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Led by Matt Spinello, York Suburban boys took home PIAA hardware


LEWISBURG >> For Matt Spinello, the pressure was off. The York Suburban junior knew his 100-yard butterfly opponent, Brent Benedict of Corry Area, would likely break the PIAA record for the second time of the day when the two lined up in the Class AA finals.

Benedict did it again, sprinting to an unbelievable finish in 48.01 seconds to win, but Spinello was impressive as well, going 51.37, and earned a silver medal.

Swimming against Benedict was good thing for Spinello.

"It made it better. I definitely go faster when I am chasing someone," he said.

After finishing the preliminaries with the second fastest time (51.70), Spinello was determined to keep his position during the night swim at Bucknell University.

"On the way in I looked at the medals. I only saw two that were different colors, gold and silver. I was definitely taking one of those."

Spinello wasn't done there either as he went second on the Trojans' 200 free relay, combining with Aidan Fryar, Diego Herrera and Karl Schmittle to win a bronze medal.

The Suburban coaches jumped when Schmittle touched the wall to cap the 1:28.92 swim.

Trojans head coach Craig Brennan said it was the freshman, Fryar, that gave the group inspiration during their team meeting prior to the evening session.

"Whether you have three years, or a few hours left, leave it all in the pool," were the words Fryar used, according to Brennan.

Suburban's 200 free relay was seeded sixth after its morning prelim swim of 1:29.83. Brennan was thrilled with how the day came to a close.

"We did some little things wrong this morning. It was a matter of rallying," the coach said.

With the graduation of Will Massey and Alex Fridman, Suburban had to replace half of its relay team that performed so well last season. Fortunately, Fryar and Schmittle have stepped right in.

"That was great. They really picked things up," Spinello said of the two new relay members.

Fryar's 22.14 relay split got things started, improving on his individual 50 free time of 22.42 in the consolation finals, which was good for 12th place overall.

"I feel like I didn't do too well in my 50 swim. I wanted to go in and get my best time of the day," Fryar said of the relay split.

In 2014, Spinello placed in the consolations and one year later, earned silver. Fryar is hoping for the same turnaround next year at states.

"I really want to final," he said.

Dover's Casey Marshall was impressive winning the consolation heat of the 100 fly with a time of 53.13, which was good for ninth-place.

Schmittle placed 27th overall in the fly with a preliminary swim of 56.55 as the Trojans ended the day sixth in the team standings.

OTHER FINISHES >> The Gettysburg duo of Derek Ondrizek (1:49.46) and Logan Hyde (1:51.59) placed 24th and 30th respectively in the 200 free.

Biglerville senior Robert Jones finished 30th in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:06.89.

Reach Steve Navaroli at 771-2060.