LEWISBURG - It's a wonderful accomplishment to medal at the PIAA Swimming Championships.

Not only did Marian freshman Danny Berlitz medal on Friday in the 200 IM, he earned another one on Saturday in the 500 freestyle."I'm facing seniors and juniors and I look like a peanut compared to them," Berlitz explained with a chuckle. "But, I'm hanging with them. It's bringing out my self-pride that I can hang with these people. If I could get top eight, I thought it would be fine. But, to get top four, wow, that's outstanding. I never thought I would do this good."He earned the fourth seed in the 500 after Saturday morning's prelims with a time of 4:42.24. The frosh ended up fourth during the finals again, cutting two more seconds off of his impressive time from the morning session."I was trying to catch the kid next to me who finished second," Berlitz said. "I was trying to inch toward him and it worked, I dropped two second off my time. This pool at Bucknell is one of the best in Pennsylvania and it's one of my favorites. It's so fast, I love it here."Teammates Timmy Dando and Katie Kurzinsky also represented Marian on Saturday.Dando was seeded 30th in the 500 freestyle. He swam a morning prelim on Saturday of 4:59.90, which was two seconds better than his seed time. His great execution helped him jump up to a 23rd place finish."I knocked off a few seconds. I was happy with the time, even though I didn't make consolations," Dando said. "It was fun to watch my teammates do well too. Everyone did well this weekend and represented the Schuylkill League very well."The junior has been swimming through some adversity. He's been courageously competing through an injury that will take some time to heal during the offseason."Normally I would compete all year round, but I've been actually swimming through something that I was diagnosed with in December. It's going to take about 6-12 weeks for a stress reaction in my ribs to heal."I'm satisfied with my performance, it was tough to do. I'd like to thank coach Rob from the Hazleton YMCA and Tamaqua coach Al Bostdorff for all of their help and support."Kurzinsky finally got to hit the pool during Saturday's session after an untimely 45-minute delay because of a scoreboard malfunction."That was hilarious, I didn't expect that to happen," she said with a laugh. "I had to count (laps) for Danny anyway, so I gave him some pep talks and we just talked about our day during the wait. It was awesome seeing him, he did a phenomenal job as a freshman."She then finished 16th in the consolation finals of the 100-yard backstroke."Overall, it was a great weekend. It was special to be there with our team. That was pretty cool. So many of my close friends were there, and my support system was great. We had a huge team dinner, which was awesome to sit down and relax with everyone and have some good vibes."Northern Lehigh's duo of Jose Avila and Wyatt Delans also raced during Saturday morning's prelims. Avila finished 18th in the 500 freestyle, while Delans finished 26th in the 100 backstroke."I thought it was a great experience seeing my club members that I don't see a lot," said Delans. "I really wasn't that nervous, I wasn't seeded very high, so I just wanted to take in as much I could. It was definitely a blast being out there for two nights."There isn't really an offseason for me. I compete every month of every year. I'll have off the first week in April, then I'll be right back on the grind."Not only was it a great showing for Times News area swimmers, but many of them will have an opportunity to repeat their success again next season."The environment is exciting and it gets you pumped up," Berlitz said. "I'm loving it. I have three more years, and I'm looking forward to continuing on. It's the best time ever, hanging out with my friends, and then when it's time to race, it's go time."