LEWISBURG — Breaking somebody else’s school record is alright, but Addison Elliott thinks that breaking her own school record is even better.
The Lancaster Catholic junior did just that on the second and final day of the PIAA Class 2A Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, erasing her own school record by swimming a 56.72 in the 100-yard girls backstroke finals to place fifth in the event.
“I like breaking my own more because it just means I’m improving,” said Elliott, who eclipsed her old record by just under a second. “Which is something I’m always looking to do.”
It’s her second medal of the weekend; she also placed seventh and broke a 15-year old school record in the 100 butterfly on day one of the 2A championships. She’s the only Lancaster-Lebanon League Class 2A swimmer and one of two overall to take home two medals from the state meet.
She set her previous record time of 56.81 in the L-L championship meet before finishing with the exact same time in the District Three meet. She was seeded sixth going into the preliminary race.
“It feels really good, especially after this morning,” said Elliott, who expressed some frustration with tying the record at districts. “I was a little nervous having only gone to (57.70), but maintaining my seed time going into finals felt really good.”
Saturday’s medal was Elliott’s career second in the event: She placed eighth at last year’s state meet.
“It feels really great, being eighth in the 100 back last year, having improved so much (in that) and the 100 fly over the past year,” she said.
Paisley earns a pair of night swims
It was another successful day for Lampeter-Strasburg senior Zara Paisley, as she reached the consolations in two events to bring her total to three overall for the event.
She placed 11th in the 100 free preliminaries with a time of 54.51, then was the anchor of the Pioneers relay team that swam a 3:43.38 in the prelims to grab the 16th and final spot in the night swim.
In the 100 free consolation race, she dropped her time to 54.16 to place 14th. Along with Elliott, Paisley was the only L-L 2A girls swimmer to participate in the nightcap on both days.
“It’s awesome,” Paisley said. “I think that (L-S) just has a great environment, which helped me to improve.”
Lilah Schwartz, Kylie Gerhardt and Maddy Juba rounded out the L-S relay squad that placed 15th overall after finishing in 3:44.95. In the relay, the entire squad was sporting temporary tattoos on their right arms that they had purchased online.
Paisley wore the same tattoo at the L-L meet, then the whole relay decided that they wanted to do it together at the district and state meet.
“I was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we do this as a team, that would look so sick,’ ” Paisley said. “We just have such an awesome group.”
Gerhardt also swam in the 100 backstroke preliminaries, placing 28th with a time of 1:02.01.
Fisher earns consolation finish
The 2024 state meet was a drastic improvement for Cocalico’s Elle Fisher, who placed 13 spots higher in the 100 breaststroke than she did at last year’s state meet.
She swam a 1:08.43 in the consolation race, placing 14th overall. She also dropped more than two seconds from her 2023 state meet time.
“I’m definitely happy with the improvement,” said the junior. “Hopefully, next year I drop some more time.”
