Five athletes from the Times News area will be travelling Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium to compete against the state of Pennsylvania's elite at the 2015 PIAA Swimming Championships.

The Class AA competition will take place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.Northwestern's Trey Shackleton, Northern Lehigh's Jose Avila, and Marian Catholic's Timmy Dando will all be competing in the 500 freestyle, while Shackleton will also compete in the 200 free. For the females, Marian's Katie Kurzinsky is in the 100 backstroke, while Tamaqua junior Rebecca Kanaskie will be participating in the 200 IM and the 100 breast stroke.The highest seed among the locals is Northwestern senior Trey Shackleton, who takes experience and familiarity to the pool, in his attempt to improve upon past years' successes.Already committed to continue his swimming career at Indiana University, Shackleton finished third at States in his sophomore and junior years in the 500 free. Last year, he finished in the top six in the 200 free, as well.The 2014 TIMES NEWS Swimmer of the Year is hoping that everything "clicks" this time around, as he enters two events seeded third. In the 200, Shackleton's seed time of 1:43.75 is just hundredths of a second behind the top seed, Mahlon Reihman, of Salisbury. Reihman outlasted Shackleton at the District 11 championships just over a week ago, touching the wall with a clocking of 1:43.46. However, Shackleton sees plenty of room for improvement, and hopes that this time around, there will be a different result."(At Districts) our main objective was just to advance to the State Meet," Shackleton's Parkland Aquatic Club coach Ryan Woodruff said. "I really think he has potential to be much faster at States. We definitely weren't rested for the District meet and he didn't quite swim the race he wanted."The Tiger's forte remains the 500 freestyle, the longest race of the meet.In the 500, Shackleton is taking his third-seeded time of 4:41.25 up against top-seeded Manheim Central junior Matthew Daniel (4:36.02), and West Allegheny senior Jarod Kehl (4:36.30). Shackleton remained somewhat unchallenged at the District Meet and perhaps coasted at times. However, the adrenaline, coupled with the higher level of competition, will be a guaranteed motivator."At Districts, coach was telling me to kind of relax at the beginning, so that I could have a strong finish to the race," Shackleton said. "I really wasn't carrying my momentum through the walls as much as I could have, either. That kind of went to the wayside, as I got further into the race."Also, without sounding conceited, given the lack of competition, I was kind of far ahead of everyone, so it was hard to push myself. At states, I'm obviously going to try and win it. Whatever my time gets me, in terms of a medal, I'll be happy with. But, I'm just going to try and go as fast of a time as I can, and hopefully, I can go under 4:30. That's my goal."At districts, Northern Lehigh's Jose Avila, a junior who competes and trains with Shackleton as part of the PAAC team, finished in second place in the 500 freestyle and has qualified for the State Meet. Also in the same event, Marian Catholic sophomore Timmy Dando finished in third and turned in fast enough of a time to make the cut for the State Meet, as well.Avila is seeded 22nd, while Dando is 31st.Another Marian sophomore, District 11 champion Katie Kurzinsky will be continuing her season in the 100 backstroke, entering the field at Bucknell with a 10-seeded time of 59.65, four seconds behind the top-seeded Allie Szekely of Gwynedd-Mercy Academy (55.57). Kurzinsky has also been competing recently in her YMCA's post-season, and hopes that the continuous competition keeps her in top form for this meet."I'm absolutely ready for States," Kurzinsky said. "I'm nervous, but excited."Another multiple-event qualifier is Tamaqua's Rebecca Kanaskie, who will be 15th in the 200 IM and 13th in the 100 Breast stroke.The constant perfectionist, who finished second in both events at districts, Kanaskie realized that there is plenty to improve upon, as the big meet approaches."I kind of botched my last turn in the IM (at districts)," Kanaskie said. "So I'm hoping I can improve upon that."