The Tyrone High School swim team will compete in the District 6 championship meet this Friday, February 28th and Saturday, March 1st at the Penn State Natatorium in State College.

Senior Rhett Everhart leads the Golden Eagles with a number one seed in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:59.86 and second seed in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:31.08.  District winners automatically qualify for the state meet, so there is a lot on the line for Everhart in this meet.

The seed times for the entire meet can be seen by clicking this link.

“The team should do well as long as we do the same thing we have all year so far,” said sophomore standout Jordan Wiser.

Wiser is one of the younger stars for Tyrone as she enter her second district championship meet. She has been a key contributor in the girls team’s success this year.

“The girls have had good numbers this year. This helped us score more points which lead to our success,” said Wiser.

Wiser will be competing in the 50 yard freestyle, 100 yard breaststroke, and will be on both of the girls relay teams in the 200 and 400 free.

Junior Mikayla Harris is another star swimmer for the girls team. Mikayla is the top seeded female Tyrone swimmer in the meet.  She is seeded 3rd in the 50 yard freestyle and 4th in the 100 yard backstroke. Harris will also be competing on the girls relay teams.  This will be Harris’ third district appearance for Tyrone.

“I am really excited for districts. I feel we have a great team and have a chance to do great,” said Harris, “I feel that we just work really well together and got along great.”

“The numbers really helped the girls this year. A lot of younger swimmers really stepped up their game to help contribute to the team,” said Head Coach Tom Getz.

Senior Johnny Payne has been a story of his own this year for the swim team. At the beginning of the year, Payne was not even on the roster. He joined part of the way through as an attempt to get in shape for track and field season in the spring. Now he is competing to help bring the swim team back a district championship.

Payne will be representing Tyrone in the 50 yard freestyle and he is on the relay team for the 200 yard freestyle as well.

“It feels awesome to be able to make districts my first year. Definitely a surprise,” said Payne.  “Between schoolwork and working at Snappy’s I didn’t think I would be able to devote enough time to it.”

“Swimming is a great sport. It makes my muscles feel ginormous and all of my teammates are like brothers and sisters to me.  And it is a great way to stay in shape,” added Payne.

The Tyrone swim team is composed of students from Tyrone , Bellwood and Bishop Guilfoyle . The merger between Tyrone and Bellwood occurred five years ago and Bishop Guilfoyle students were added just this year.

Students competing from Tyrone are seniors Rhett Everhart, and Johnny Payne; junior Mikayla Harris, sophomores Collin Rhoades, Jordan Wiser, and Emily Beam, and freshman Taylor Hoover.

The athletes from Bellwood are seniors Emily Hanwell and Emily Nagle and juniors Rachel Harris and Anna Wolfe.

Finally, from Bishop Guilfoyle are junior Ryan Evanko and sophomore Ben McConnell.

All will compete as part of the Golden Eagle squad.