Penn Hills’ Gregory brothers making waves at LaSalle

By: Andrew John
Thursday, November 7, 2019 | 8:05 PM

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Norm and Isaiah Gregory have been on the same swim team for most of their lives. The Penn Hills natives will look to make this year count as they swim on the same team one final time at LaSalle.

Norm, a senior, and Isaiah, a junior, are looking to improve on LaSalle’s fifth-place finish in last year’s Atlantic 10 Championships.

Norm has started off strong in his final season. He was named Atlantic 10 Men’s Performer of the Week after winning the 50-yard freestyle and 100 free at the Atlantic 10 Classic on Nov. 2-3.

The elder Gregory won the 50 free with a time of 21.03 seconds and 100 free with a time of 45.67. At the meet, Norm finished second in the 200 free and was part of the 200 free, 200 medley and 400 medley relay teams that finished second.

During his junior season, Norm won the 50 free with a time of 21.32 and the 100 free with a time of 45.99 at the same meet.

“The good thing about swimming is I get to look at that meet from last year to see what my time was,” Norm said. “I blew my times out of the water. It just proves that I could go that fast in the middle of the season and how hard we’ve been training.”

Isaiah started the season off strong as well with a second-place finish in the 100 breast (59.35) in the New England Catholic Invite on Oct. 4-5. The brothers teamed up on the 200 free relay and won the event with a time of 1:24.82.

“Starting off the season, I had a really good meet at Boston College,” Isaiah said. “From there, it set the tone. I had a few setbacks in the last couple of meets, but I’m still optimistic. I was faster than I’ve ever been in that Boston meet.”

The strong start comes on the heels of a record-breaking end to their season last year. At the Atlantic 10 Championships, the brothers were part of the 200 free relay team that broke LaSalle’s school record and finished with a bronze in the event with a time of 1:21.44.

“It was big for us to do it because we got to break the school record and got to see both our names up there,” Isaiah said. “We were able to do what we both wanted to do when we came to LaSalle, which was do what we can to uplift the program, whether it was setting school records or helping the team get to the next level when it came to training and winning A-10 championship.”

The Gregory brothers are looking to build off that record-setting performance by reaching the qualifying times for the NCAA Championship in their respective events.

Norm is looking to qualify individually in the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free, while Isaiah is looking to qualify in the 100 breast, 200 breast and 50 free. The brothers will look to be part of the 200 free relay team as well.

If they manage to qualify for the NCAA Championship, the brothers will have an opportunity to possibly meet up with a familiar face in their household — their younger brother Kimani, who’s a freshman at North Carolina State.

Tags: Penn Hills