Shady Side Academy swim coach Erika Cooper was very pleased with how her swimmers performed during the regular season.
The boys team went undefeated with a 10-0 overall record and were 6-0 to finish as Section 3-2A champions.
The girls team went 3-6 overall and finished fifth in the seven-team Section 3-2A with a record of 2-4. Despite their record, Cooper believes they learned a lot.
"The girls came out on the losing end of a couple of close meets, and I think that helped them learn to race as they enter the championship season," Cooper said. "The boys had some very good meets that not only tested their speed, but our depth as a team."
Entering the WPIAL swimming championships that will be held Thursday and Friday (Feb. 27-28), the Bulldogs have 12 swimmers who have qualified, headlined by senior Soren Cooper for the boys and sophomore Ava Jochims for the girls.
Soren Cooper is seeded second for both the 200-yard freestyle (1:45.33) and 500 freestyle (4:43.35). He returns as the reigning champion in the 500 and will look to go all out to best his time from last year (4:35.98) which earned him a gold medal.
"Soren swam a lot more sprint events in our dual season," Coach Cooper said. "Our team had a lot of depth on the distance side of things, but he'll be ready to swim both his events next week."
As for Jochims, her times of 2:03.71 in the 200 IM and 4:58.01 in the 500 free were tops in all of Class 2A, and she will be the top seed heading into the races. She is also a reigning champ in the 500, swimming a 4:56.054 last year to claim gold.
"She's hoping to hold on to both of her No. 1 seeds," Coach Cooper said.
Senior Ellis Bekman is seeded seventh in both of her events -- the 50 and 100 freestyles, qualifying with a 25.23 in the 50 and a 55.39 in the 100.
"Ellis stuck with sprints, as she has done in the past and has already achieved a lifetime best in her 100 free this season," Coach Cooper said. "Hopefully, there is more improvement to come."
Sophomore Caden Zhao is seeded third in both of his events, posting a qualifying time of 1:58.42 in the 200 IM and a 59.28 in the 100 breaststroke.
"Caden has made the switch to both the IM and breast this year after focusing primarily on distance freestyle last year," Coach Cooper said. "His development will hopefully yield some top finishes and berths in these events."
Senior Austin Liu will swim in the 50 free and 100 breast. His qualifying times were 23.60 in the 50 free and 1:07.07 in the 100 breast. He is seeded 16th in both events.
Junior Luke David has two top 10 seedings -- the 50 free where he's seeded ninth (23.16), and he is 10th in the 100 free (51.48).
Other qualifying swimmers for the boys team include sophomores Lex Akhavan, who will compete in the 200 and 500 free; and Alex Chen, who will be in the 200 IM and 100 back. Junior Joe Hosteny qualified for multiple events and will swim the 100 fly while also being a contributor on the boys relay teams.
All three relays for both the boys and girls teams achieved qualifying times for WPIALs and are seeded in the top 10 of their respective races.
The boys 200 medley is seeded third, while the 200 free and 400 free are seeded fourth.
The girls 200 medley is seeded eighth, the 200 free is seeded sixth and the 400 will start in 10th.
The Bulldogs saw a trio of freshmen achieve large time drops over the course of the season.
Harlan Cooper (500 free), Richard Ma (100 breast) and Alessia Raman (100 fly) were able to qualify for WPIALs.
Shady Side will look to get as many of these qualified swimmers to the PIAA meet. Coach Cooper has never seen this many swimmers qualify, she said.
"This is the largest WPIAL team I have coached during my tenure at Shady Side," she said. "Having larger team numbers at these championship events contributes to a great team atmosphere on deck.
"We want to keep all our swimmers in the water for as long as possible and extend our season for as many of those student-athletes as we can."