Sisters stick together.

At least that's the case with four local girls headed to the YMCA National Swim Meet this week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Chloe and Gabri Pierre, a senior and sophomore from Mars High, respectively, and Gail and Keil Erickson, a senior and sophomore at Freeport High, will represent the Allegheny Valley YMCA, which is located in Natrona Heights.

The national event will be held Tuesday through Friday.

The Ericksons and Pierres will be competing in the 15-to-18 age group, and are one of 103 teams to swim the 200 medley relay.

The team will rely on Gail Erickson to swim the backstroke leg of the relay, Chloe Pierre the breaststroke, Keil Erickson the butterfly and Gabri Pierre the freestyle.

Gail Erickson also will swim individually in the 100 backstroke.

It will mark the first trip to nationals for all four swimmers.

"From what I hear, it's a completely different atmosphere," said Chloe Pierre. "Everything there is focused on swimming."

"There's going to be more people there than there was at WPIALs or states," said Keil Erickson.

The girls qualified for nationals by swimming the medley relay in 1 minute, 54.45 seconds at the district meet at Indiana (Pa.) University March 8.

The time was more than a half-second better than the qualifying standard.

"It never happened during the season," said Allegheny Valley coach Lisa Voytko. "Every meet, it seemed like one of the swimmers' split times was up. But it finally happened at districts."

In fact, all four swimmers swam their best time in the event — Gail (29.02 seconds), Chloe (31.31), Keil (28.93) and Gabri (25.19).

"I know we're capable of dropping our time at nationals," said Gail Erickson. "I don't know by how much, but, hopefully, we can all swim our best split."

The swimmers also believe that Voytko deserves credit for the national meet berth.

"She's taken us to a whole new height," Gail Erickson said. "We are such a better team because of her."

The Pierres have been involved with YMCA swimming for 10 years, the Ericksons for nine.

"When they were 8 and 9 years old, they were struggling to make the C relay team and now they're going to nationals," said Voytko. "The whole group has worked so hard to get here."

The two sets of sisters have gone up against each other in high school dual meets when Freeport battled Mars.

But they've formed a relationship that can't be broken by school district boundaries.

"Aside from swimming, we've become good friends with Keil and Gail," said Gabri Pierre. "I've been swimming with them since I was 5 or 6. We hang out a lot."

Gail Erickson's seed time in the 100 backstroke is 1:01.34.

"I know the competition will be fast, but, hopefully, I'll do my best. Having my teammates there will make it a little less nervewracking."

Also competing in the national championships are four swimmers from the Butler County Family YMCA: Mars High junior Courtney Shields, Butler senior Brittany Vogel and freshman Brianna Keelan, and Knoch junior Rachel Tano.

The four girls will team up in the 200 and 400 medley relays and in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

Individually, Shields will swim the 50 and 100 freestyles and the 100 butterfly event.

Tano will compete in the 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

Vogel will swim the 200 backstroke.

The athletes get plenty of work in the pool. The YMCA swimming season begins in September and the high school season runs from November to mid-March.

"I didn't take a break at all after states," said Shields. "I was exhausted, but I kept telling myself that it's just two more weeks."

Butler High and YMCA coach Jeff Armstrong was an assistant coach at Edinboro University from 1995-97.

"All this extra swimming will pay off for them," he said of his swimmers. "As an ex-college coach, I know that coaches are always looking for kids who are willing to put in the extra effort."