Skip to main content

Dallastown's Hill swims to two PIAA medals


LEWISBURG - As Dallastown’s Spencer Hill reflected on his performance during Wednesday’s first day of the PIAA Class AAA swimming championships, he had to smile.

Hill won a pair of medals during the meet, one individually and one in a relay, and left the Kinney Natatorium at Bucknell University quite happy.

His morning preliminary time of 50.20 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly put him in the evening’s championship finals. Although he didn’t drop time, he won a seventh-place medal, one up from the eighth-place medal he scored last year.

“I am not disappointed being in the top group in states,” he said of his finals swim (50.50). “I was a little salty on my time. (But) it’s not too far from my best time so it’s all good. I can’t complain.”

Of course, the meet got off to a great start for Hill and his Wildcats teammates. He, Jacob Stoner, Grant Wertz and Logan Brockway entered the day seeded 16th in the 200 medley relay.

A terrific swim put them in the finals, and the Wildcats' night swim of 1:35.07 earned seventh place, as well.

“We killed it. We went from being seeded poorly to the Top 8. It’s amazing. I consider that a success,” Hill said.

“We were under the radar. Dallastown comes out of nowhere, seeded 16th to medal," added Stoner.

Dallastown teammate Kacey Oberlander also notched a seventh-place medal in the girls’ meet, swimming a 2:04.88 in the IM.

Stoner and Brockway qualified for the consolation finals in individual events, too. Stoner ended up 10th in the 100 fly, and Brockway was 15th in the 200 individual medley.

“I was really, really happy," Stoner said. "I held consistently with my time. I was seeded 10th and got 10th. I am ecstatic.”

Central York’s 200 free relay team of Alec Peckmann, Will Hartzell, Anthony Gemma and Jesse Tate came back for the evening’s consolations and finished 13th overall.

Individually, Peckmann placed 20th in the 200 free, while Tate was 20th and 21st in the 200 IM and 100 fly, respectively.

Panthers teammate Garrett Sommer placed 18th in the boys’ diving competition with his score of 264.60, less than five points away from 17th.

Swimming in his first PIAA meet, Red Lion freshman Alex Sun qualified for the consolations and placed 16th in the 200 IM.

“They are all great kids, in and out of the pool,” Dallastown coach Rich Howley said afterward.