Tyrone sophomore Eric Nulton reset his own school record in the 100 butterfly on Saturday in the District VI Swim meet at the State College High School pool. In the process, Eric placed second in his specialty to qualify for the State meet, March 14-15 at the Penn State Natatorium.
Nulton’s performance anchored the Tyrone Golden Eagle men to a fifth place finish with 108 points. Clearfield ran away with the top spot among 15 boys team with 267 points, followed by Somerset 156, Ligonier Valley 149, and Bishop McCort with 110. The finish was the best ever for the Tyrone men, who had never finished better than 10th in previuos district meets for head coach Rich Bishop.
Nulton, who hasn’t given the states much thought yet, broke his own school mark for the third time this year with a time of :57.60.
“I am looking for Eric to have a significant drop in time,” explained coach Bishop. “He needs to cut his time into the :55s which is a big drop. We needc to take it way up, taper hard. We didn’t do that last week in practicing for districts, now we will go hard at improving Eric’s time.”
The Eagle boys’ 200 Freestyle Relay nearly qualified with a third place finish. Only the top two placers qualify to go on to the State Meet. Brian McMonigal, Adam Smith, Brian Pearson and Evan Stover swam the event in 1:39.01.The 200 Medley Relay, comprised of McManigal, David Collins, Nulton and Stover finished fourth in 1:52.74. The 400 Freestyle Relay team with Vinnie Fontana, Collins, Nulton and Stover finished eighth in 4:07.65.
Nulton added a fifth place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 2:15.48. Evan Stover took a fifth in the 50 Freestyle with a time of :24.25, and a 10th in the 100 Freestyle with :55.03. David Colins collected a seventh place in the 100 Backstroke in 1:11.27 and a 10th in the 100 Butterfly with a 1:04.09 timing. Brian Pearson captured ninth place in the 100 Backstroke in 1:04.90 and an 11th place in the 500 Freestyle in 5:55.07. Brian McMonigal was 13th in the 100 Backstroke in 1:08.02 and Trevor Harbst was 13th in the 100 Breaststroke in 1:15.47.Matt Elder had the final top-15 finish with a 6:38.49 in the 500 Freestyle for 15th place.
The Lady Eagles garnered an 11th place finish with 10 points.
Top finisher for the Tyrone girls was a 10th place finish in the 200 Free Relay of Zoe Yeaton, Jeri Harper, Katie Frye and Angel Diehl with a time of 1:55.05. The 200 Medley Relay team of Harper, Emily Albright, Frye and Yeaton was 11th with a time of 2:10.90. Top individual performances were a pair of 14th places by Jeri Harper. The Lady Eagle junior swam the 100 Freestyle in 1:01.25 and the 100 Backstroke in 1:06.23.
“We will practice in the mornings at 6 a.m. before school and then again after school,” said Bishop, who is retiring as head coach after this season. “I wish I could get the kind of committment from all our swimmers that I have received fromEric Nulton and his older sister Andrea, who just finished her season swimming for Juniata College. We may bring Andrea in to help push Eric in practice.”
