Hazleton Area’s Lia Ochs smiles after winning gold in the 500 Free.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Lia Ochs, from Hazleton Area, won her second straight gold medal in the 500 Free.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Tunkhannock’s Kaitlyn Keown swims the final heat of the 100 Back during Saturday’s District 2 Class 3A Swimming championships. Keown won the race for her second gold medal of the weekend.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Cole Bolesta, from Wyoming Valley West, takes on the 500 Free.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Derek Williams, from Abington Heights, took gold in the session-opening 100 Free on Saturday.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — A pair of familiar names did the heavy lifting for the Wyoming Valley Conference on Saturday, a District 2 Class 3A session otherwise dominated by Abington Heights and Williamsport.
Hazleton Area’s Lia Ochs repeated as champ in the 500 free, her second individual and third overall gold of the weekend, and Tunkhannock freshman Kaitlyn Keown won her second gold of the weekend in the 100 Back as the Class 3A portion of the District 2 Swimming Championships drew to a close on Saturday at the Wyoming Valley CYC.
“I was a little bit more calm today but I was still a little anxious before my race,” Keown said shortly after concluding her first District 2 meet weekend. “I got in the zone as soon as the music started playing, and I really was just with it.”
The Williamsport girls and Abington Heights boys both repeated as team champs of the tournament, with Williamsport’s involvement making it a District 2/4 subregional.
Two new District 2 boys’ meet records were set Saturday: Abington Heights’ Jason Casper in the 500 Free, and Williamsport’s Evan Summers in the 100 Breaststroke (breaking the record he set last year).
The Abington Heights girls, who won three events Saturday and six total, were crowned the District 2 champions after finishing second to Williamsport in the overall subregional.
The Hazleton Area girls were the top overall team from the WVC, finishing in third place, while the Wyoming Valley West boys finished third to earn the honor of top WVC team in the boys’ meet.
After Abington Heights swept both 100 Free golds to open up Saturday’s session, Ochs stepped up to defend the 500 Free gold medal she won last year as a freshman.
In 2025, Ochs won the 500 Free by over 14 seconds. This year, she pushed that already-wide margin even further: Ochs finished her race over 22 seconds clear of the field to win with a time of 5:14.39.
Even with the win, Ochs admitted after the race that she had her sights set a little bigger.
“I was trying to get close to the district record,” Ochs said, referring to Sue Heon’s 1978 meet record of 5:05.11. “That just makes me want it more for years to come.”
Ochs would be back in the pool one final time in the last event of the day, the 400 Free Relay, and put together a strong anchor leg to help Hazleton Area finish in second place behind Abington Heights.
Keown, who won her first career District 2 gold medal in the 200 IM on Friday, put together an equally strong performance in Saturday’s 100 Back to hold off two strong Hazleton Area challengers.
“I was so happy, I was really proud of how far my backstroke has come,” Keown said. “I was really trying to work on my underwaters more than I usually do, and it ended up working out really well for me.”
Lorelei Lucas and Kathleen Rodgers took the silver and gold medals for Hazleton Area, helping the Cougars keep up in the team standings.
The Abington Heights girls won the final two events, the 100 Breaststroke and 400 Free Relay, to round out the meet. Hadley Pallman won the 100 Free to start the day, and Kaitlyn Giermanski captured the 100 Breaststroke gold.
The Wyoming Valley Conference was shut out in the boys’ meet on Saturday, with Abington Heights winning four golds and Williamsport’s Summers winning the fifth in a record-setting 100 Breaststroke performance.
The Comets’ depth was on full display through the first three events: Derek Williams won the 100 Free, Casper set his new meet record in the 500 Free and Geoff Stanton pulled out the win in the 100 Back after trailing for much of the race.
Summers toppled his previous record in the 100 Breaststroke by nearly a second with a time of 54.74 seconds, and then Abington Heights won the 400 Free Relay to end the weekend.
After winning an individual gold and a relay gold on Friday, Wyoming Valley West was kept from the top of the podium Saturday but was still the WVC’s top performing team.
The Spartans were strong in the 500 Free, with Cole Bolesta and William Bell taking second and third place, respectively.
David Nelson took third in the 100 Breaststroke, and the Spartans won another bronze in the relay.
Hazleton Area’s Morris Hunsinger had the best finish of the day for the Cougars in the boys’ meet, winning bronze in the 100 Back.
