The Bridgeport boys swim team’s chase for a second straight state championship took an early blow on Day 1 of the state championship meet Thursday at the Mylan Park Aquatic Center in Morgantown.

 

In the first event of the boys' portion of the preliminaries — the 200 medley relay — the Indians as expected had the top time at 1:40.53. However, a great start quickly turned into a big hole as the team of Randy Keener, Luke Pinti, Mason Titchenal and Reed Smith was disqualified.

 

The ruling was that Smith left early on the final exchange. The end result is the defending state champs will miss out on 32 points toward the team standings as they would have been favored to win the 200 medley relay in Friday’s finals.  

 

“You kind of count on the 200 medley to set the tone early for you,” Bridgeport coach Jan Grisso said. “It is, what it is. We can still do it, it won’t be easy. We just have a lot of work to do.”

 

BHS didn’t let the setback effect the rest of the preliminaries though as the Indians will be in the “A” finals (top six preliminary times) in eight events and in six for the “B” finals or consolation finals (the seventh through 12^th preliminary times).

 

Randy Keener, Marcel Rodriguez and Luke Pinti all advanced to the finals in both of their individual events.

 

Keener had the top time in the 200 IM at 2:00.98 and the top time in the 100 backstroke at 52.72.

 

“It was over and done with, you can’t do anything about it,” Keener said in regards to the 200 medley relay. “If you get DQ’d, you get DQ’d but there are still 10 other events and you have to make up for it somewhere because you just lost 32 points.

 

“I’m looking to go even faster in my individual events tomorrow. You don’t want to burn yourself out in prelims because no points are gathered there.”

 

Rodriguez was second in the 100 free with a time of 50.17 and fifth in the 50 free at 22.78.

 

“I think there was a little extra motivation after the first relay,” Rodriguez said. “This is the first year I’ve made it to an 'A' final and not just the consolations so that was a big motivation for me too.”

 

Pinti finished second in the 100 backstroke with an impressive time of 1:00.71 and will also join Keener in the 200 IM finals after a fourth-place time of 2:09.96.

 

Titchenal also made the “A” finals with a fourth-place time of 56.87 in the 100 butterfly.

 

The Indians’ other two relay squads advanced to the “A” finals. Rodriguez, Pinti, Phillip Malenich and Smith were second in the 200 free relay at 1:33.57. In the final event of the day, Titchenal, Malenich, Rodriguez and Keener were second in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:26.90.

 

BHS boys in the consolation finals are Smith in the 200 freestyle (12^th place time of 2:00.28) and 100 back (9^th place time of 1:00.05), Reese Allen in the 200 IM (11^th place time of 2:16.24), Malenich in the 50 free (10^th place time of 23.21) and 100 back (7^th place time of 59.45), Titchenal in the 100 free (11^th place time of 52.62) and Ryan Knapp in the in the 100 breast (8^th place time of 1:04.83).

 

Knapp also finished 13^th in the 200 IM at 2:17.22 to pick up one of the alternate spots for today’s consolation finals.

 

Allen was 16^th in the 100 breast with a time of 1:10.05.

 

The BHS girls will come back on Day 2 and compete in a total of nine events.

 

Marra Johnson advanced to the finals in both her individual events and Cheyanne Rohde advanced to the finals in one and the consolation round in another.

 

Johnson broke the school record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:10.13, which was also good for the third best preliminary time. She also placed sixth in the 200 IM with a time of 2:18.01.

 

“I was really scared I wasn’t going to make the finals in the IM so I was really happy that happened,” Johnson said. “And then in the breast I wanted to get third and I did and then I got the school record and that was good too. I’m hoping I can pull out a 1:09 in it tomorrow and hopefully that will ensure that I get third."

Rohde’s day started off with a somewhat disappointing 10^th place time in the 50 free with a time of 26.05 but she made up for it in the 100 backstroke by swimming a second-place time of 59.74.

 

“I wasn’t prepared in the 50 free,” Rohde said. “It really discouraged me. But all my teammates were really encouraging. They kept telling me to just ignore that race, it was one bad race. That really helped, because if it wasn’t for my teammates I wouldn’t have come back.”

 

Getting under a minute in the backstroke has been a goal for Rohde though and she’s ready to improve upon it in the finals where she will battle it out with John Marshall’s Victoria Kidney, who finished with a 59.55 in preliminaries.

 

“I think chasing her can only help,” Rohde said. “I know what I want now and I just have to keep my mind in the same place.”

 

The girls 200 medley relay team of Rohde, Lilly Madden, Darian Spencer and Cheri Signorelli qualified for the finals with a fourth-place time of 1:57.87.

 

The Tribe’s 200 free relay team will also be in the finals as Maria Lacaria, Johnson, Rohde and Spencer finished third at 1:44.81.

 

Spencer just missed making the finals in the 100 fly with a seventh-place time of 1:04.54. She will be joined by Madden, who was 11^th in the 100 breast with a time of 1:16.08, in the consolations.

 

The Indians’ 400 freestyle relay team of Lacaria, Hope Reiser, Johnson and Spencer finished 8^th with a time of 4:01.95 and will be in the consolation finals.

 

Also for the BHS girls,  Lacaria finished 17^th in the 200 free at 2:16.18 and 20^th in the 100 free at 1:01.76, Vaughn Vincent placed 15^th in the 100 fly at 1:09.66, Reiser finished 21^st in the 100 free at 1:01.79 and 16^th in the 100 back at 1:09.14 and Brooke Wagner was 16^th in the 100 breast at 1:19.95.

 

Day 2 of the state meet will feature all finals and will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday.

 

Editor's Note: Top picture is of Luke Pinti and Randy Keener at the end of the 200 IM, second photo features Marcel Rodriguez, third photo shows Marra Johnson and bottom photo shows Cheri Signorelli preparing to dive into the pool as Cheyanne Rohde looks on. All photos by Joey Signorelli for www.benqueenphotography.com. Video below features Rohde in the 100 backstroke, Johnson in the 100 breaststroke and Keener in the 100 backstroke.