ALLENTOWN - Area schools are spending their weekend competing in the District 11 swimming championships being held at Parkland High School.

In the Class 2A competition, the Tamaqua boys had the best showing among area swimmers on the opening day of the two-day tournament.

Tamaqua’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of sophomores Jathan Krall, Jack Tharp, Stephen Behun and freshman Jacob Hehn took silver medals, edging out a Pottsville team by just .15 seconds for the second place spot.

Head coach Jennifer Paisley is hopeful that her young team will have a shot at reaching states, but they will have to wait to see if their time of 1:37.82 qualifies among the top times from across the commonwealth. Only the top finisher in each event is guaranteed a spot at the PIAA championships, which begin in mid-March.

“We knew we could be in the top three,” said Behun. “We were about two seconds behind the second seeded team going into it, so we knew we had a shot at second and we did really well today to get there.

“I think we felt pretty confident coming in and I knew we would medal, but I wasn’t sure we would be able to get second.”

Krall had a premonition that things might turn out well for the team after watching the 50-yard freestyle event during individual competition. “Jason and Stephen had really good times in the 50 and that gave me some high hopes going into the relay that we could place second,” Krall said.

“I had dropped about .7 seconds off my time in the 50, so that felt really good,” said Hehn. “I felt that I did better on my flip turn and I was moving my arms a bit quicker in the relay race.”

Behun finished seventh and Hehn 15th in the 50-yard freestyle.

The Blue Raider 200-yard medley relay team of Brandon Long, Behun, Krall and Tharp also medaled, picking up a fourth place finish with a time of 1:53.65.

Northwestern’s Aiden Braadt had the highest individual finish among the boys when he placed third in the 200-yard IM, finishing just over one second out of winning a silver medal. The freshman credits having classmate Hunter Slaski competing with him in districts for driving him to compete harder.

“We kind of push each other and keep each other going since we don’t have an entire team here with us,” said Braadt. “I was hoping to finish as high as possibly second, but I knew it was going to be difficult to move up. Hopefully, next season I will be able to finish higher and earn a spot at states.”

Tamaqua’s Lexi Buchala, a sophomore, placed third in the girls 200-yard IM, trailing swimmers from Pottsville and Blue Mountain.

“I came in seeded fifth and finished third, so it’s amazing,” said Buchala. “That’s a pretty big jump, which is great and I wasn’t expecting any of that.”

BLUE EAGLES ON TOP ... In the team standings, Blue Mountain has a commanding lead on both the boys and girls’ side. In the girls’ standings, the Eagles have picked up 242 points compared to the 195 from second place Pottsville. Tamaqua is the only local school with a girls team competing and they are in ninth place with 90 points. In the boys’ standings, Blue Mountain has a 192-130 lead over Moravian Academy with Central Catholic third with 101 points. Tamaqua’s 82 points are fourth.

FAMILIAR NAME ... Erika Zimmerman of Schuylkill Haven finished third in the 200 yard freestyle. Zimmerman is a former Panther Valley swimmer.

GIRLS

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Blue Mountain 242, 2. Pottsville 195, 3. Central Catholic 129, 4. Schuylkill Haven 119, 5. North Schuylkill 113, 6. Saucon Valley 104, 7. Moravian Academy 97, 8. Mahanoy Area 93, 9. Tamaqua 90, 10. Salisbury 37, 11. East Stroudsburg North 24.

EVENTS

(Top 5; plus locals)

200 Yard Medley Relay

- 1. Pottsville 1:55.57; 2. Blue Mountain 1:55.90; 3. Mahanoy Area 1:57.37; 4. Central Catholic 1:58.56; 8. Tamaqua (Rylee Wenzel, Gabby Blasko, Maura Walker, Lexi Buchala) 2:11.35.

200 Yard Freestyle

- 1.Katherine Sarnes (Blue Mt.) 1:57.88; 2. Mimi Norris (ACC) 1:59.20; 3. Erika Zimmerman (Schuylkill Haven) 1:59.32; 4. Emily Welna (N. Schuylkill) 2:07.12; 5. Mollie Sarnes (Blue Mt) 2:08.72; 14. Isabella Jones (Tamaqua) 2:19.95.

