Conestoga's Munger takes gold against the best

 

By DENNY DYROFF

This season, two of Chester County’s all-time best sprinters --- Conestoga High’s Anna Munger and Downingtown East’s Sam Palser -- went head-to-head in the 50-yard freestyle and 100 freestyle events at both the District 1 Class AAA Swimming and Diving Championships and the PIAA Class AAA Championships.
It marked the second year in a row that the two ultra-talented scholastic swimmers battled for supremacy in the sprint events. This year, Munger had the upper hand. She won gold medals in the two events at the district meet and finished ahead of Palser in one of the two events at the state meet.
As a result, Munger has been selected as the 2008 Daily Local News Girls Swimmer of the Year. Palser, who has accepted a scholarship from Penn State, was the 2007 Daily Local News Girls Swimmer of the Year.
This year, Munger followed a district-meet script that was originally written by Palser a year ago. The ’Stoga senior captured the gold medal in the 50 free and followed with a gold-medal performance in the 100 free at the district meet. As a result, she was named “Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet.”
At this year’s District 1 Class AAA Swimming and Diving Championships, which were held at La Salle University’s Kirk Natatorium, Munger teamed with Anna Connolly, Emily Schon, and Courtney Chenet on the Pioneers’ gold-medal 200-yard medley relay. She also hooked up with with Anna Connolly, Sarah Chiles and Sophia Graesser to take second in the 400 free relay.
Two weeks later at the 2008 PIAA Class AAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, Munger grabbed the silver medal in the 50 freestyle. One day later, the speedy Pioneer veteran came back to place ninth in the 100 free. She also swam on the Pioneers’ fifth-place 200 medley relay and ninth-place 400 free relay.
Munger’s best moment at the state meet came when she touched the wall in the finals of the 50 free, looked at the scoreboard clock and saw her time – 23.73.
“I had been trying so hard to get a 23,” said Munger. “I did a 24.06 in the morning trials. When it was time for the finals, I said – this is it. My stroke felt a lot stronger and I was more aggressive.”
Conestoga coach Rob Kirkby said, “Anna absolutely stepped it up to a new level -- despite being injured and having to have knee surgery in September. It nagged her all season and hurt her training and she still did very well all year. It’s amazing to think how well she would have done without the injury.
“She is a very focused kid in the water. She’s a huge team leader – in a quiet way. She leads by example. We had a very disciplined team and a lot of that came from Anna. She definitely has a no-nonsense work ethic.”
Munger also fared extremely well at this year’s Central League Championships with gold medals in the 50 and 100 free, 200 medley relay and 400 free relay. She and her 400 free relay partners erased a meet record that belonged to Conestoga and had stood since 1989.