PIAA BOYS SWIMMING: ATHENS 400 FREE RELAY FINISHES 26TH AT STATES (16 PHOTOS) (2023-03-16) By CHRIS MANNING Valley Sports Report LEWISBURG — The Athens 400-yard freestyle relay ended its season by taking third in its preliminary heat at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Class AA boys’ Championships on Thursday.
The foursome of seniors Chris DeForest and Ethan Denlinger and sophomores Ronel Ankam and Ethan Hicks were 26th overall in 3:27.36.
“All the boys did great,” said Athens coach Mark Keister. “We were just a couple one-hundredths short of where we were at districts.” The Wildcats swam in fourth for the first two legs with the final two moving them into third for their heat.
“That’s just a big cherry on top,” Keister said about swimming at States. “We have a number of younger guys here to get the experience, and hopefully bring that back to our team, share that idea, and be ready to go next year.”
With two underclassmen on the relay, Keister has high hopes that they’ll be able to get back to Bucknell next season.
“I think we have a shot,” he said. “We have a lot of younger kids that did really well at Districts. I think they’ll have a chance to do as well, or even better, next year.”
