Despite facing tragedy, Central Bucks East boys' and girls' swim teams made waves and shattered records
In October 2023, the Central Bucks High School East swim team suffered a gut-wrenching loss when one of their own, 17-year-old Penn State commit Marcus Papanikolaou, died in a car crash.
Less than a year later, long-time boys swim coach Ed Walsh died of brain cancer.
"It was like one tragedy after another here," head boys' swim coach Kevin McCann said. "It really becomes a higher level of work to get them physically, emotionally and mentally able to perform and do what they need."
That close-knit unit turned tragedy into triumph.
"It was not a fun time obviously," senior swimmer Ryan Burek said, "but I think it made us grow closer as a team and helped us be more close-knit."
Both the girls' and boys' teams were undefeated in the regular season.
"Being a senior and being here doing what we've done the past four years, just better and faster — it makes us feel good," senior swimmer Grace Petrakis said.
For their coaches, it was exciting to watch.
"We had a really unique, special group of kids this year," head girls' swim coach Heather Worby said. "They set the goal at the beginning of the season, and they followed through."
Both girls and boys teams broke 12 school records, getting to tear down old plaques themselves.
For the first time in school history, both teams won the Colonial League Championship in the same year, the boys snapping a 25-year drought. For the girls, it snapped a 22-year drought.
"Any time you go through something hard, it tightens the group up. This group really cared about doing something together," McCann said. "You have all of them lined up along the side, going nuts trying to make you swim that much harder. ... I think they were so happy to get back to doing something they loved — there was a lot of heavy here for a long time. You gotta make this sport fun."
Both teams' success was rooted in camaraderie.
"Me and my co-captains worked really hard to make sure everyone felt included and that they wanted to be here," Petrakis said, "making people happy to want to come to practice and swim for their team."
"Just coming here every day, swimming with my friends, winning with my friends, it's something I'll always remember," Burek said.
Many seniors will continue to make waves in college.
"They really can do anything they want to do," Worby said.
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