Country Club Swimming Championships

Even the most attentive of local sports aficionados can get caught by surprise by tournaments and championship events that come to town.

Consider this writer pleasantly surprised to learn about the Western Pennsylvania Country Club Swimming Association championships, which were held outside in the elements at ’s  on Tuesday.

The event, which features boys and girls swimmers aged 5 to 17 years old from area country clubs, has been held for 60 straight years. The participating clubs take turns hosting the swimming and diving portions of the championships, and Tuesday’s swimming portion was South Hills’ year.

The diving portion was held at the  on July 11. South Hills took top honors then, led by a trio of girls that swept their gender’s events—Grace Wagner (10 and younger), Kalli Bickett (ages 11 to 13) and Jackie Micklege (ages 14 to 17).

Jackie, 16, whose family lives on McAnulty Drive in , is a soon-to-be junior at . In addition to winning the country-club association’s 14-to-17 girls diving title for the third year in a row on July 11, Jackie was also a WPIAL diving qualifier for Baldwin High this past season.

This year marks the second straight that South Hills has won the team diving title.

As with the swimming portion of the country club championships, boys and girls finishes were combined to determine team diving champions. The South Hills boys divers weren’t too shabby on July 11, either, taking second (D.J. Etzi) and third place (Christopher Collins) in their gender’s 11-to-13 championship.

John Micklege, Jackie’s father and the public-address announcer at Tuesday’s swimming championships, called special attention to South Hills diver Tony Thornton. Tony, despite never diving in competition before, placed third in the boys’ 14-to-17 group.

“He’s going to be a sophomore at Baldwin,” John Micklege said. “He’s a natural. This kid is really tremendous.”

John Micklege said that Tony was just “jagging around” on a diving board at the South Hills pool one day before Jackie and her teammates were set to leave for practice—diving practice takes place at Baldwin High—when Karen Ubinger, the volunteer head coach of the South Hills divers—told Tony that he had a knack for diving.

“He went to one practice,” John Micklege said, “and he took third!”

John Micklege is hoping that Tony ends up diving for Baldwin as well.

South Hills’ combined score of 39 was good enough for the diving championship, topping second-place Butler Country Club by six points.

Tuesday’s event crowned both swimming and overall (swimming and diving) champions, but South Hills was not able to capture either of those titles. South Hills’ most recent championship in either category came when the club earned bragging rights in swimming in 1994.

South Hills’ third-year head swimming coach Dan Wargo, said that, in addition to being a member of one of the participating clubs, swimmers and divers must also qualify for the Western Pennsylvania association’s championship meets through performances during the association’s season, which runs briefly every year from June to July.

Wargo is also the pool manager at the South Hills Country Club.

In addition to the South Hills, St. Clair and Butler country clubs, the Western Pennsylvania Country Club Swimming Association consists of teams from Allegheny, Chartiers, Churchill Valley,Edgewood, Edgeworth, Fox Chapel, Greensburg, Hill Crest, Longue Vue, Nevillewood, Oakmont,Pittsburgh Field Club, Rolling Hills, Shannopin, Treesdale, Valley Brook, Wildwood andYoughiogheny.

“A lot of these (swimmers) are going into their senior year (of high school),” Wargo said after Tuesday’s event, “and some might have been seniors who are going off to college right now. There’s a lot of great swimmers in this league.

“And this is a great event. It’s a little different. We kind of add a party into it, too.”

Wargo was referring to the atmosphere on Tuesday, which saw a large crowd, plenty of food and plenty of noise.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Wargo said. “The kids love it. They have a blast. And that’s the biggest thing.”

There was also plenty of swimming on Tuesday with so many teams and so many athletes representing different age groups.

It all added up to two more team winners: Shannopin captured the swimming title, while Butler took home the historic Earl J. Birdy Jr. Trophy as overall champions.

South Hills had to settle with the team diving championship, but so many of the South Hills swimmers finished the season with fond memories and valuable experience.

Abby Vavro, 8, who lives on Parkvue Drive in Whitehall and has been swimming for South Hills since she was 6, said that her school doesn’t have a pool and that she swims only for South Hills.

Abby, who plans to continue to swim as a high-schooler, attends .

Daniel Leehan, 14, is another Whitehall resident—he lives on Augusta Way—that takes advantage of the South Hills team’s meets during the summer. Daniel is a soon-to-be-sophomore swimmer at .

Daniel said that he hopes to help coach the South Hills team after he becomes too old to compete in the country-club association.

“I started swimming here (at South Hills) three years ago,” he said, “and that’s what got me to swim in high school, too.”

Daniel said that there are advantages and disadvantages to swimming outside.

“Outside, you’re more open to the elements,” he said, “the sun just beating down on you. It wears you down.”

The experience has been almost all positive for Daniel, though, who said that the country club association has given him an opportunity to make plenty of new friends while competing in a sport that he enjoys.

It’s also given him—and many other swimmers on Tuesday—plenty of memories and a real nice tan.