PIAA Class 2A Swimming: Interboro freshman Kylie Arnott takes gold in state diving

Kylie Arnott is finding this high school diving thing really works for her.

The Interboro freshman took home a gold medal Thursday at the PIAA Class 2A Championships in Bucknell. Diving in the boys competition under the name Caleb Arnott, the District 1 champ scored 254.30 points, nearly 20 points clear of the runner-up JT Heinze of Allentown Central Catholic.

Bonner & Prendergast’s Grace McBlain has a medal to show for her final states trip. The senior delivered a stellar prelims swim Wednesday morning in the 100 butterfly of 58.42 seconds to make the top eight. She edged out Archbishop Wood’s Alyssa Bean to get into finals.

At night, McBlain was even faster, going 57.97 but unable to trade up from eighth. It keeps trimming her school record, which had stood for 28 years before she took it down last year.

She also finished ninth in the 100 backstroke on Thursday. She went 59.48 in the morning to qualify 14th. The time was 1.5 seconds slower than her districts time, which she showed by blitzing the B final to win in 58.02 and take home ninth place.

Delco Christian’s Audrey McKeaney found herself near the cut lines in both of her individual swims. She just missed out on a second swim in the 200 individual medley, finishing 17th in 2:15.50 for the first alternate position. In Thursday’s 100 breaststroke, she was the first swimmer out of the final in ninth with a time of 1:07.76, a full second slower than the eighth-place finisher, Molly Hubal of Valley View.

At night, McKeaney sped up to 1:07.04, which got her 11th place.

Sun Valley’s Kara Damico finished 16th in the 50 free. She had gone 24.81 in the morning swim to qualify 15th.

In the boys meet, Henry Schueren downed a nearly 40-year-old Cardinal O’Hara record in the 200 breaststroke by going 59.64 in finals. That earned him 11th place, which is what he qualified in prelims. The record had belonged to Scott Clendenin since 1985.

Schueren finished 29th in the 100 fly on Wednesday. He helped O’Hara’s 200 free relay (with Jason Kutufaris, Josh Gaudet and Jon Sandone) finished 25th and was part of the 28th-place 200 medley relay.

Bonner & Prendergast’s Joshua Travers was 31st in the 100 free and 32nd in the 50 free.