Conestoga Valley’s boys’ swim team (all five of them) finished second in the state last week. Here’s one last look at the Buckskins’ super accomplishment …
Imagine finishing in second place in the baseball playoffs with just five guys on the diamond.
OK, now imagine finishing in second place in the football playoffs with just five guys on the field — or finishing in second place in the soccer playoffs with just five guys on the pitch.
You know why swim teams from schools like Emmaus, North Allegheny and
Parkland always seem to clean up in the medal department in the big meets? Depth. Those schools routinely send 10 or more swimmers to the PIAA Meet every season.
Conestoga Valley sent five guys to the PIAA Meet at Bucknell last weekend, and incredibly the Buckskins brought home the Triple-A runner-up trophy after accumulating 163 team points.
Seniors Chace Caruso, Josh Nyce and Chris Sheerer, junior Joe Jung and sophomore Drew Wissler combined to medal in six individual events, took fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle, and finished the meet in style, roaring to the 400 free relay title last Saturday to cap an unbelievable two days.
“We went out in style,” said Nyce, who swam legs on both relay teams and finished eighth in the 200 individual medley (1:56.57).
“I don’t think any of us ever expected that we could finish second in the state,” he said, “so it was really, really cool.”
Even cooler than two weeks earlier, when CV also took the gold in 400 free relay in the District 3 Triple-A Meet.
“After all the hard work we’ve put in,” Sheerer said, “to stand up there on that podium and take second place in the state was just amazing.”
Sheerer, an Albright College recruit, anchored the 400 free relay victory, took the silver in the 100 backstroke (51.73) and finished fourth in the 200 IM (1:54.87).
“We really weren’t expecting anything,” said Jung, who swam a leg on the 200 free relay team and finished sixth in the 100 butterfly (52.08).
“We just wanted to finish as best as possible,” he said. “So to be up there on that podium getting the second-place trophy was incredible.”
CV’s incredible time of 3:08.39 in the 400 free relay punched the Buckskins’ ticket to this summer’s Senior National Championships, where Caruso, Nyce, Sheerer and Wissler will compete against high school and collegiate swimmers in the Long Course Nationals in
Indianapolis the first week of August.
“For the seniors, it was our last race ever,” said Caruso, who swam the first leg of the 400 free relay. “We put everything we had into that race, and it couldn’t have ended any better. That was better than any individual win I’ve ever had.”
And that’s really saying something, considering Caruso finished his standout career with 12 state medals, including the last two 50 free PIAA championships in a row.
It was also the second time Caruso helped his team finish second in the state. During his sophomore season at Cocalico, he helped the Eagles’ five-man team finish second in the PIAA Double-A Meet.
So it was déjà vu all over again for Caruso last weekend.
“I think we all proved what we can do,” said Caruso, who swam for Cocalico for two years before swimming for CV the last two.
“To finish second was just awesome.”
Caruso, Nyce, Sheerer and Wissler will represent Five Star of Lititz in the Long Course Nationals. Since all four guys compete for that club, they’ll go to Nationals as a club team, and will compete in the 400-meter relay, since the event will be contested in an Olympic-qualifying pool.
“It feels great to say that we have a national cut,” Wissler said.
A national cut, a state champ in the 50 free, a state champ in the 400 free relay, and a nice big, shiny second-place trophy for the showcase – all compliments of just five guys.
“When it was all over, I just remember seeing my mom and she was crying and then I started crying,” Sheerer said. “There was just so much emotion. All the years my parents supported me all sort of came out in that one moment. There were a lot of tears of joy.
“We got the fairytale ending.”
JEFFREY REINHART
