Maggi Gruber. swimming the backstroke in the girls 200 yard medley relay at the WPIAL Class AA swimming meet here, won the 100-yard backstroke title Friday.

PITTSBURGH — Was there any doubt as to how Mars’ Maggie Gruber would close her WPIAL swimming career?

The senior did it in style Friday with a victory in the Class AA girls 100-yard backstroke at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool. Her time of 54.51 seconds broke her own district meet record of 54.6, set last year.

The effort caps Gruber’s district championship resume, which now includes six titles (three straight in both the 100 butterfly and backstroke).

“I can’t say that any of the titles stand out from the others,” she said. “They’ve all been memorable.”

With Pitt soon moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference, Gruber will be swimming as a collegian at Trees Pool as a member of the Virginia Tech women’s team.

“It will definitely be like a home-field advantage for me,” she said. “Between club and high school meets, I’ve swam so many times here since I was 10 years old and it is one of my favorite places to compete.”

• Freeport freshman Zoe Pawlak earned her second medal in as many days after finishing sixth in the 100 freestyle (54.68). She was third in Thursday’s 50 freestyle.

While she had competed at Trees Pool before with the Cavaliers Swim Club, Pawlak has recently committed much of her time to another sport.

“I’m an outside hitter on Freeport’s volleyball team,” she said, “but it was really exciting to be here this week for such a big meet. It was a great experience, getting to states in the 50 free.”

“She’s just getting back into swimming,” said Freeport coach Lori Dudek. “This was an outstanding start to her WPIAL meet career.”

The Yellowjackets’ Bria Otwell took third in the 500 freestyle (5:04.36) while Knoch’s Abby Jones placed eighth (5:22.78).

Jones was also a medalist in the 400 freestyle relay, which placed eighth. The team included Katie Jones, Madison Whalen and Anna Cunningham.

Class AAASeneca Valley senior Kate Miller continued her strong showing at WPIALs, placing seventh in the 100 freestyle with a time of 52.49. She was sixth in Thursday’s 200 freestyle event.Miller joined forces with Kaitlyn Burkett, Madisen Tretter and Kassi Grumski to close the meet with a seventh-place medal in the 400 freestyle relay. The quartet dropped nearly 10 seconds from its seed time.Note: Class AA will automatically send its top four girl finishers in each event to the state meet. In Class AAA, that number is three. Swimmers who finished outside those guaranteed spots will need to have their time fall within the 16 fastest non-automatic times across the state.