LEWISBURG — Despite having to deal with an extremely tough break, the Chambersburg boys swimming team finished off an excellent season at Day 2 of the PIAA Class 3A Swimming Championships at Bucknell University on Thursday afternoon.
The Trojans ended up tied for eighth place in the team standings with West Chester Henderson with 73 points, matching their best-ever finish at the state meet.
Jed Ritchie
Chambersburg would have finished even higher, but its contending 400 freestyle relay team was disqualified in the prelims. The Trojans had just finished with the second-best qualifying time (3:06.33), which would have guaranteed a top-8 finish.
Trojan coach Chad White said, "We had an unfortunate DQ in the 400 relay. The boys swam lights out, with a time that was second in prelims, and they looked like they had more to give in the finals. After watching the race and thinking that all the starts looked safe, we were told that one of our legs was early by .01 (of a second)."
Senior Derek Estep, the anchor on that team, said, "We were watching the final heat of the prelims when we heard them call Coach White over to the scorer's table. We thought we all had pretty good starts."
The only place-winner of the day was senior Jed Ritchie in the 500 freestyle. Ritchie swam a prelim time of 4:36.73, which was the 11th-best time, putting him into the consolation final. In that final, he placed 13th with a time of 4:37.60.
White said, "Derek and Jed had a great finish to their Trojan careers. They did a fantastic job leading the underclassmen at this meet and showing them what mindset they need to take to compete at a high level.
"Jed had a strong morning 500 and raced his heat well to qualify for finals. It was really great to see him end his career competing in a state final."
Ritchie said, "I learned a lot at this meet, and I think the other guys did, too. We had some great swims and some not so great. We knew we had a chance to win the District 3 meet (which they did), so we went hard for that. But we also wanted to swim fast and get on the podium at states."
In the prelims, Amir Tasker competed in the 100 freestyle and took 20th in 47.29, Cullen McGraw was 22nd in the 500 free in 4:43.37 and Cristian Pong was 29th in the 100 backstroke in 54.08.
Estep, who won an individual state title last year and earned a third and seventh in events on Wednesday, will swim for the University of Delaware next year.
"I couldn't have asked for a better season to go out on," Estep said. "I accomplished most of my goals. I'm sad it's over, but happy at the same time."
Chambersburg had one girl qualify for states — sophomore Margot Ritchie placed 25th in the 200 freestyle prelims in 1:57.62 on Wednesday.
Trojan coach Hali Cormany said, "I'm so proud of Margot, and this was her first states experience. She has grown so much over the course of the year, and I'm super excited to see what's to come for her."
On Wednesday night, Waynesboro junior Eve Phillips placed fifth in the 50 free with a time of 23.21. She qualified Thursday for the consolation final in the 100 freestyle with a time of 51.58, the ninth-best time.
