Record relay

While placing 11th at States, WHS girls’ 400 free relay breaks school mark for third time in two weeks

Senior Tyler Mandrell, who also competed on Warwick’s record-breaking 400 free relay team which placed 11th at States last Thursday, surfaces at the beginning of the PIAA Triple-A girls 100 yard backstroke B-finals. She finished the event in 57.81 seconds to earn 13th place. Photo by Mike Shull

The Warwick girls 400 free relay team admittedly didn’t have much left in the tank.

At the end of two long days at Bucknell University for the PIAA State Girls Triple-A Swimming Championships, the clock was pushing toward 10 p.m. for their final race last Thursday.

It had been more than seven hours earlier that they had to check out of their hotel in Lewisburg, leaving them with a lot of time to kill.

“We’re running on very little energy, but we were all trying our hardest,” senior Tyler Mandrell said.

The results spoke for themselves.

When the foursome of junior Catherine Chen and seniors Mandrell, Lauryn Ober and Sophie Guthridge touched the wall in 3:33.12, they not only clinched 11th place, but shattered the school record for the third time in two weeks.

The Lady Warriors’ run started at the District Three Triple-A Championships, where they placed fourth with a record-breaking time of 3:33.74. That was then lowered to 3:33.45 in the State prelims on Thursday morning, giving them the 11th seed for the B-finals at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium.

And they weren’t done there.

“We’ve worked so hard all year,” Ober said, “and being able to break it once is just amazing, but three times in two weeks? It’s surreal.”

“We’ve been chasing it for, like, two years now,” Mandrell added, “so to finally hit it three times is fun after all those years of just missing it.”

For Guthridge, Mandrell and Ober, it was a fitting finish to their Warwick career.

“Tyler, Lauryn and Sophie, we go back so many years,” coach Mark Daum said. “You can’t ask for a better kind of kid. I don’t care if they got first or 101st. They are kids you want to work with.”

“It’s definitely emotional,” Ober said of completing her Warwick career. “I’ve been with Mark for 10 years now, he’s just been such a great role model and coach that I hate to see me move on from him.”

Individually, Mandrell also advanced to the B-finals in two events. She finished 16th in the 50 freestyle in 24.26 seconds Wednesday, then came back and took home a 13th-place finish in the 100 backstroke in 57.81 seconds on Thursday.

“Going into States, I’d never (gone) below 20th place, so just getting to make it to the consolation finals was something that I was really grateful for — just to get the opportunity to swim every single event twice,” the University of Chicago-recruit said.

Mandrell also teamed up with Guthridge, freshman Hannah Greenway and Ober on the 200 medley relay team which took 12th in 1:47.99, and Chen added a 20th-place finish in the 100 free in 52.77.

Although the medley relay went up 72-hundredths of a second from its seed time (1:47.27), they improved two spots from a 14th-place ranking.

“Sixty-six percent of the kids that come up here go up (in time),” Daum said, “so you’re a one in three shot of coming down because it gets so competitive as you move up the ranks.”

Warwick’s 400 free relay was among the few that came down, and it was after Ober’s opening split that Daum liked their chances to break the record again. When Guthridge dove in for the anchor leg, the Lady Warriors had a time of 2:40.24.

“After Lauryn’s first split, I knew we were pretty good,” Daum said. “We’ve been a MASH unit all year, and they should have never been here, so then it’s just guts and heart. And they’ve got more than their share of that.”

“I don’t think we thought we could (break the record), especially just once,” Guthridge said. “Then we got it three times, and then coming back tonight and doing it again, especially with this group of girls … that make it incredible. They’re the best.”

Since they already had the record going into the B-finals, Mandrell said there was no pressure.

“You’re already set that you’re going to get somewhere between ninth and 16th unless you DQ,” she remarked, “so it’s just going for time. We were just seeing what we could do.”

Ober, a Duquesne University recruit, said, “With the energy here, it’s just so much more relaxed and fun than prelims. Feeding off the energy already here, I think that’s what made it. For the three of us that are seniors, we were just like, ‘It’s our last high school race. What can we bring?’”

Mandrell was seeded 24th in the 50 freestyle in 24.33 seconds, then dropped her time to 24.21 while moving up eight spots to reach the B-finals on Wednesday. Her time in the finals (24.26) was right in the ball park while taking 16th.

In Thursday’s 100 backstroke, she improved from her finish in the prelims (58.06) while placing 13th in 57.81 seconds. She was seeded in 57.00, a school record set while winning silver at Districts.

Last year at States, Mandrell finished 22nd in the 100 back in 58.58 seconds and 26th in the 50 free in 24.68 seconds.

“I wish I could have dropped my District times,” Mandrell said, “but I’m happy that it was still faster than what I had last year and it’s still within my top four or five best times.”

“(Tyler) just keeps getting better and better,” Daum said, “and I in my heart know that if these kids go on to swim at college, their best years are ahead of them. They’re just going to keep getting better and better and that’s my gold medal.”