LEWISBURG — It was no secret Jack Muehlheuser was the No. 1 seed in the 100 backstroke at Saturday's PIAA Class AA Swimming Championships.

The Mars senior had the best time recorded in any of the district finals, yet even when he captured the title with a time of 51.93 seconds, it was even hard for him to fathom.

“It feels really great, especially the moment when I woke up (Sunday),” Muehlheuser said. “Even with the full effect (Saturday night), I didn't feel it.”

Muehlheuser's performance not only capped off a great night for him, but the win helped propel the boys team to a runner-up finish at the meet, which was held at Bucknell University.

Mars, with just five swimmers on the entire squad — all of which qualified for the PIAA meet — finished second only to Fairview, which had 15 swimmers qualify for the finals.

Fairview finished with 180 points to the Planets' 113, followed by Shady Side Academy (107), Salisbury (106) and Franklin (105).

Muehlheuser edged Mercyhurst Prep's Daniel Benczkowski, who finished second with a time of 52.90. Muehlheuser recorded a 52.01 in his preliminary heat.

“I went into the race with the mindset of, ‘Remember everything you've trained for and don't worry about anyone else,'” Muehlheuser said.

“If you do as you were trained from the coaches, you'll be all right,” he added.

“Everyone was a little quiet before the meet in the paper about Jack,” Mars coach Heidi Brandon said. “He was not on the radar, maybe because of Maggie (Gruber, who won two state championships, one Friday and one Saturday).

“For him to move up from seventh place last year to first place this year, that's quite a jump,” Brandon added.

Muehlheuser sensed the win late in the race and was not about to let it slip away.

“Actually, the last 12Z\x yards, I looked back and saw where they were sitting and where I was at and it hit me — I was going to win,” Muehlheuser said. “I just thought, ‘Leave everything out there in the pool.'”

Muehlheuser, along with sophomore Chris Georgiadis, freshman Francis Folz and sophomore Thomas Pierre, finished ninth in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:18.28.

They advanced after recording a preliminary time of 3:20.46 and just missed taking part in the “A” final, which guarantees a medal.

Their time in the “B” final heat, however, was the sixth-fastest of the 16 finalists.

“We didn't make it to the ‘A' finals so we wanted to do the best we could,” Muehlheuser said. “We went out and took two seconds off.”

Georgiadis also came away with a medal Saturday in the 500 freestyle, a seventh-place finish with a time of 4:45.21, bettering his prelim time by 1.56 seconds.

“I'm happy with that,” Georgiadis said. “It was a really close race.

“In the 200 IM I was fourth Friday, and also part of the runner-up 200 (medley relay) I would have liked to have been faster but I don't think it would have changed my place.”

“Chris had a good performance,” Brandon said. “I told him, ‘You are a changed young man from the start of the season.'

“He told me he was looking forward to next year, that was he was getting higher on the podium. ... He was cool, he wasn't nervous. He really likes the experience,” Brandon added.

Elsewhere in the boys meet, Pierre placed 15th in the 500 free with a time of 4:54.31. His prelim time of 4:52.53 was good enough to get him to the “B” finals.

“He made it as a qualifier and he had a pretty good performance,” Brandon said. “He really came back strong.”

Other area state qualifiers who competed in the preliminaries but did not advance to the finals were:

• Knoch junior Ian Lindsay and freshman Chadd Cummings were 23rd (1:02.47) and 27th place (1:02.99), respectively, in the 100 breaststroke.

• Mars freshman Reed McDonough was 27th in the 100 back with a time of 56.93.

• Slippery Rock junior Brandon Bridges was 32nd in the 500 free with a time of 5:11.44.