Reaching the PIAA championship swim meet was much more difficult this season than in years past for those who did not win a district championship.

That did not stop North Catholic from qualifying all three of its boys relays for the Class 2A event, scheduled Friday at Cumberland Valley High School.

The Trojans' 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams placed fifth, third and fifth, respectively, at the WPIAL meet earlier this month.

Each effort broke the school record and earned one of the six at-large bids from across the state.

“We believed we could get all the relays to states and we focused on doing that,” said North coach Joella Baker. “It's a great experience to go and after last year's meet was canceled (due to COVID), it's going to be exciting just to compete, but the relays have been dropping time all year and we believe we can medal (top eight) in all of them.”

The Trojans' 200 freestyle relay is in the best position of the three, ranked seventh in the state with a time of one minute, 30.70 seconds. The quartet includes Matt Littleton, Jackson Kress, Zac Baker and Julian LaPietra.

“Not many teams get all three relays to the state meet,” said Littleton, a Treesdale resident who is North's lone individual qualifier in the boys meet and will swim the butterfly. “We still have improvements to make and I think we'll surprise some teams out there.

“I'm excited to have this experience with the other guys. They're like brothers to me.”

Two Butler County girls will swim Friday after winning WPIAL titles.

North Catholic senior Brittney Carmazzi won the butterfly and Freeport junior Alexis Schrecongost the breaststroke with school-record times. They are seeded third and fifth, respectively.

Carmazzi enters with a time of 57.13. Springfield Township's Maura Fluehr (55.28) and Gwynedd Mercy's Ella Gross (57.01) are the swimmers ahead of her.

“Brittney's been looking great in practice and she's ready to go,” Baker said. “We're looking for her to finish her high school career with a strong performance, hopefully a win.”

Here are Butler County swimmers who have qualified for the PIAA Class 2A championship meet, with seed and seed time:

<b>Freeport, Moniteau, North Catholic50 freestyle:</b> 14-Katelyn Reott (M) 24.97<b>100 butterfly:</b> 3-Brittney Carmazzi (NC) 57.13<b>100 freestyle:</b> 9-Alexis Schrecongost (F) 53.44; 14-Baily Trettel (M) 54.62<b>100 backstroke:</b> 10-Baily Trettel (M) 59.15<b>100 breaststroke:</b> 5-Alexis Schrecongost (F) 1:06.03; 15-Katelyn Reott (M) 1:09.90

<b>North Catholic200 medley relay:</b> 12-North Catholic (Jackson Kress, John Lamb, Matt Littleton, Julian LaPietra) 1:42.00<b>100 butterfly:</b> 13-Matthew Littleton (NC) 53.26<b>200 freestyle relay:</b> 7-North Catholic (Matt Littleton, Jackson Kress, Zac Baker, Julian LaPietra) 1:30.70<b>400 freestyle relay:</b> 10-North Catholic (Matt Littleton, Jackson Kress, Zac Baker, Julian LaPietra) 3:18.48