LEWISBURG — Winning a state swimming title is prestigious enough, but very few can claim to have won PIAA gold in the same event all four years of high school.

That is the rarified air that Mars senior Maggie Gruber entered into when she won the Class AA girls 100-yard butterfly title Wednesday evening at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium.

She finished the event in 54.35 seconds, or 0.86 seconds better than Villa Joseph Marie sophomore Alexa Fabri.

As a freshman, Gruber tied Nazareth's Victoria Georger for the butterfly crown and won it outright as a sophomore and junior.

“It feels great,” she said following her latest victory. “When I was a freshman, I didn't expect to win all four years. It's been a long journey and a lot of dedication went into it. I'm proud of myself.”

Fabri entered the state meet seeded fourth, but managed a time of 55.32 in Wednesday's morning session, the second-fastest preliminary time behind Gruber's 54.33.

“My time was decent for a prelim, but I wasn't very happy with my time in the finals,” said Gruber of falling 0.85 seconds shy of the state record that she set just last year.

Gruber was the lone WPIAL entry to medal in the event by placing in the top eight.

Her labor of love in the butterfly began long before she reached Mars' varsity team in the fall of 2009.

“I picked it as my favorite stroke when I was 10 years old and just stuck with it,” she said. “I became really good at it over the last few years. It's a challenging stroke to train for and to compete in.”

In the boys' meet, Mars junior Chris Georgiadis placed third in the 200 individual medley with an effort of 1:56.49.

Georgiadis, who finished fourth in the event as a sophomore and 12th as a freshman, had the best preliminary time earlier on Wednesday at 1:56.3.

Following are results of the Butler County area swimmers who competed at the PIAA Class AA Championships, which began Wednesday.

The swimmers who earned a medal appear in bold.

Girls

200 medley relay: 13-Mars (Maggie Gruber, Caroline Pacey, Nicole Parrish, Torrey Shields) 1:52.98

200 individual medley: 16-Bria Otwell (Freeport) 2:14.83

50 freestyle: 18-Zoe Pawlak (Freeport) 24.88

100 butterfly:1-Maggie Gruber (Mars) 54.35, 26-Abigail Parsons (Slippery Rock) 1:01.34, 29-Meghan Terwilliger (GC) 1:02.08

200 freestyle relay: 10-Mars (Nicole Parrish, Torrey Shields, Caroline Pacey, Maggie Gruber) 1:41.45, 18-Knoch (Anna Cunningham, Katie Jones, Madison Whalen, Abby Jones) 1:44.12

Boys

200 medley relay: 12-Grove City (Eric Schmidt, Tom Somora, Jordan Caldwell, Austin Wilson) 1:40.95, 15-Mars (Reed McDonough, Tommy Pierre, Chris Georgiadis, Francis Folz) 1:41.34

200 freestyle: 15-Francis Folz (Mars) 1:47.45, 18-Austin Wittmer (Knoch) 1:48.67

200 individual medley:3-Chris Georgiadis (Mars) 1:56.49, 10(tie)-Tommy Pierre (Mars) 2:00.49, 13-Ian Lindsey (Knoch) 2:01.13, 17-Brandon Bridges (Slippery Rock) 2:02.88, 20-Eric Schmidt (Grove City) 2:03.73

50 freestyle: 18-Reed McDonough (Mars) 22.44, 24-Austin Wilson (Grove City) 22.67