District 2 Class 3A Championships
Girls Team Standings — 1. Williamsport (WIL) 283, 2. Abington Heights (AH) 261, 3. Hazleton Area (HAZ) 202, 4. Tunkhannock (TUN) 171, 5. Delaware Valley (DV) 171, 6. Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 99, 7. Pittston Area (PA) 70, 8. Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 51, 9. Berwick (BER) 42, 10. West Scranton (WS) 32, 11. Nanticoke Area (NAN) 18, 12. Scranton (SCR) 12.
Boys Team Standings — 1. Abington Heights (AH) 291, 2. Williamsport (WIL) 217, T3. Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 211, T3. Hazleton Area (HAZ) 211, 5. Delaware Valley (DV) 179. 6. West Scranton (WS) 179, 7. Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 47, T8. Nanticoke Area (NAN) 34, T8. Scranton (SCR) 34, 10. Pittston Area (PA) 14.
Girls 100 Free — 1. Hadley Pallman (AH) 54.92; 2. Gianna Vachino (AH) 56.19; 3. Aviya Halstead (AH) 56.34; 4. Madelyn Graves (TUN) 59.56; 5. Mariannyi Brache Minaya (HAZ) 1:00.01; 6. Brooke Hintze (PA) 1:00.98.
Boys 100 Free — 1. Derek Williams (AH) 47.87; 2. Ryan O’Connell (DV) 48.47; 3. Brady Ross (WIL) 48.63; 4. Ricardo Albuquerque (WVW) 50.91; 5. Judah Donnelly (AH) 51.05; 6. Nicholas Pop (HAZ) 51.27.
Girls 500 Free — 1. Lia Ochs (HAZ) 5:14.39; 2. Keira Legaspi (WVW) 5:36.61; 3. Kiley Persun (WIL) 5:44.13; 4. Miley Johnson (WIL) 5:46.28; 5. Kacey Johnson (AH) 5:57.70; 6. Annie Bonnice (TUN) 6:10.73
Boys 500 Free — 1. Jason Casper (AH) 4:45.67*; 2. Cole Bolesta (WVW) 4:52.13; 3. William Bell (WVW) 4:55.43; 4. Cason Machey (HAZ) 5:04.92; 5. Samuel Schenk (HAZ) 5:11.52; 6. Charles Voytek (AH) 5:12.72.
Girls 100 Back — 1. Kaitlyn Keown (TUN) 1:01.68; 2. Lorelei Lucas (HAZ) 1:03.05; 3. Kathleen Rodgers (HAZ) 1:05.83; 4. Addison Hill (WIL) 1:12.13; 5. Dylana Richards (WIL) 1:12.20; 6. Megan O’Connell (DV) 1:12.71.
Boys 100 Back — 1. Geoff Stanton (AH) 54.74; 2. Cooper Allmaras (WIL) 54.81; 3. Morris Hunsinger (HAZ) 56.97; 4. Kaleb Legaspi (WVW) 57.16; 5. Nathaniel DePrenda (WIL) 59.75; 6. John Calabria (DV) 1:00.79.
Girls 100 Breaststroke — 1. Kaitlyn Giermanski (AH) 1:12.83; 2. Kyla Becker (WIL) 1:13.77; 3. Annie Ross (WIL) 1:14.05; 4. Chloe Cruz (DV) 1;16.03; 5. Ella Bannon (AH) 1:17.64; 6. Isabella Stanton (WS) 1:20.75.
Boys 100 Breaststroke — 1. Evan Summers (WIL) 55.54; 2. Roy Ayala (WS) 58.20; 3. David Nelson (WVW) 1:00.54; 4. Adrian Azar (AH) 1:03.25; 5. Jordan Ayala (WS) 1:04.02; 6. Evan Weaver (WIL) 1:04.06.
Girls 400 Free Relay — 1. AH (Gianna Vachino, Ella Bannon, Elise Brown, Hadley Pallman) 3:46.37; 2. HAZ 3:47.83; 3. WVW 4:05.36; 4. WIL 4:05.95; 5. DV 4:12.98; 6. WBA 4:22.64.
Boys 400 Free Relay — 1. AH (Jason Casper, Geoff Stanton, Charles Voytek, Derek Williams) 3:14.07; 2. WIL 3:17.83; 3. WVW 3:20.90; 4. HAZ 3:23.41; 5. DV 3:27.61; 6. WS 3:43.10.
