Busato headed to WPIAL swimming championships

Five days a week, two hours a day, 10 months of the year, sophomore Joselyn Busato dedicates her time to practicing and improving in one of her favorite hobbies, swimming. All of the hard work and countless hours that Busato has dedicated to this sport have finally paid off: on March 1 and 2, Busato will be participating in the 2018 WPIAL swimming championships.

Busato is officially a member of the Southmoreland swim “team” and has been a member of the Mount Pleasant Aqua team for 10 years. Busato practices with the Mount Pleasant Aqua team since she can’t “legally” practice with the Mount Pleasant varsity team.

I swim at Mt. Pleasant High School pool. I technically practice for the Mt. Pleasant Aqua Club (it isn’t school-affiliated) since I can’t ‘legally’ practice with the Mt. Pleasant varsity team,” explained Busato. “My parents (Mike and Jen Busato) are my varsity coaches. They don’t oversee practices or anything, but the “Southmoreland Swim Team” needed head representatives and, since I’m the only swimmer, they were the best fit.”

This will be Busato’s second year at WPIALS for swimming as just only a sophomore. She qualified in three events: 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, and the 50 freestyle. 

Busato will be swimming the 100 yard freestyle and the 100 yard butterfly at WPIALs. She also qualified in the 50 yd free but one can only swim in two individual events, so she chose the two she competed in last year at WPIALs as a freshman.”

This is will be Busato’s fifth time competing in WPIALS: twice for swimming, twice for cross country, and once for track.

Both Busato’s coach and her father, Michael Busato, believe she will compete well at WPIALS.

“If she improves at the meet like she did last year, she should definitely medal in at least one event and qualify for states in the other event,” said Michael Busato.

I predict that Joselyn will swim well at the WPIAL meet,” said Sandra Felice, Mt. Pleaant varsity swim coach. “This year she is listed in the WPIAL standings as 7th in the 100 Free and 14th in the 100 fly.  She swims well at big meets; she rises to the challenge.”

Felice describes her as “very coachable” and “self motivated.”

“Joselyn has natural talent plus a hard work ethic and is very coachable,” said Felice, adding that Busato “has a lot of self-motivation to do well at whatever she is involved  which is evident by her success in school as a student and her success in athletics as a runner and swimmer and her abilities in the arts as a singer, performer and an author of her own book.”

Besides going to her everyday practices, Busato spends a lot of time doing other sorts of workouts to better herself. She plans to do “sprint-based, short workouts,” a method called tapering, to improve her speed and lower her times.

Busato has many people to thank who have always been there to support her, her parents, her coach, and especially her team.

“My parents have always been there to cheer me on and give me advice, and Sandy is another big supporter,” said Busato. “And then there’s the Mt. Pleasant varsity team, even though I technically am competing against them every time I swim. They’re my family and I don’t know what I would do without their crazy antics and unconditional love and support.”

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*