsham junior Annie Jia broke her own PIAA 3A record in the 100 butterfly with a winning time of 51.26, lowering her standard of 52.04 from 2022. In the process, the Cal commit also erased a 15-year-old Bucknell University pool record set by Katie Nolan (52.99) back in 2009. Jia, who has been as fast as 51.09 in December, won last year with a time of 52.64.

Jia also took the 200 IM title with a personal-best 1:58.19, led off Hatboro-Horsham’s triumphant 200 free relay (1:33.51) with a personal-best 22.25, and anchored the victorious 400 free relay (3:22.88) with a 48.07 split. Her best times in the 200 IM and 50 free previously stood at 1:58.60 (from 2022) and 22.45 (from December), respectively.

Mt. Lebanon junior Sylvia Roy clocked another record-breaking performance in the 100 back (52.90) on Thursday, taking down a decade-old PIAA 3A standard posted by Hershey’s Meaghan Raab (53.08) back in 2014. The Virginia commit dropped .38 seconds off her lifetime best from last March after placing 2nd in the 50 free (22.90) on Wednesday. Roy and Jia are on track to keep competing against each other in college with Cal joining Virginia in the ACC this summer.

State College sophomore Molly Workman outdueled Roy in the 50 free with a winning time of 22.67, missing the PIAA 3A record (22.66 by Alexa Fulton in 2022) by just a hundredth of a second. She shaved a couple tenths off her previous-best 22.92 from last month on her way to the victory. Workman also won the 100 free in 49.31, dropping almost a second off her previous-best 50.16 from last month.

Wissahickon junior Nora Weber cruised to the 500 free crown in 4:49.85, more than six seconds ahead of the field and her first time under the 4:50 barrier. The Auburn commit took almost two seconds off her previous-best 4:51.62 from last month.

Boys Recap

Team Scores

1. North Penn – 204
2. Conestoga – 183
3. North Allegheny – 166.5
4. Springfield – 163
5. La Salle – 157

Conestoga senior Jake Wang put on a show at the PIAA 3A Boys State Championships last week, collecting victories in the 200 IM (1:44.20) and 100 breast (52.36) while also leading off the triumphant 200 free relay (1:22.03) and 400 free relay (3:00.12) faster than the winning times in the individual 50 free and 100 free finals.

The Yale commit dropped more than two seconds off his previous-best 200 IM (1:46.51) from December, tallying a time that would have placed 5th at this year’s Ivy League Championships. Wang lowered his best 100 breast time from December (52.97), coming just about half a second shy of Joshua Matheny’s PIAA 3A record (51.84) from 2021. He would have placed 3rd at Ivys in the 100 breast with his performance last week.

Wang led off Conestoga’s 200 free relay in 20.04, just off his personal-best 19.93 from December. He capped his meet with a 43.43 leadoff on the 400 free relay, just a blink slower than his personal-best 43.39 from December.

Conestoga senior Can Yeniay joined Wang on Conestoga’s winning freestyle relays with anchor splits of 20.18 and 43.93, respectively. The UPenn commit also claimed an individual crown in the 500 free (4:20.60), within a second of Jake Sannem’s PIAA record (4:19.64) from 2016.

Despite the impressive efforts from Wang and Yeniay, Conestoga couldn’t stop North Penn from repeating as 3A team champions, finishing 21 points short of the title.

Springfield senior Jacob Johnson was the lone PIAA 3A record breaker on the boys’ side, crushing Matthew Jensen’s four-year-old 100 fly standard of 46.58 with his winning time of 45.70. Jensen graduated from Upper Dublin and is a current senior at Cal. Johnson, a Minnesota commit, dropped more than half a second off his previous-best 46.36 from December. He also placed 1st in the 100 free (44.30) and posted a 20.49 fly split on Springfield’s 200 medley relay.

Johnson’s teammate, Springfield senior Jake Kennedy, emerged victorious in the 50 free (personal-best 20.25), eking past Penncrest junior Jonathan Hoole (personal-best 20.26) by just a hundredth of a second. Both Kennedy and Hoole are Alabama commits. Kennedy added a blistering 19.64 free split on Springfield’s winning 200 medley relay (1:30.04).

Ridley senior Shane Eckler capped his high school career with a big drop in the 100 back before heading off for Notre Dame this fall. He reached the wall in 47.81, shaving almost a second off his previous-best 48.58 from January.