NTL SWIMMNG & DIVING: TOWANDA HAS STRONG FINISH TO 2021 (2021-03-27)

Northern Tier Sports Report
It was an unusual season for all teams, but particularly for the Towanda swim team.

They swam against Athens essentially four times during the regular season as it was difficult to find opponents. Elk Lake and Tunkhannock, two regulars on the schedule, wouldn’t leave District II. The Knights were able to get stalwarts Lewisburg to come up to Bradford County, but also had a remote meet with Shamokin to start the year - a meet where they didn’t know the official results of until a couple days later.

It made scheduling difficult, but coach Evan Basse felt his team did their best under the conditions.

“Even though this year presented some challenges, the swimmers were happy that they were able to get some sort of some season,” he said. “I feel we had a successful year, all swimmers and divers reached personal best times or scores. We had the most individual district swimmers that Towanda has had in recent years.”

The PIAA only took district champions to the state competition, making it nearly impossible to get to states due to a talented field in District IV, but a few athletes had strong showings at districts.

Diver Joey Donovan took third at districts with teammate Jaden Wise (50 free) taking home a third place finish. Donovan also swam in the 50 free and Wise in the 200 free.

Eric McGee (100 backstroke), Nate Spencer (100 breaststroke) and Luke Tavani (500 free) also swam at districts individual events.

For the girls Juliana Varner (50 free) was the highest individual finisher, taking eighth. Ava Gannon (100 free), Abby Locke (100 breaststroke) and Zoie Lamphere (200 free) were all able to compete at districts as well.

They will both have some upperclassmen to replace, but the Knights will be looking to build off their sixth (boys) and eighth (girls) place finishes at districts next season.