LEWISBURG — The biggest competition Maggie Gruber faces these days is Maggie Gruber.

At the PIAA Class AA Swimming Championships Friday at Bucknell University, Gruber, a junior, set a state record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.43 seconds, then broke that record in the finals with a time of 53.50.

It was her third consecutive state championship in the event in as many years.

Scranton Prep's Rebekah Campo was second to Gruber both times — a 56.54 in the prelims and a 55.97 in the finals.

Gruber's record broke a four-year-old mark, which had been held by Greensburg Central Catholic's Andrea Marko (54.92).

“It would be great to have someone push me and have an even better time,” Gruber said. “Trying to get a better time, that's my motivation.”

“It's amazing how she can draw within herself and get that,” Mars coach Heidi Brandon said. “She learned from last year where she was faster in the preliminaries and a little slower in the finals.

“She switched that around this year,” Brandon added.

Winning a state title is great, but that's never been Gruber's top objective.

“Going into it, I'm not trying to win it but to get my best time,” Gruber said.

“In the prelims, I didn't go my best out, but I just tried to go. In the finals, I wanted 53 and that's what I did,” Gruber added.

According to Brandon, the atmosphere during the race was electric.

“If you looked up at the crowd, and I didn't get to as much since I was watching, but the crowd was loud and really wanted to see Maggie break the record,” Brandon said.

Gruber will try to capture another gold medal on Saturday as she is the top seed in the 100 backstroke.

Despite already having the one championship, Gruber still won't allow herself to feel too relaxed.

“I still think the pressure is on me,” she said. “My confidence is up and I feel ready for it.”

The Mars boys 200 medley relay team of Jack Muehlheuser, Thomas Pierre, Chris Georgiadis and Reed McDonough finished second with a time of 1:39.33 after finishing sixth in the prelims (1:40.12).

“It's interesting. When I went to the blocks before the start of the race, I told them, “You'll be second,'” Brandon said. “That was my prediction. I didn't think we could catch Fairview (which won with a time of 1:36.67), but the other teams I thought we could.

“Each one did one of their best times and the anchor (McDonough) hung in there,” Brandon added.

In the boys 200 IM, Georgiadis finished fourth overall with a time of 1:56.71 while Muehlheuser was seventh at 2:01.70.

The duo had times of 1;57.46 and 1:59.42, respectively, in the preliminaries.

“That was (Georgiadis') best time and (Muehlheuser) did better in the relay. he was so pumped up for the relay,” Brandon noted.

Also, Freeport freshman Bria Otwell finished fifth in the 200 I.M. with a time of 2:08.20. She had been seventh in the preliminaries with a time of 2:10.29.

“In the prelims I was really nervous,” said Otwell, who had the third seed coming into the state meet. “I did worse but for the finals, I didn't think as much. I just went out and stayed with it.”

The first leg of the I.M., the butterfly, did not go as smoothly as Otwell would have liked.

“I knew something was wrong with the butterfly,” Otwell said. “The back and breaststrokes were better and the freestyle, I just closed my eyes and went. I didn't know where I was at.”

Otwell enters Saturday's portion of the meet as the No. 2 seed in the 500 free, but with one race under her belt, she's a little more at ease.

“I'm not as nervous because I already swam an event,” Otwell said. “It's not ‘oh, no' because it's my first preliminary.”

Slippery Rock senior Kelsey Reott finished 12th in the 200 freestyle preliminaries with a time of 1:57.46, then placed 11th in the finals with a time of 1:57.08.

Reott bested her seed time twice, having been clocked at the District 10 championships at 1:58.59.

Other area swimmers that took part in the preliminaries but did not advance were:

• The Mars girls 200 medley relay team of Gruber, Caroline Pacey, Nicole Parrish and Torrey Shields placed 17th in the preliminaries with a time of 1:55.23, missing by one place to advance to the finals.

• Slippery Rock sophomore Katie Antal placed 19th in the 200 I.M. with a time of 2:15.11

• Grove City junior Lauren Decker placed 29th overall in the 50 free (26.05) and the 100 butterfly (1:04.33).

• In the Class AA boys, Mars freshman Francis Folz was 18th in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:49.61 while Grove City junior Eric Schmidt was 28th in the 200 I.M. with a time of 2:07.01.