Rebecca Oakes and her Scranton Prep teammates have put in the long hours of work in preparation for the most important weekend of the high school swimming season.<\/p>\n
District 2 athletes are set to compete at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships that start Wednesday at Bucknell University\u2019s Kinney Natatorium. The Class 3A meet is Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n
Oakes and Scranton Prep are in action Friday and Saturday when the Class 2A meet is held.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really excited because the experience at states is always a fun time,\u201d Oakes said. \u201cI am really excited and nervous because this is a chance to bring home some medals. There is a lot of potential there. I am focusing my nervous energy on trying to do everything right at practice, get enough sleep, and eat well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oakes, last season\u2019s Times-Tribune Female Swimmer of the Year, is the District 2 Class 2A champion in the 100-yard butterfly (57.87) and the 100 freestyle (52.78). The junior is seeded fourth for the fly and sixth for the free.<\/p>\n
Last season, Oakes won a seventh-place medal in the 100 fly with a time of 59.02 and finished 10th in the 100 free (54.00).<\/p>\n
The top eight finishers win medals at the state championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was a really good experience for me,\u201d Oakes said. \u201cI got a taste of what is possible, while also knowing there is room to improve. I know how everything works now, and I am swimming a lot faster this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to her two individual events, Oakes is part of the Scranton Prep 200 medley and 200 free relay teams that are also seeded among the top eight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really excited about the relays,\u201d Oakes said. \u201cI think the seeds are really tight, and we could do some things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep\u2019s Eva Kaszuba, a medal winner last season, and Ella Schofield are both seeded in the top eight in the 100 breaststroke. Kaszuba won the district final in 1:04.60, with Schofield finishing second in 1:05.65.<\/p>\n
Last season, Kaszuba won an eighth-place medal in 1:06.93.<\/p>\n
Dallas also has several swimmers in medal contention at the Class 2A meet. Megan Kuzma is seeded first for the diving event with her district-winning score of 508.40. Her teammate Brynlee Tabor is seeded eighth (390.60).<\/p>\n
Locklynn Bienkowski is seeded third for the 200 individual medley (2:09.85), Maria-Lucia Priore is seeded fifth in the 100 back (58.34), and the Dallas 400 free relay team is seeded sixth.<\/p>\n
In the boys\u2019 Class 2A meet, Scranton Prep senior Lukas Iannone is seeded third in the 200 IM (1:54.81) and fourth for the 100 back (51.36).<\/p>\n
Last season, Iannone won a bronze medal in the 200 IM (1:54.38).<\/p>\n
Tunkhannock will be in contention for the team championship.<\/p>\n
Jaden Baltrusaitis is chasing a state title in the 100 free. He shares the No. 1 seed with Donegal\u2019s Colton Houck, the District 3 champion, in the 100 free (46.57), and is also seeded seventh for the 50 free.<\/p>\n
Kyle Kozloski is seeded sixth in the 100 free (47.20), and Blayne Roosa is seeded seventh for the diving event (439.65).<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 200 free relay team and the 400 free relay are also seeded among the top eight.<\/p>\n
In the Class 3A meet, Abington Heights\u2019 Micah White is seeded second in diving with his district score of 543.35.<\/p>\n
Abington Heights senior Derek Williams is seeded eighth for the 50 free (21.04).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rebecca Oakes and her Scranton Prep teammates have put in the long hours of work in preparation for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-135247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}