Swimming

Lily King Swims 48.2 in the 100 Free at WPIAL District 7 Championships

March 6, 2024

WPIAL District 7AA Championship – 2A

February 29-March 1, 2024
Trees Pool, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Short Course Yards (25 yards)
Meet Central (With Results Links)

In the windup to next weekend’s Pennsylvania High School State Championship meets, the high-profile WPIAL district championships were held in Pittsburgh last weekend.

There, Mount Pleasant junior Lily King swam new personal bests of 48.21 in the 100 free and 1:46.01 in the 200 free. The 100 free time undercut her 48.58 from this meet last year, while the 200 free time undercuts her previous best of 1:46.28 from Winter Juniors East.

King, who is committed to swim at NC State in fall 2025, now ranks among the top 40 all-time among 17-18 girls in that event and she’s still only 17-years-old.

She broke her own WPIAL records in both events this weekend, and her WPIAL record in the 100 free is actually faster than her PIAA State Meet Record.

She also split 21.60 on the anchor leg of Mount Pleasant’s winning 200 medley relay and 47.84 on the anchor leg of their 3rd-place 400 free relay.

In spite of her highlight-reel results, Mount Pleasant finished 2nd in the girls’ meet, 21 points behind the winners from Kiski Area High School. That closing 400 free relay in 3:35.29 was Kiski’s only win of the meet, but their depth with eight top-8 finishes, the relay win, and a 2nd-place swim in the 200 free relay carried the day for them.

Between boys and girls, a total of 11 state records were broken in 24 events.

On the boys side, that included Preston Kessler, a junior from Indiana High School, who swam 1:38.26 in the 200 free. That broke the WPIAL record of 1:39.87 set by Trevor Scheid in 2008 and the PIAA record of 1:38.31 set by Luke Mikesell in 2019.

Kessler also won the 100 free in 44.45, another new WPIAL Record.

He won four total events, as did his teammate Alex Bauer, who won the 200 IM in 1:49.62 (a new WPIAL record) and 100 breast in 55.08 (a new PIAA Record). Joseph Gardner from Mount Pleasant was just-behind him in the 100 breast in 55.27.

Other notable results from the boys’ meet included Luke Lamb from North Catholic High School, who won the 100 back in 58.68. He’s a high school junior who has not yet announced his college commitment; so far during this year’s high school championship season, he has taken 1.03 seconds off his best time in the 100 back.