On Feb. 22, the Penn High School’s Boys Swim and Dive team competed at the IHSAA Sectional Finals and swept the meet. The Kingsmen won every swimming event and took home the Sectional Championshionship trophy.
Penn took first place in the 200-yard Medley relay with a time of 1:34.47. The Kingsmen were led by first-leg Leo Ni and anchor Mathew Weeks.
In the 200-yard Freestyle, Penn senior Nate Temeles came in first place in 1:39.93. Penn freshman Sawyer Wells took second place with a time of 1:41.97, followed by another Penn swimmer, Mathew Weeks, who finished third in 1:42.76.
The Kingsmen also got the top 3 in the 200-yard Individual Medly, with swimmers Max Barnes, Joshua Seluzhitskiy, and Cole Stevenson taking the top spots. They swam times of 1:54.25, 1:55.80, and 1:57.02, respectively.
Penn junior Seth Werntz placed first in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.75 seconds. Penn’s Charles Christianson took third, followed by Luke Temeles in 4th.
The Kingsmen also took first and second in the 100-yard butterfly thanks to Joshua Seluzhitskiy and Charles Christianson. Penn also took the top three spots in the 100-yard freestyle, and first and second in the 500-yard freestyle.
Penn’s 200-yard freestyle relay came in first by 6 seconds and earned a spot in the state meet. The Kingsmen’s 400-yard freestyle relay also won by 29 seconds.
Other winning swimmers for Penn include Mathew Weeks in the 100-yard backstroke and Cole Stevenson in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Despite Penn performing at a high level at the sectional meet, one of Penn’s best swimmers didn’t do as well as he had hoped. Leo Ni was disqualified in one of his best events for staying underwater too long and was sick on the day of the finals, causing him to miss out on a spot for another event. Ni believes that he can move forward, though, saying “I’m going to do my best in the relays in the state meet, and I will have another chance next year to perform at the state meet”.
Junior Luke Temeles had a great day, saying “The experience was incredible, we were hyped up and cheering each other on, racing as a team and seeing the payoff of our efforts”.
The payoff of their efforts included a decisive team victory at the sectional meet and a chance to compete at State.
