Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
Top WPIAL swimmers expected for Christmas Meet | TribLIVE.com
News

Top WPIAL swimmers expected for Christmas Meet

Tribune-Review
Tribune-Review | Wednesday, December 16, 2015 3:12 p.m

Swimmers from the WPIAL will face a big early-season test at the Team Pittsburgh Aquatics Christmas Meet Thursday to Sunday at Pitt’s Trees Pool.

Boys and girls will compete in age groups with their USA Swimming clubs.

Meet director Jeff Berghoff said nearly 1,300 people of various ages from six states have entered. Most, if not all, of the top WPIAL swimmers will compete, he said.

In its 54th year, the meet probably is one of the oldest, continuously running meets in the country, said Berghoff, of the sponsoring USA Swimming club at Pitt.

“(This is) not (the) biggest ever, but good sized,” Berghoff said.

Mt. Lebanon senior and Pitt men’s recruit Brian Ramsey looks forward to competing.

“The meet is a good indicator of how well training is coming along,” said Ramsey, 17. “It has a good mix of college and high school swimmers, so the competition is great.

“This is the last chance to race on a big stage until WPIALs and states.”

The WPIAL championships will be in March at Pitt.

North Hills Aquatics coach Liz Cleary expects strong showings from the growing number of swimmers who have entered from her club.

“The Christmas meet is one of our biggest motivators,” Cleary said. “The athletes get a midseason-drop taper, and the environment on deck (in) the weeks prior is one of excitement and focus.

“The culture of the meet promotes fast swimming. Athletes know that this weekend is go time.”

Quaker Valley coach Sue Morgan said her club swimmers thrive on the competition.

“Not only are many of the swimmers they’ll face at WPIALs and (the state championship) in attendance, but also older swimmers from the college ranks,” she said.

Quaker Valley junior Amelia Besterman said she enjoys facing people from outside Western Pennsylvania.

“The level of competition is always really strong,” said Besterman, 16.

Mt. Lebanon senior Hannah Bumgarner, who signed a letter of intent and will join the Pitt women’s team next season, likes that the meet falls days before Christmas.

“It’s one of my favorite meets (because) it’s right before the holidays,” said Bumgarner, 17.

Berghoff said the facility will be decorated with a lighted tree in the lobby, a tree on the balcony and wreaths and garlands.

Karen Kadilak is a freelance writer.

Categories: News
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.