D2 Swimming Championships: Cougars' Ochs, Tigers' Keown win more gold in 3A

Key Highlights

• This year, she pushed that already-wide margin even further: Ochs finished her race over 22 seconds clear of the field to win with a time of 5:14.39. Even with the win, Ochs admitted after the race that she had her sights set a little bigger. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"I was trying to get close to the district record," Ochs said, referring to Sue Heon's 1978 meet record of 5:05.11.
• "That just makes me want it more for years to come."Ochs would be back in the pool one final time in the last event of the day, the 400 Free Relay, and put together a strong anchor leg to help Hazleton Area finish in second place behind Abington Heights. Keown, who won her first career District 2 gold medal in the 200 IM on Friday, put together an equally strong performance in Saturday's 100 Back to hold off two strong Hazleton Area challengers."I was so happy, I was really proud of how far my backstroke has come," Keown said.
• "I was really trying to work on my underwaters more than I usually do, and it ended up working out really well for me."AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLorelei Lucas and Kathleen Rodgers took the silver and gold medals for Hazleton Area, helping the Cougars keep up in the team standings. The Abington Heights girls won the final two events, the 100 Breaststroke and 400 Free Relay, to round out the meet.
• Hadley Pallman won the 100 Free to start the day, and Kaitlyn Giermanski captured the 100 Breaststroke gold. The Wyoming Valley Conference was shut out in the boys' meet on Saturday, with Abington Heights winning four golds and Williamsport's Summers winning the fifth in a record-setting 100 Breaststroke performance. The Comets' depth was on full display through the first three events: Derek Williams won the 100 Free, Casper set his new meet record in the 500 Free and Geoff Stanton pulled out the win in the 100 Back after trailing for much of the race. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSummers toppled his previous record in the 100 Breaststroke by nearly a second with a time of 54.74 seconds, and then Abing.