After helping to guide Trinity to a sixth place finish at the PIAA Class AA boys' swimming championships, Mike Gobrecht will step aside from the high school scene after 12 years in charge of the Shamrocks' program.
"I'll miss it," said Gobrecht.
"I think after 12 years I've certainly left Trinity swimming and diving in a better place than where I found it.
"But it's not like I'm going anywhere. I'll still be around and I'll still be a part of it, and I might still be a part of it in the future assisting in some way. There is certain kind of energy here that you can't duplicate, even at national meets."
Gobrecht will continue to coach at West Shore YMCA and he'll continue to develop his swimming website - paswimming.com.
This past season, Trinity and Camp Hill entered into a co-op for swimming and diving and the move paid huge dividends for the programs. In addition to adding standout swimmers like Ian DiCarlo and Henry Tanguay to the program, Trinity was also able to qualify three relay teams for the state meet.
That meant DiCarlo, Tanguay, Alex Diaz, Mark Panas, Lucas Haywood and Nate Dubbs all got to experience the atmosphere at Bucknell University's in Gobrecht's last season. Trinity also picked up some huge team points when freshman Bradley Buchter captured the Class AA boy's diving title, breaking the state record in the process.
HERSHEY'S ROLE PLAYERS
A lot was written last week about Hershey's Class AAA girls' team title at Bucknell.
The Trojans' were led by some standout performances from Meaghan Raab, Maddy Veith, Carly DeLiberty and Vivian Tafuto.
But Greg Fastrich's team doesn't pull away from runner-up North Allegheny without some of the other swimmers that came to the forefront. Freshman Collete Robinson anchored the state record 200 medley relay, led off the state record 200 free relay and medaled in the 50 free.
Ari Waitkavicz and Gabi Broschard swam lifetime best splits in the medley, while sophomore Maggie Lee medaled in two events and Meghan Miller came back for a second swim on the first night.
GUTSY PERFORMANCE
Can't say enough about the performance the past two weeks of Cumberland Valley junior Sabrina Mortell.
I'm still not sure how she was she was able to drop enough time in the 500 freestyle at the District 3-AAA meet in order to qualify for states. She admitted she wasn't sure, either.
If you had seen how fatigued and drained she was from a recent illness, you'd be amazed too.
Nevertheless, Mortell dropped another six seconds last Saturday and swam to a bronze medal at the state meet in the distance swim.
KEEP AND EYE ON ...
Northern freshman Becca Luft. The Polar Bears' standout made it to the medal stand four times at the Class AA girls' meet.
Luft picked up two individual medals - a bronze in the 100 butterfly and a sixth place medal in the 100 freestyle. She also helped Northern's 200 medley relay finish sixth and 200 freestyle relay finish eighth.