At the 2017 PIAA ‘AAA’ Championships, the quartet from North Allegheny swam a 1:20.95 to break Hershey’s 200 free relay state and national public HS record. This was a one-time swim, with no prelims– the PIAA state meet was moved to Saturday-Sunday instead of Friday-Saturday because of the snowstorm that hit the east coast recently. Because of that move, the entire state meet was swum as timed finals, and diving was moved to this upcoming weekend.

Their time of 1:20.95 beat Hershey’s record of 1:21.01, and is the fastest HS time in the country this year. The previous top time this year for high school teams was Carmel’s 1:21.21, which had a 19.28 anchor leg from Drew Kibler.

SPLITS

HERSHEY (OLD RECORD) NORTH ALLEGHENY (NEW RECORD) David Nolan (19.58) Jack Wright (20.64) Benjamin Bauchwitz (20.46) Rick Mihm (19.92) Shota Nakano (20.91) Maxwell Gonzalez (20.40) Jeffery Young (20.06) Eben Krigger (19.99) Total 1:21.01 1:20.95

Legendary high school swimmer David Nolan, of course, led off Hershey’s relay with an incredible 19.58, which carried them to the 1:21.01 which set the overall (public and private) record in 2011. North Allegheny had two 19’s, and an overall more consistent showing, which ended up tipping the scale by just six-hundredths. They become the first public HS team recognized by the NFHS (the organization that keeps these records) to break 1:21.00 in the 200 free relay.

That makes North Allegheny the fastest public HS team in history, and the 2nd-fastest HS team ever. The overall record is still held by the Bolles team of Ryan Murphy, Santo Condorelli, Joseph Schooling, and Emiro Goosen. They combined for a 1:19.27 in 2012, a year after Hershey’s record swim.

While Gonzalez and Krigger are seniors for North Allegheny, there’s lots of hope for the future. Wright, their lead-off leg, is only a sophomore, while Mihm is just a freshman. Additionally, they did not use Mason Gonzalez, a junior, who won the individual 50 free last weekend with a 19.99.