Mark Newell of Butler Township, who swims for Central Catholic, placed third in the 500-yard freestyle at the WPIAL Swimming Championships Friday.

PITTSBURGH — Swimming is one part physical and one part mental.

Jack Muehlheuser should know.

As a freshman last season, the Mars swimmer placed 19th in the 100-yard backstroke at the WPIAL Class AA Championships.

Now, one year later, he's headed to the state championships after his effort of 54.22 seconds in the event was good for a second-place finish Friday at the University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool.

Muehlheuser was bested only by Indiana's Matt Rochna (52.44).

"It really hasn't even sunk in yet," said Muehlheuser after walking off the awards podium. "I just feel like I've accomplished all the goals I set out for this year."

His time Friday was more than five seconds better than his effort of 59.74 in 2009.

A lot of hard work went into the improvement.

"A lot of practice," he said. "We've been training really hard lately, but we've also had a woman coming to our practices who helps us train mentally. She gives us exercises to do while we're standing behind the block getting ready for the race.

"Going to states sounds pretty good," he added.

Butler Township resident and Central Catholic swimmer Mark Newell placed third in the Class AAA boys 500 freestyle with a time of 4:37.89, good enough to be considered for all-America status.

"I wasn't expecting to improve my time by eight seconds," he said. "But I'm really excited about getting back to states, to see what I can do there."

Newell also might be going in the 400 freestyle relay after he helped the Vikings place fourth.

In other Class AAA boys action, Seneca Valley's Tony Geyer tied for 10th in the 100 freestyle at 48.94 and placed 11th in the backstroke 55.25.

The Raiders also got an 11th-place effort out of Justin Pritchard in the 100 breaststroke.

Geyer, Tyler Piedimonte, Matt Myers and Pritchard joined forces to take 11th place in the 400 freestyle relay.

Butler's 400 freestyle relay squad of Alex Bauer, Travis Myers, Noah Neigh and Matt Goettler improved by six seconds over its seeding, placing 20th at 3:31.35.

In Class AA, Knoch's Josh Tackett set a new school record in the 100 backstroke and medaled with an eighth-place finish (58.27).

"We swam out of our minds," said Knights coach Rick Hassler. "Boys and girls, it was a great meet. We failed to improve our times in just one event today."

Note: Butler resident and Aquinas Academy senior Jake Schirra finished 21st in Thursday's Class AA boys 50 freestyle (23.58).