The Bobcat swim team has officially touched the wall on their regular season.

Both the boys and girls teams ended the season with their best records in over a decade. The boys ended with a record of 9-2 with only one section loss, and the girls had a record of 7-4.

The boys tied for the section title with Riverside, but after a review by the WPIAL Riverside were crowned champions. This is because Beaver Area lost to Riverside but beat Quaker Valley while Riverside beat Beaver Area but lost to Quaker Valley. This scenario meant Riverside jumped to first, Beaver Area second, and Quaker Valley third.

The boys have won the section title twice: once in 2005 and again in 2011.

The girls ended up being third in their section falling behind Quaker Valley and West Allegheny.

Regardless of their placement, the regular season proved to be monumental with both Bobcat teams walking away with four wins that were supposed to be losses.

To end their seasons the Bobcats had two important meets against both Central Valley and Blackhawk.

The boys walked into the February 6 meet against the Warriors with a guaranteed win. CV only has three male swimmers, all of whom are not WPIAL qualifiers.

This meant that though the attention is normally on the boys, this was a meet for the girls.

The girls have not beaten Central Valley in over five years but came to swim with claws out. And with numerous huge wins the Ladycats were able to take the meet.

Notably, junior Cora Rodgers was able to win the 500 yard freestyle, senior Kaelin Wooley won the 200 yard freestyle, and senior Ava Sutter won the 100 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke. The girls’ 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays also came away with big wins.

The win was an incredible upset for the girls team that started the excitement for their senior night against Blackhawk.

Not surprisingly, given CV’s minimal male squad, the Bobcat boys won every event and had numerous good swims.

February 13 the pool was set for Beaver Area’s senior night against Blackhawk.

Following the festivities celebrating the nine senior swimmers and divers, the meet kicked off with diving. However, Blackhawk had no divers, so it was a quick run through the five Bobcat divers.

Beaver Area hasn’t defeated Blackhawk in over ten years, but 2025 was the time to do it. Both Bobcat teams walked away with a huge win.

The boys won the first events and quickly took a lead that they never gave back.

Notable swims included juniors Jude Lovra’s nail biting win in the 100 yard breaststroke, Tony Rabatin in the 100 yard freestyle, and Jake Minnick in the 50 yard freestyle. Freshman Robert Deleon also had an impressive 500 yard freestyle win.

For the ladies, Sutter won the 50 and 100 yard freestyles while most of the teams’ meet-winning points came from receiving second and third place finishes.

In swimming, a first-place finish is worth six points, with second being four, and third being three. This arrangement means that even if a team doesn’t win an event a combined second and third place finish earns more than a first.

This is where the LadyCats started chipping away at the Cougars.

Wooley and junior Chiara Schley managed to 2-3 the 100 yard breaststroke, and Rodgers and sophomore Ava Harden finished second and third in the 100 yard butterfly.

The Blackhawk meet was just the start to an exciting swimming-filled weekend. The following day, February 14, marked the MAC diving championships at Moon Area.

This meet normally attracts many divers but this year sadly did not. With only six boys and 12 girls competing, the playing field, though fierce, was small.

On the boys side, junior Isaac Burtt was crowned MAC champion with senior Aiden Connelly earning fourth, and freshman Bruce Sutter receiving fifth.

For the ladies, juniors Annaka Najewicz and Izzi Niedbala placed eleventh and twelfth respectively.

February 15 marked the all-day affair of MAC swimming, and despite training for MACs for months the team had a surprising subpar performance.

MAC swimming had the opposite problem to MAC diving with too many schools and swimmers invited to the same pool deck. With 13 teams including three 3A schools and six individual teams (teams with fewer than five swimmers) the place was packed.

Nonetheless, the Cats tried their best and many swimmers were still able to perform. Rodgers received her first podium finish with an eighth place in the 500 yard freestyle as well as Deleon going an impressive 5:32 in the same event.

Jake Minnick and Rabatin were also a part of the only team, the Bobcats, who had two boys in the fastest heat of the 50 yard freestyle finishing sixth and fourth. All three of the boys’ relays were on the podium.

The same day of MACS is also the Last Ditch meet. For the last two years, Beaver Area has taken over hosting the event, and despite the busy day the Bobcats were ready to race again.

Last Ditch is for swimmers who are less than a second off of their WPIAL cuts and believe that one more race is the difference that they need. Last Ditch can also be used as swim-offs for swimmers fighting for a spot on a WPIAL relay.

The Bobcats had an eventful Last Ditch, to say the least.

Prior to the meet, head coach of seven years Marc Williams announced that he will not be returning to coach next season.

Likewise assistant coach of two years, Shane Landy, also announced that he was stepping down.

These announcements left many team members crushed—especially because of how heavily reliant the team is on the junior class, but both coaches had good reasons for being done: their three-year old daughters.

However, this bad news became the fuel that multiple swimmers needed to race and make their cuts.

Sutter, despite having a disappointing MACs, was able to get two personal bests and two WPIAL cuts at Last Ditch cementing her races on both day one and day two at Pitt (more on that later.)

But the swim of the night truly came from junior Aden Prence. Prence swam the 100 yard breaststroke in a time of 1:09.60. The WPIAL cut is a 1:09.60 and for the 30 seconds before his time showed up on the scoreboard the entire pool was silent. He swam completely alone and now will be able to swim his first individual event at WPIALs.

Following the Last Ditch meet the WPIAL teams were set. The WPIAL diving championships would be February 21 at North Allegheny High School, and the WPIAL swimming championships are a two-day affair February 27-28 at the University of Pittsburgh.

Twelve boys compete in WPIAL diving including Beaver Area’s Burtt, Connelly, Najewicz, and Bruce Sutter, and six will move onto the state championships.

The ladies have close to 30 divers, and six of them will also move on.

For swimming there will be over 30 teams and 300 swimmers in the 2A competition; the fastest eight in each event move on. All three boys’ relays qualified meaning that a solid chunk of the Bobcat boys will be attending both days of the event.

The relays are Rabatin, Lovra, Jake Minnick, Prence, Deleon, senior Ryan Minnick and sophomores Daniel Wang and Marcus Anney.

For individual events Rabatin took the lead with three (swimmers are only allowed to swim two individual events) including the 50, 100, and 200 yard freestyle events. He will swim the 50 and 100.

Lovra will be swimming the 100 yard backstroke, Jake Minnick will compete in the 50 yard freestyle, and Prence will race in the breaststroke.

Sutter will be the lone swimmer representing the LadyCats. She qualified in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle as well as the 100 yard backstroke.

With nine swimmers and two coaches, Coach Williams remarked, “This is the first time I’ve ever had to ride a bus to WPIAls—it’s exciting!”

Check the next BASD ECHO for coverage of both swimming and diving WPIAL championships!