200 Yard IM

- 1. Taleah Ruben (Pottsville) 2:11.34; 2. Paige Bensinger (Blue Mt) 2:22.02; 3. Lexi Buchala (Tamaqua) 2:29.89; 4. Kaylee Senglar (Mahanoy) 2:32.22; 5. Elizabeth Martinko (Pottsville) 2:34.64; 8. Maura Walker (Tamaqua) 2:41.32.

50 Yard Freestyle

- 1. Hannah Magdeburg (Blue Mt.) 24.51; 2. Morgan Yuengling (Blue Mt.) 25.11; 3. Julia Balulis (Pottsville) 25.53; 4. Victoria Ellex (Blue Mt.) 25.55; 5. Hailey Robertson (Saucon Valley) 25.92; 14. Rylee Wenzel (Tamaqua) 27.74

100 Yard Butterfly

- 1. Taleah Ruben (Pottsville) 59.60; 2. Mimi Norris (CCHS) 1:01.21; 3. Sabrina Yurconic (CCHS) 1:02.01; 4. Grace Shucavage (CCHS) 1:03.01; 5. Kassie Ritter (Moravian Acad.) 1:05.02.

200 Yard Freestyle Relay

- 1. Blue Mountain 1:40.13; 2. Central Catholic 1:44.77; 3. Schuylkill Haven 1:46.12; 4. Saucon Valley 1:46.41; 5. North Schuylkill 1:49.65; 8. Tamaqua (Isabella Jones, Rylee Wenzel, Gabby Blasko, Maura Walker) 1:53.56

BOYS

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Blue Mountain 192, 2. Moravian 130, 3. Central Catholic 101, 4. Tamaqua 82, 5. North Schuylkill 77, 6. Schuylkill Haven 76, 7. Salisbury 68, 8. East Stroudsburg North 62, 9. Pottsville 55, 10. Saucon Valley 50, 11. Mahanoy Area 37.

EVENTS

(Top 5; plus locals)

200 Yard Medley Relay

- 1. Blue Mountain 1:40.67; 2. Central Catholic 1:43.07; 3. Moravian Academy 1:43.85; 4. Tamaqua (Brandon Long, Stephen Behun, Jathan Krall, Jack Tharp); 1:53.65, 5. Schuylkill Haven 1:54.51

200 Yard Freestyle

- 1. RJ Farina (Notre Dame) 1:44.00; 2. Travis Stanitis (N. Schuylkill) 1:50.70; 3. Logan Stein (Blue Mt.) 1:51.18; 4. Torrin Rabenstein (Blue Mt.) 1:57.54; 5. Jack Lu (Moravian Academy) 1:58.44; 15. Alex Zehner (Tamaqua) 2:20.50

200 Yard IM

- 1. Francesco D’Avella (Notre Dame) 2:00.20; 2. Jake Hauff (Pen Argyl) 2:08.83; 3. Aiden Braadt (Northwestern Lehigh) 2:09.91; 4. James Manley (Central Catholic) 2:12.99; 5. Aidan Rodrigues (Moravian Acad.) 2:14.75.

50 Yard Freestyle

- 1. Noah Powers (Blue Mt.) 21.20; 2. Reese Felty (Schuylkill Haven) 21.91; 3. Jovannie Avila (Notre Dame) 22.02; 4. Matheson Bair (Blue Mt.) 22.12; 5. Nick Ritter (Moravian Acad.) 22.55; 10. Stephen Behun (Tamaqua) 23.81; 15. Jacob Hehn (Tamaqua) 25.04

100 Yard Butterfly

- 1. Danny Hayes (Pen Argyl) *50.21; 2. Nathan Harris (Central Catholic) 52.10; 3. Travis Stanitis (N. Schuylkill) 54.24; 4. Jake Hauff (Pen Argyl) 57.06; 5. Aidan Wakstein (Central Catholic) 57.11; 10. Jack Tharp (Tamaqua) 1:08.83

200 Yard Freestyle Relay

- 1. Blue Mountain 1:30.41; 2. Tamaqua (Jathan Krall, Jacob Hehn, Jack Tharp, Stephen Behun) 1:37.82; 3. Pottsville 1:37.97; 4. Schuylkill Haven 1:38.47; 5. North Schuylkill 1:41.49.

* - District and pool record.