Despite a valiant effort by host Bradford in the girls
competition, Clearfield swept the District 9 Swimming League
championship meet held Friday at the Duke Aquatic Center at
Pitt-Bradford.

The Lady Bisons scored 357 points to hold off runner-up Bradford
with 319 in the girls events, while the Bisons cruised to an easy
first place team finish in the boys portion of the meet with 363
points. St. Marys was a distance second with 277 points.

Bradford actually won seven of the 12 girls events, led by Ellie
Imhof and Katie Slavinski with quadruples and Erica Pascarella with
a triple.

“Not having divers really hurt us again,” said Pam Digel,
Bradford coach. “I hate to keep going back to that (diving), but
without divers, we go into a meet behind by 37 points. That’s the
way it is though, and the girls know it.”

Imhof’s quadruple came with firsts in the 200 IM, 100 butterfly,
and as a member of the Lady Owls’ winning 200 and 400 free relay
teams. Slavinski, meanwhile, took the 50 free and 100 free and was
on the two relay squads.

Pascarella recorded her triple by winning the 200 free and was
also on both winning relay teams. She broke her own pool record in
the 200 free with a time of 2:04.36. Her old mark was 2:05.22.

“Erica’s times in both distance events (200 free and 500 free)
were season bests,” Digel pointed out.

The Lady Owls 200 free relay team of Imhof, Katlyn Nelson,
Pascarella and Slavinski also set a new pool record with a time of
1:44.93. Bradford held the old standard at 1:46.35.

“Our girls times where right where we wanted them to be
tonight,” Digel noted. “Traditionally we have a very strong taper,
but it’s really up to our swimmers to fix the little mistakes. If
they do that, we have the ability to win the big one
(Regionals).

“Clearfield grabbed this one, but I think we can get them at
Regionals if we dig a little deeper and focus on correcting the
little things – starts, turns and finishes,” she emphasized.

In the boys’ portion of the meet, Bradford settled for third
place with 242 points, but Digel was pleased with the Owls
effort.

“Anyone who has followed our guys throughout the season can see
the time improvements they have made,” Digel pointed out. “I
couldn’t ask for much more from them than I got tonight. They have
learned what is means to swim together as a team. Katrina
(Douglass, assistant coach) and I are really proud of what they
have accomplished.

“Like our girls team, they have some little things to fix, but
we’re excited about the Regional meet and qualifying for states,”
she added.

Bradford’s winning 200 free relay team of Ben Daggett, Matt
Schwab, Dan Gonzalez and Alex Goodman took first place in the event
and set a new team record with a 1:34.78.

A number of other pool records were also set in the meet.

St. Marys’ Steven Forrest set both a meet and pool record in the
200 IM, while teammate Seth Dippold set pool records in the 50 and
100 freestyle events.

The Lady Bisons’ Carolyn Shurer set a new girls pool record in
the 500 free, the Bisons’ Shay Flanagan set a new pool mark in the
boys 500 free and the Clearfield boys 400 free relay team set a new
pool record.

“With all the records broken today, it speaks highly for
District 9 swimming,” Digel emphasized. “There was a lot of quality
swimming.

“I also want to say how smoothly the meet went and give credit
to our boosters and the UPB aquatic department for that,” she
added.

The Regional meet will be held March 2-3 at Penn State
University.

GIRLS RESULTS