PIAA SWIMMING: Chambersburg's Abby Stauffer earns PIAA silver medal

LEWISBURG >> Abby Stauffer remembered her first trip to Bucknell University for the PIAA Class AAA swimming championships.

The Chambersburg senior has come a long way since being disqualified in the 200 individual medley as a freshman.

On Friday, Stauffer entered the finals as the second seed and swam with Mid Penn rival Vivi Tafuto of Hershey for much of the race, until the breaststroke portion.

Although Tafuto won with a time of 2:01.09, Stauffer was thrilled with her personal best time of 2:02.52 – and her silver medal. In fact, she was all smiles coming off the podium with the shiny hardware around her neck.

"It is a privilege to race against her. I know she's so good in the breaststroke," Stauffer said of Tafuto. "I am happy she won if I didn't."

After finishing second to Tafuto at the District 3 meet two weeks ago, the states swim capped a terrific career for Stauffer, who will swim at Duquesne University next season.

It also showed an incredible improvement as she went from the initial disqualification to the consolation finals as a sophomore, to the fourth-place medal she won her junior season.

"Now getting second is a testament to how hard I worked," she said.

Trojan girls coach Donnie Miller said, "Abby did a wonderful job. She had a good swim in the morning, then stepped up to the challenge and improved her time by nearly a second. She really swam hard and finished fast. I could see that she wasn't going to settle for anything less than her best, and a second-place finish is an excellent way to end her 200 IM career in high school."