Valley swimmers eager for PIAA meet
By Dean Dellamalva Jr.
MVI Sports
The buses had barely unloaded last year at Bucknell University when local swimmers were told to go home due to the shutdown associated with COVID-19. The postponement became a cancellation and nobody achieved state gold.
A few area swimmers will converge at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg on Friday to compete for 2021 PIAA gold. The meet was moved from Bucknell by the PIAA a few weeks ago, and don’t blame Belle Vernon coach Rob Reda for being a little cautious about this year’s meet.
“We are taking nothing for granted, especially after what happened at states last year, getting up there and having to turn around,” Reda said. “This season’s motto has been ‘Taking care of unfinished business.’ Now given this opportunity, I fully expect everyone will do their best and to end the season well. Everyone is practicing well, everyone is in a good mindset and everyone is excited about swimming at states. Everyone is ready to go.”
Leading the group of Leopards will be Army recruit Ian Shahan, who will be competing in four events. He will swim individually in the 100 fly, in which he is the top seed, and in the 50 free, in which he tied for gold with Neshannock’s Conner McBeth at the WPIAL championships last week.
Shahan has collected seven individual WPIAL and four PIAA gold medals in his career. But even he is not certain of how many overall medals he has won.
“I’m really not sure,” Shahan said with a laugh. “It’s getting up there I’d say. If I counted all the medals from the over 12 years I’ve been swimming, that’s way too many.”
The PIAA meet will be the final high school meet in Shahan’s decorated career. It isn’t a thought that has entered his mind as of yet.
“I definitely really have not thought about it in that way,” Shahan said. “To me, I’m just going out there and swimming the best that I can. I’m not really giving it another thought. But when push comes to shove, I’m going to have to come to terms with it and say, ‘Well, that’s it.’”
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