Roy Ayala\u2019s introduction to swimming came many years ago with his first lesson, and he stayed with it, turning his passion into the most accomplished career in West Scranton history.<\/p>\n
After carving out a legacy with the Invaders, Ayala will continue his academic and athletic careers at Loyola University of Maryland, an NCAA Division I program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought that I would go this deep into the sport,\u201d said Ayala, who celebrated his 18th birthday Sunday, and will study pre-med and biology. \u201cMy parents signed me up for swim lessons, and my instructor thought I was a strong swimmer and told me I should join the high school team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I stepped on campus at Loyola, it just felt right. I knew that was my place, my home, and of course, my pool. They have a very competitive team.\u201d<\/p>\n
A successful youth athlete and club swimmer, Ayala burst upon the Lackawanna League and District 2 scene in his freshman year. He earned the first of four All-Region selections after winning a silver medal in the 100-yard breaststroke and a sixth-place medal in the 100 butterfly at the District 2-4 Class 3A Subregional Swimming and Diving Championships.<\/p>\n
As a sophomore, Ayala won the 200-yard individual medley at the subregional championships. He became West Scranton\u2019s first District 2 boys champion. Ayala added a silver medal in the 100 breaststroke.<\/p>\n
In his junior year, Ayala won a gold medal in the 100 breaststroke at the Les Richards Championships. He won silver in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke at the subregional championships.<\/p>\n
This season, he put the finishing touches on his decorated four years, winning District 2 gold medals in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 IM at the subregional championships. He finished 11th in the 100 breaststroke at the PIAA Class 3A Championships.<\/p>\n
Ayala etched his name in the history books, as well.<\/p>\n
He will graduate as the school-record holder in seven of eight individual events: 200 free (1:50.53), 200 IM (1:57.00), 50 free (22.98), 100 fly (53.88), 100 free (50.74), 100 back (59.70), and the 100 breaststroke (56.97). He also set pool records in the 200 IM (2:00.15) at Tunkhannock, the 100 breaststroke (58.76) at Scranton High School, and a 1:00.66 at the West Scranton Intermediate pool.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t really explain everything,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cIt was amazing to start, breaking records and going to state and national meets. It is such a great feeling. You step on the block, and everything goes silent, then bang, it\u2019s surreal. I loved racing. My heart was really into swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the PIAA Championships, Ayala extended his season as a member of the Pacers Aquatic team. He finished second in the 200 breaststroke and third in the 100 breaststroke at the Middle Atlantic Senior Championships.<\/p>\n
A week later, Ayala finished sixth in the 200 breaststroke and seventh in the 100 breaststroke at the Speedo Sectional Championships at St. Mary\u2019s City, Virginia.<\/p>\n
He will take some time off before recharging and heading to Loyola, which finished third at the Patriot League Championships and second at the ECAC Championships this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been stepping back and taking it all in for the first time,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cThen, I will focus on my next steps. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Ayala\u2019s introduction to swimming came many years ago with his first lesson, and he stayed with it,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-179065","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\/179065","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=179065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}