DALLAS, Pa. — The Dallas boys swim team is a district dynasty, so much so that the banner at the pool can't even keep up. Romayne Mosier's Mountaineers are District II Class AA champs for a 4th straight year, and they've now won ten of the last 12.
"It just gets passed down from year to year," Mosier said. "They begin to buy in to how the program is run and how it was established, and they just don't want to let anybody down. It just turned into championships year after year, which is not a bad thing."
"It baffles me that I came in as a freshman, not knowing what to expect to now, winning four district titles, two district championship medals," Dallas senior swimmer Dennis Dukinas said. "I can't really put it into words."
Dukinas won district gold in the 100 breaststroke. His relay team broke the school record in the 400 free, 3:17.14, an event they didn't even win, finishing second behind Wyoming Seminary.
"I didn't even know we broke it," Dukinas admitted. "I come back to the wall and I'm like 'Wait, we broke a record?' I'm confused because I just lost. I didn't lose by much, but I lost and I'm like 'We broke the 400 free relay record! Oh, my gosh,' but that's besides the point."
The main point? They take a lot of pride swimming for Dallas and being a public school winning districts over private schools.
"Several years ago when we won the first district title and we beat the private schools, the following year, the kids that came in that were new said 'We're not dropping the ball on this one,'" Mosier said.
"It's kind of amazing in a way," Dukinas explained. "You would think that since private schools get kids from all over the place, you'd think they'd get better and better and I a lot of times, it just doesn't happen that way and I see some of their coaches don't have the same attitude or the same mentality that mine does and all the kids in our pool do and I'm thinking 'Wow! Why? You could be so much better and you could beat us if you put in that extra work.' That's what makes us different from private schools."
The Mountaineers are sending ten swimmers to states next week.