SCRANTON \u2013 Lukas Iannone didn\u2019t feel 100% healthy at the start of the Les Richards Swimming Championships, but you wouldn\u2019t have known it, watching him perform.<\/p>\n
Determined to continue his memorable senior season, the Scranton Prep standout had a record-setting, gold-medal-winning Saturday at Scranton High School.<\/p>\n
Iannone won his fourth straight gold in the 200-yard individual medley and added the 100 backstroke. He set meet and pool records in both events and was part of an impressive meet for the boys\u2019 athletes, who ripped the record books to shreds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll four years at the Les Richards, I went undefeated in the 200 IM, and this meet is huge,\u201d Iannone said. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge tradition for Scranton Prep to do well at this meet. My brother, Alex, kind of instilled that in me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was feeling a little bit under the weather, but to do those times, it is a really good look for districts. It is a fun meet every year, and this feels really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four years ago, as a freshman, Iannone won the 200 IM in 2 minutes, 2.22 seconds. In his final race at the championship meet, he battled West Scranton All-Region swimmer Roy Ayala and earned a gold in 1:57.42. That broke the previous meet and pool record of 1:57.99 set in 2016 by Scranton Prep\u2019s Nico Lastauskas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just told myself to trust my training,\u201d Iannone said. \u201cI have been doing 200 IM pace. I hit my times in practice every day. I just love the 200 IM a lot, and doing it at Les Richards one last time, I knew that I had to have a good race.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 100 backstroke, Iannone, who is headed to the College of the Holy Cross, dominated, finishing in 52.60. His time broke the meet and pool record of 53.12 set in 2020 by former PIAA Class 2A champion Peter Kawash of Lakeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter was someone I looked up to even before I was swimming in high school,\u201d Iannone said. \u201cTo beat his record at the Ernie Shartle and now at Les Richards, I am so grateful for it. He was a state champion, had a great career at Lafayette College, and is a great guy, so it\u2019s special to get that record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iannone wasn\u2019t the only one etching his name in Les Richards lore.<\/p>\n
Tunkhannock\u2019s Jaden Baltrusaitis won the 100 free in 46.86, finishing ahead of his teammate Kyle Kozloski. His winning time broke a long-standing meet and pool record of 47.06 set in 2009 by former PIAA Class 3A champion Jamie Grennan.<\/p>\n
Baltrusaitis also won the 50 sprint in a photo finish with a time of 21.51. Abington Heights\u2019 Derek Williams was second in 21.52.<\/p>\n
Tunkhannock also won the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay in meet and pool records. Baltrusaitis was a member of both teams. He joined Kozloski, Chase Newhart, and Aidan Mislevy on the 200 free relay (1:27.64), and Logan Teaman, Brayden Christopher, and Kozloski in the 400 free relay (3:16.25).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just about being repetitive in practice,\u201d Baltrusaits said. \u201cI just go as fast as I can all the time. The last couple of weeks, I have been dropping times. This was the big breakout that people have maybe once in their lives. It is such a cool moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late in the meet, Ayala powered his way to a gold medal in the 100 breaststroke. The senior broke the meet and pool record of 59.02 set in 2009 by Delaware Valley\u2019s Ken Kleso.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an amazing one-of-a-kind feeling,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cThere was a lot of work to get to where I am now, especially breaking records. I can\u2019t say much, other than I am really happy. These are memories for my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abington Heights senior Jason Casper won gold medals in the 200 free (1:45.19) and the 100 fly (51.81). He finished his career with seven gold medals, with four in the 200 free and three in the 100 fly. His only silver came as a freshman in the 100 fly to Iannone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel great,\u201d Casper said. \u201cThe 200 free\u2014I won every year. In the 100 fly, I won three times, so that is really cool. It was also great that we got school records in the relays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I am in a good place heading into districts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake-Lehman\u2019s Connor Runquist won the 500 free in 5:01.21, holding off a charge by Holy Cross\u2019 Leo Cholish (5:04.36). Cholish won a pair of silver medals, also finishing second to Casper in the 200 free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2013 Lukas Iannone didn\u2019t feel 100% healthy at the start of the Les Richards Swimming Championships, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-114346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}