Mt. Lebo Edges Baldwin Swimmers on Senior Night

Another day, another pair of qualifiers for the WPIAL championships for 's varsity boys and girls swimming & diving teams.

The host Highlanders won seven individual events on Thursday night and qualified two more athletes for "WPIALs," but Mt. Lebanon High School edged Baldwin High on both the boys and girls side—98-88 and 91-84, respectively.

Close losses weren't enough to ruin Senior Night for Baldwin, though, as the families of 11 senior Highlanders were recognized before the start of the meet.

Appearing in their final home meet for Baldwin were Mariah Antenucci, Harley Austin, Dan Bell, Mary Buchanan, Audrey Crompton, Brendan Ihrig, Shane Landy, Bubba Maloney, Megan Pantuso, Jenna Sheridan and Mark Tripson.

Still, Baldwin's boys record fell to 11-4-1 for the 2011-12 season, and its girls slipped to 4-12. Mt. Lebanon improved to 7-3 in both genders this season but had to work for it, as Baldwin won four girls events and three boys events.

While Mt. Lebanon switched to non-scoring competition toward the end of its contest with Baldwin's girls, the Blue Devils could do no such thing with Baldwin's boys, who hung in with them until the very last event.

The meet was up for grabs on the boys side at 88-84 in favor of Mt. Lebanon heading into the 400-yard freestyle relay, but Mt. Lebo put the meet away by taking that event to tally the final score.

Nevertheless, Baldwin added two athletes to its growing list of qualifiers for this year's WPIAL AAA championships, to be held on Feb. 25 (diving) and from March 1-2 (swimming).

The Highlanders' junior Fallon Ferrari will join teammate and fellow junior diver Jackie Micklege at the WPIAL championships thanks to Ferrari's 171.50 points total in the six-round girls diving event—good for second place behind Micklege's 193.30 points. (Micklege had already qualified for WPIALs earlier this season.)

On the boys side, sophomore Trey Brown qualified for the WPIAL championships by way of a second-place finish in the 500 free. Brown completed that distance event in 5 minutes, 11.10 seconds, but the sophomore was more eager to talk after the meet about his team's effort as a whole.

"Last year, they (Mt. Lebo) kicked our butts," Brown said. "This year, we came very close—10 points, which is pretty phenomenal.

"Central Catholic (High School)—we only lost by six points this year, and we were very close to winning with them."

Baldwin's boys started the 2011-12 season with a 9-1 record.

Brown did talk about his own performance a bit.

"We set personal goals for ourselves. Mine was to go a 5:25 by the end of this season, but here I am going a 5:11. So that's very exciting for me."

Although Brown was not technically a winner on Thursday, his namesake—freshman Natalie Brown—enjoyed wins in two events for Baldwin on the girls side—the 100 breaststroke (1:23.36) and the 400 free relay (4:13.71) in which she partnered with Micklege and sophomores Sara Conklin and Kaylee Krugh.

Conklin also won an individual event—the 200 individual medley—in 2:30.53.

For the Highlanders boys, junior Nick Roth claimed two individual wins, taking the 200 IM in 2:09.78 and the 100 butterfly in 57.33 seconds. Teammate and sophomore Brendan Antenucci accounted for Baldwin's other win with a first-place finish in the 100 backstroke (59.38 seconds).

Baldwin's sixth-year Head Coach Wendy Lutz acknowledged the success of her boys team so far this season but also the travails of her girls team.

"The girls know (that) our biggest challenge is numbers," Lutz said in reference to the team's roster size. "We're relatively small, and that's always a challenge, especially in the section we're in against the top WPIAL teams ... 

"So the girls do their best, and they're out for personal bests. It's not about (team) wins and losses for them; it's about their own personal wins."

As for those team wins, Baldwin will not capture a section title in either gender this year, but the school has qualified a strong number of athletes for the WPIAL championships.

Joining Micklege, Ferrari and Trey Brown at the WPIAL meet will be sophomore Zach Murray (diving), Antenucci (100 back from earlier in the season), Roth (200 free, 200 IM, 100 free, 500 free and 100 fly, all from earlier in the season), Conklin (100 fly from earlier in the season) and all three boys relay teams—the 200 medley and 200 and 400 frees.

Baldwin has two more regular-season meets left this season—at Bethel Park High School on Feb. 9 and at on Feb. 16.

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