LEWISBURG – Missy Leonard timed out her season in the 500-yard freestyle just right.
In her final race of the season, Leonard dropped four seconds off her best times while finishing seventh in the state in Class 2A at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Swimming Championships Thursday night at Bucknell University.
“Yeah, I went down a seed, but I went down four seconds, so I’m very happy with how I performed,” said Leonard, who entered the meet seeded sixth out of 32 entries and qualified for the finals with the sixth-fastest time Thursday morning. “I think that this season I prepared myself very well for this meet and this race.”
The state medal was the second in the event for the junior after not qualifying for the state meet in the 500 as a freshman.
“I just kept working on it and got better and better throughout my high school career,” said Leonard, who came into high school thinking the 200 freestyle was her best event and torn between moving toward sprinting or distance for her other individual event.
Leonard finished the two-day meet with points in all four events to help Dallas finish 19th as a team, one year after she earned three medals, including two on relays, as part of a second-place finish.
“We were all just pushing each other to do better,” Leonard said. “ … It’s more about the experience right now because we knew we wouldn’t do as well team-wise.”
Leonard finished 11th in the 200 freestyle Wednesday when she was also part of the 16th-place 200 freestyle relay with Gabby Spaciano, Gabby Krochta and Gina Kerrick.
Dallas wrapped up the meet by taking 14th in the 400 freestyle relay Thursday.
Wyoming Seminary finished sixth in the state with the help of Skylar Roerig, a Tunkhannock resident, earning three medals Thursday. Roerig was seventh in the 100 freestyle, eighth in the 100 backstroke and the anchor leg on the fourth-place 400 freestyle relay team.
The Dallas boys fell just short of adding more team points.
The top eight in each event make the finals and earn medals, along with points. Swimmers in ninth through 16th after qualifying swim in the consolation final and score team points.
The Dallas boys had two 17th-place and one 18th-place finish Thursday.
Dennis Dukinas finished 17th in the 100 breaststroke and anchored the 17th-place 400 freestyle relay team that included Shane Szczecinski, J.R. Redmond and Zachary Blockus.
Shane Szczecinski, who scored all of the points for the Mountaineers Wednesday when he placed ninth in the 200 freestyle, was 18th in the 100 freestyle.
