Saturday's Mid-Penn Conference Boys' Swimming Championships seemed to have a familiar yet predictable theme.
Some combination of swimmers from Hershey, Cumberland Valley and State College were continually called to the top of the medal stand. The three Class AAA heavyweights of the top heavy Mid-Penn Commonwealth gobbled up 31 of the 33 combined gold, silver and bronze medals at Cumberland Valley High School.
The only school ... or swimmer ... to break up the clean sweep was Susquehanna Twp. senior Nathan Smith, who picked up bronze medals in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke.
If you stretch out to all of the medal (top eight finishes), Class AAA schools took home 77 of the 88 total medals. That doesn't leave much room for the smaller schools.
Nevertheless, you won't find many coaches from the Mid-Penn Class AA schools complaining.
"The Mid-Penn meet needs to be AA and AAA combined, because a swimmer is going to be a good swimmer no matter if they're AA or AA," said Trinity coach Mike Gobrecht.
"Just because they go to a small school doesn't mean they aren't a good swimmer."
Gobrecht's top indivdual swimmer, junior Ian DiCarlo, finished fourth Saturday in the 200 freestyle and fifth in the 500 freestyle. He was the top Class AA finisher in both events.
"For somebody like Ian or any AA swimmer coming into a meet like this, it shows them what else is out there. Unfortunately, I think our District 3-AA meet is easier than our Mid-Penn meet," he continued.
"But I think this meet builds confidence coming in here and swimming AA and AAA together. Most of these kids that are in the final heat, they swim together outside the high school environment, so they're used to swimming against each other."
Scott Zacharda's Northern team, meanwhile, used Saturday's meet as more than just a confidence builder. The Polar Bears, the two-time defending Mid-Penn Colonial champs, were bumped up to Class AAA this season.
Zacharda's gang of 10 will get more of what they saw Saturday at the District 3 Championships Mar. 1-2 back here at Cumberland Valley.
"They were sad at first," said Zacharda of the initial move to Class AAA.
"They got second last year at [District 3-AA] and lost by something like 30 points. They really wanted to go after it this year, but when I told them, they felt bad, but it only lasted for a week.
"It's a new challenge. We know we're not going to touch the Hershey's, the Cumberland Valley's and the Dallastown's of the world, but we can still be respectable."
With a step up in class comes faster cut time for Northern to attain. As a result, Zacharda tapered three of his swimmers - Bryce Carroll, Pete Wheat and Mike Ahearn - for the Mid-Penn meet in search of district cut times.
"They performed great, they did everything I asked of them and did an awesome job," Zacharda said.
"It helps set up the other seven guys that I didn't taper and they'll hopefully taper really well for districts in three weeks.
Keenan Handley placed eighth for Northern in the 200 free, Josh Clarke was fifth in the 200 IM and seventh in the 100 fly, Bryce Carroll placed sixth in the 500 free and Liam Handley was seventh in the 100 back.
As mentioned before, 'Hanna's Smith was the highest Class AA finisher on the boys' side, but he competed in two off events - the backstroke and butterfly.
He'll be focusing on his two best events - the 50 free and 100 free - the rest of the way.
"He swam the backstroke, because he wanted to break the school record," Susquehanna Twp. coach LuAnn Hetherington said.
"Nathan doesn't like to swim the same events at Mid-Penns that he'll swim at districts and states, because he just likes to do something different."
Smith, DiCarlo, Handley and many other Mid-Penn AA swimmers, however, will get their opportunity at the top of the medal stand in just three weeks.
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