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Sports

USC Swimmers Grab Gold at WPIAL Championship

Upper St. Clair dethroned North Allegheny to win the WPIAL title on the last leg of the final relay of the meet.

It doesn't get any more dramatic than the way Upper St. Clair brought home their first WPIAL title since 1973. They needed all the star power out of their best swimmer, Kyle Dudzinski, to stay ahead of North Allegheny in the final event of the meet.

Alex Hardwick, James Frauen, Nathan Novak and Dudzinski finished the 400 yard freestyle relay in 3:10.85, just .12 seconds ahead of North Allegheny to take the boys championship by a final score of 295.5-289.

When Dudzinski dove off his perch for the final leg of the relay, North Allegheny had the lead in the race and the championship in sight. However, with about 25 yards remaining, Dudzinski caught North Allegheny's Matthew Buerger and touched the timer just .12 seconds for an exhilarating victory.

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"The place was rockin', you couldn't imagine a better finish," said USC athletic director Matt Mellinger.

Coach Tom Donati and his coaching staff have successfully turned around a swimming program that had fallen to uncharacteristic depths and delivered a championship in just two years.

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"It was a great hire," Mellinger said.

Entering the final day North Allegheny and USC were tied with 181 points each.  The dramatic finish on Friday was in the works. After falling behind by 21.5 points after two events Kyle Dudzinski started the comeback by breaking his own WPIAL record set least year by swimming the 100 yard backstroke in 48.75 seconds.

USC held a slight lead until that final relay. The gold medal ends North Allegheny's five year run of AAA Boys championships.

Individual highlights on the boys side included Alex Hardwick taking second in the boys 100 yard freestyle, James Frauen finishing fifth in the boys 500 yard freestyle and Andrew Tomiczek finishing fifth in the boys 100 yard backstroke.

The girls improved dramatically this year and finished fifth overall. Brittany Dudzinski highlighted their individual events by finishing second in the girls 100 yard backstroke.

Up next for the Upper St. Clair Swimming & Diving team will be the PIAA Championship on March 16 at Bucknell University.

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