LEWISBURG Following a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle on Friday, Northwestern's Trey Shackleton earned a top three finish in the 500-yard freestyle in the final day of the PIAA Class AA Swimming & Diving Championships at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium.

Shackleton, who finished third in the same event last season, came in third place on Saturday with a time of 4:33.93, a personal best for the junior Tiger."I wanted to win the event, and I wanted a faster time than that," Shackleton said. "I'm pretty satisfied with it. This is a good stepping stone moving forward."Tamaqua's Joann Butkus also competed in Saturday's action, finishing 13th in the 100 breaststroke. Butkus, a senior, took 12th in Friday's 50 freestyle."I'm very satisfied with how I did this weekend," said Butkus. "I improved on my preliminary times from the morning in each event I was in and that's something you always shoot for as a swimmer. I feel really good on how I ended my career at Tamaqua."For much of Shackleton's race on Saturday, he was stationed in second place right behind Jarod Kehl of West Allegheny. Kehl eventually finished in first with a time of 4:28.80 while Shackleton started to fall behind a bit more over the final 100-150 yards."Right around the 400 [or] 350-mark, right around there, I noticed Jarod Kehl in first place starting to slip away," Shackleton said. "At the end, I didn't see lane two catching up on me, so I started slowing down. I thought I had second locked up, but I didn't."Chartiers Valley's Drew Damich was able to pull ahead of Shackleton down the stretch to secure silver at 4:33.20. His finish was .73 seconds ahead of Shackleton."I enjoy the competition," Shackleton said. "It really pushes me. I respect all of the guys that are here. I know all of them have the potential to drop a really fast swim, like the winner did, any time. It's just great to have those people to push me and to push each other."While he had personal goals a gold medal and a finish below 4:30 in the 500 free heading into the final day of the state meet, Shackleton isn't disappointed with the outing he put together at Bucknell."It definitely wasn't my best time by as much as I had hoped," Shackleton said. "You can't really argue with that. I still have chances to go faster. I wanted to go under 4:30, but I didn't quite get there. I think I went out a little too fast to get to that mark. But I'll have more opportunities in the future to lower my time."Shackleton, in fact, wasn't necessarily sure what his high school swimming future had in store as the end of the season winded down. He wanted to put together best times and earn gold at states, and he had thoughts of focusing solely on his club team.But now, even with two top six finishes in the state, Shackleton has his eyes set on returning as a senior with work still to be done. He's certainly up to the challenge that lies ahead."I wasn't exactly sure if I was going to come back, but I think after this year definitely [I will]," Shackleton said. "I figured if I were to win, and I were to get my goal times in both of the events, then I think I would've maybe just focused on club swimming."Butkus will be continuing her swimming career at Susquehanna University where she will swim for the varsity team and major in bio chemistry. The Tamaqua senior reached the B finals in both of her events over the weekend.After finishing 12th overall in the 50 freestyle on Friday, Butkus qualified for the B final in the 100 breast stroke on Saturday with a time of 1:08.21. In that final, Butkus improved on her preliminary time swimming a 1:08.07, finishing 13th overall. That 13th place bettered her original seed, which was 15th coming into the event."She had a really nice ending to her career at Tamaqua this weekend," said Tamaqua head coach Ashley Stanek. "She put together some of her fastest times ever against the best competition in the state, which is quite an accomplishment. Her hard work over the years has paid off and I can't even put into words what she has meant to this program. It was just nice to see her grow over the years.""The whole weekend was kind of bitter sweet for me knowing it would be my last time competing in high school, so I just tried to go out there and have fun," said Butkus. "I just want to thank all the people that have supported me throughout the years at Tamaqua and all the great teammates I've had. I really believe from my freshman year to now I've grown into a better student, swimmer, and person and I couldn't of done that without all the support I had."In the AA girls' team competition, Villa Maria Academy took the top spot with 220 points. Nazareth Academy (131 points) finished in second, and Southern Lehigh (130) wasn't far behind at third place.Mars Area earned first place amongst AA boys teams with 153 points. Trinity (134 points) and Salisbury (126) rounded out the top three teams.Brad Hurley contributed to this story.