Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
NA grad Wright already making splash for Virginia swimming program | TribLIVE.com
Other Local

NA grad Wright already making splash for Virginia swimming program

Karen Kadilak
Karen Kadilak
1513605_web1_NJ-JackWright-081519
Submitted
North Allegheny swimmer Jack Wright is a rising freshman at Virginia.
1513605_web1_NJ-RickMihm-081519
Submitted
North Allegheny swimmer Rick Mihm will be a senior this fall.

North Allegheny graduate and Virginia rising freshman swimmer Jack Wright has yet to set foot on campus and already has contributed.

Wright, 18, qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, one of 30 Cavaliers expected to do so.

“I know it was a focus for him for this summer as it has been our program’s goal as well,” Virginia coach Todd DeSorbo said. “Jack is a very talented athlete.

“We expect he will make a significant impact in our program at the conference and national level quickly.”


Wright (1 minute, 50.78 seconds) placed 31st in the men’s 200 long course freestyle in the Phillips 66 National Championships July 31-Aug. 4 at Stanford, less than a second than the qualifying time (1:50.79).

Wright (3:56.97) made the cut in the 400 freestyle in the preliminaries by close to a second. He went on to place 32nd in the event (4:01.33).

Wright said he has been aware of the time standards since they came out last summer. Since then, he said it has been a goal of his to get some of those times by the end of this summer.

“My goal at every meet is to go best times, but at trials, it would be amazing if I were able to get a second swim in my events by qualifying for semifinals or finals,” said Wright, the 2019 WPIAL Class AAA champion and ’18 and ’19 PIAA champion in the boys 200 freestyle. “I want to get experience at the trials meet to set myself up best for the next one.

“Being at perhaps the biggest meet in the country will give me confidence going into some college meets. This summer has been spent mostly preparing for nationals, but that will also help me with the training at Virginia.”

Wright was one of two Allegheny North Swim Club members to qualify in two events.

North Allegheny rising senior Rick Mihm finished 30th in the 400 individual medley (4:25.53) and 27th in the 200 individual medley (2:03.02) at nationals.

Mihm, the 2019 WPIAL and ’18 PIAA champion in the 200 IM and 500 freestyle, also made cuts in the preliminaries. His time in the 400 IM (4:24.49) was better than in the final.

The 200 IM was won by Olympic star Ryan Lochte, who came back after a suspension.

Allegheny North coach Patrick Wenzel said the club has qualified at least two athletes for the past two trials. He said Wright and Mihm are the second pair to qualify before they leave for college.

“They’ve been training hard during a very weather-affected summer,” Wenzel said.

Karen Kadilak is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

Categories: Sports | Other Local
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.