Rachel Kimmel grabs JB's second PIAA medal

For the second day in a row, a James Buchanan girls swimmer got to climb the podium at the PIAA Class 2A Swimming Championships.

Despite swimming slower than her seed time, Rachel Kimmel earned the Rockets' second state medal with a seventh-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.

"It was a little under a second from her best time, so it wasn't that much of a time drop," JB coach Lori McCullough said. "It was very challenging, and she fought for the team she ended up getting. It was just incredible giving her a medal and seeing her on the podium."

Kimmel said, "It's pretty great that I medaled and got seventh, but I was hoping for a better time. I struggled with my tempo at the beginning of the race; it wasn't like my other races.

After a conservative start, Kimmel finished in 1:05.65. McCullough said it was incredibly fast heat of breaststrokers, and that added to level of difficulty Kimmel faced.

"You could tell in the first 25 that her timing was a little bit off, but she really fought for it," McCullough said.

Kimmel joined Annabelle McCullough as a medalist for the Rockets, and as both are just juniors, there's high expectations for next year.

"They're already saying they can't wait for next year, and that's a great attitude to have," McCullough said. "They're already talking about how they can get faster, and really, we scored pretty high for only have five swimmers at states. A lot of really good things came out of it."

Kimmel said, "We all gave it our best shot, and it was our first time there, so that was definitely great. I'm really looking forward to next year. Our plan is to drop time going into states next year and place again."

McCullough was 20th in the 100 freestyle on Friday, as well, with a time of 53.99. On the boys side, Nick Garbinski was 23rd in the 100 freestyle (48.40).

Sam Nonemaker had the best finish of the day for Shippensburg. He dropped nearly a second from his seed time in the 500 free to clock in at 4:54.21, good enough for 20th.

Also for the Lady Hounds, Makenna Morris was 23rd in the 500 freestyle (5:21.31), followed by Madison Osanitsch in 26th (5:22.54).