It was a pleasant surprise for one Bobcat swimmer and an overall wonderful WPIAL meet for the Beaver Area swim and dive team.

WPIAL diving was held at North Allegheny High School February 25, and three out of the four Bobcat divers competed for the podium.

Sophomore Lizzy Michael and junior Alex Biela competed in the girls competition, and Michael made the podium with an eighth place WPIAL finish.

Senior Nate Grundberg got a ninth place finish at the diving championship to complete his high school diving career.

The swimming portion of the meet was held March 3 and 4 with six swimmers competing for the Bobcats over those two days.

Juniors Brandon Osborne, Jameson Bonnar, Robert Cestra, and Reed Garrett along with sophomore Graham Lovra competed in the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays for the Bobcats.

The boys’ 200 free relay dropped a whole second and a half in their race on the first day, which is very impressive for that specific race and how late in the season the race was held.

Senior and girls team captain Emma Schaller competed in the 200 yard freestyle in her last ever race in the pool.

As well as racing in the relays Osborne swam in the 100 yard breaststroke in 1:02.80 seconds to break the previous school record of 1:03.08 seconds held by Cameron Clerci since 2012.

A decade old record came crashing down in the Pitt pool!

Osborne also competed in the 200 yard individual medley earning himself a twelfth place finish.

Osbourne competed at the PIAA state swimming championship at Bucknell University March 18 and 19, but results were not available before the deadline for this issue of the BASD ECHO.