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LEWISBURG – Throughout his illustrious high school diving career, Matthew Edkins has made a habit of collecting state trophies.
The Dallas girls are kind of new at this.
But together, the band from the Back Mountain made a massive waves in the waters of the PIAA Class 2A Swimming and Diving Championships.
Edkins dove to his second state bronze medal in three years Thursday and the Dallas girls finished a historic state run with its second relay medal in as many days to claim seventh place in the team standings as the Class 2A portion of states concluded at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
“I keep all my medals, obviously,” said Edkins, Lake-Lehman’s senior standout who won state diving medals during each of his four high school seasons. “I have them all at home laid out. It’ll be awesome to add this one to the collection.
“It’s definitely the best feeling ever.”
For the first time ever, the Dallas girls placed among the state’s top 10.
Sparked by senior Kaylin Augustine, freshmen Annalise Cheshire and Abby Zolner and junior Lauren Finnegan, the Mountaineers ripped off a fifth-place finish in the girls 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:39.96. In doing so, Dallas passed Twin Valley and Schuylkill Valley for the state’s seventh spot, a major feat for a team that didn’t even send anyone to last year’s state girls competition.
“Whoo, it’s better than I thought,” whistled Dallas coach Romayne Mosier. “It’s just (from) their cohesiveness as a team and their support of one another.”
Another surprise for the Wyoming Valley Conference came in the boys 100 breaststroke, where Holy Redeemer’s Nick Dubinski won the consolation heat in 1:01.47 and Dallas’ Reid Luksic placed fifth in that race in 1:02.37. Dubinski improved seven spots from his No. 16 seeding and wound up ninth overall in the state, while Luksic made up five spots from his original seeding.
The Dallas girls 400 relay also moved up – two spots from its pre-tournament seeding in the 400 free relay – and put an exclamation point on the Mountaineers’ stunning run through the state swim tournament.
Cheshire took a bronze medal in Wednesday’s 50 freestyle and a 15th-place honor in Thursday’s 100 backstroke. She also grabbed two relay medals, in the 200 and 400 freestyles, along with Zolner and Augustine.
“It’s amazing,” said Augustine, the team’s only senior. “I never thought we’d accomplish all this. Last year, we didn’t have any girls (at states). This year we had six girls who came down to states. Now that we’re in the top 10 it’s more amazing. We never knew it was possible.
“Just having the last meet and going out with such a great team and with such great people is amazing.”
No surprise on the diving board, where Edkins excelled once again.
He piled up a whopping 448.45 points to wind up third, moving up a slot from his state seeding.
“Coming into the event, I knew I was seeded fourth,” Edkins said. “I was definitely hoping to get top three.”
To earn that finish, he went right back to his bread and butter.
Edkins hit a reverse pike that earned him 34 points, and propelled him to a strong finish that included a 654.6 score on his ninth dive and first of the finals, a double-somersault tuck.
“I think my reverse dive, which was one of my best dives at districts, got me going after a slow start,” Edkins said. “I had four more dives after that and I think I hit them all pretty well.”
The performance brought Edkins his second state bronze medal and best finish since he took third in the PIAA Diving Championships in 2013, his sophomore year. Edkins also collected state medals for finishing sixth as a freshman and eighth as a junior last year.
“That was one of our goals, top three,” Lehman diving coach Erin Yurko said. “It took hard work. I’m so proud of him.
“It’s such an accomplishment.”
Dubinski, a Royals sophomore, and Dallas senior Luksic both gave the WVC a rare accomplishment for the league – two swimmers among the state’s top 13.
That came right after Dallas’ Augustine went out a winner in her final high school event.
Shrugging off the disappointment of finishing her individual 200 freestyle run during preliminaries Wednesday, Augustine led the charge to two relay medals – the last which came from the difficult Lane 1 – which ultimately propelled the Mountaineers to a seventh-place team finish.
“She’s a great team player,” Mosier said. “Kayla’s the only senior on that relay team. They were seeded seventh, they moved up two spots. Little smoke in the outside lane surprised everybody.
“Smoke on the water.”