EDITOR’S NOTE: As a step in getting ready for the 2021-22 winter sports season, NEPASportsNation.com is taking a look back at the 2021 season in District 2.
State champion
Peter Kawash from Lakeland won the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard individual medley relay in Class 2A boys at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships.
Champions
Hazleton Area won both the Wyoming Valley Conference and District 2 Class 3A titles.
Dallas was the District 2 Class 2A champion.
Delaware Valley won the Lackawanna League championship.
Standings
Lackawanna League: Delaware Valley 8-0, Scranton Prep 7-1, Abington Heights 6-2, Wallenpaupack 5-3, Elk Lake 4-4, Valley View 3-5, Scranton 2-6, Holy Cross 1-7, West Scranton 0-8.
Wyoming Valley Conference: Hazleton Area 10-0, Wyoming Seminary 9-1, Dallas 8-2, Holy Redeemer 7-3, Tunkhannock 6-4, Lake-Lehman 5-5, Nanticoke 4-6, Berwick 3-7, Pittston Area 2-8, Wyoming Valley West 1-9, Dallas 0-10.
District highlights
Hazleton Area won seven of the eight individual swimming events, including two each by Thomas Pollock and Anthony Goulstone, in Class 3A.
Pollock won the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Goulstone won the 200 IM and 100 backstroke.
The Cougars also won all three relays by wide margins.
Hazleton Area dominated the team standings, 402-299, over second-place Delaware Valley. The host Warriors were the only other team to win an event with Lucas Santiago taking the 100 breaststroke.
Lakeland’s Peter Kawash and Elk Lake’s Kevin Noldy won two individual events each in Class 2A.
Noldy won the 50 and 100 freestyles.
Wyoming Seminary won the two freestyle relays while Dallas won the medley relay.
Dallas won the two-way race for the team title, 234½-218, over Wyoming Seminary.
James Reese from Abington Heights, in Class 3A, and Nicho LaChase from Tunkhannock, in Class 2A, won diving titles.
COVID Impact
There were alterations at the beginning and end of the season.
The 2020-21 season simply became the 2021 season with no competition until after January.
The district meet needed to move from its usual spot at the Wilkes-Barre Catholic Youth Center to Delaware Valley High School in Milford, which fit the bill as being both able to host the event that size and willing to take in athletes from so many different schools during the pandemic.
Fields were reduced in both the district and state championships.
Noteworthy
The state championships were also moved, leaving Bucknell University for Cumberland Valley High School for one year. … Practice and preparation routines along the way were significantly hampered, but, unlike other sports, all swim meets on the conference schedules were able to be completed.
