For someone that didn't begin swimming on the high school scene until his sophomore season, Northwestern senior Trey Shackleton has produced quite a successful career.

Shackleton, who swims on the Parkland Aquatic Team year round, missed the opportunity at competing at the PIAA swimming meet as a freshman due to a large number of club meets.

But last week, Shackleton made the most of his last state trip and closed the door on his high school swimming career in an emphatic way.

After finishing fourth in the 200-yard freestyle event on Wednesday, the first day of the PIAA Swimming and Diving Class AA Championships, Shackleton earned silver in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:33.06 last Thursday at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium.

It was Shackleton's fifth and sixth state medals of his high school career.

"Years ago when I first started swimming, I never thought I would be at this level," Shackleton, who will swim at Indiana University next year, said. "To have improved this much, it feels really great. Going out of my high school career on the top of my game, it feels really awesome."

Shackleton found himself in a similar position to last year in the 500-yard freestyle. From the first 50 yards, Shackleton fell behind West Allegheny's Jarod Kehl, the senior who won last season's 500-yard freestyle.

Much like last season, Shackleton was never able to catch up to Kehl. He remained in second place for virtually the entire race, and held off Manheim Central's Matthew Daniel to take the silver medal by .59 seconds.

"I'm really glad that I could improve on my place from last year," said Shackleton, who finished third in last season's 500-yard freestyle at states. "Last year I was in position for silver, and then at the end of the race I lost it to someone and ended up with bronze."

"My goal was to go 4:29 and get under 4:30 for the first time. Sometimes that just doesn't work out. It was still a good race for me."

In the 200-yard freestyle, Shackleton's chance at a gold medal came up just short. His time of 1:42.86, which landed him a fourth-place position on the podium, was nearly two seconds off gold-medalist Mahlon Reihman of Salisbury.

"I wasn't as fast as I feel I could have been," Shackleton said, "but I'm happy with that race as well."

Nicole Sagl, a senior at Allentown Central Catholic and resident of Northwestern, competed at the state level as well.

A year after finishing in third place in the girls' 1-meter diving event, Sagl finished fourth last week with a score of 410.60. She was in second place after the semifinals with 293.05 points.

Quaker Valley scored 174 points to win the boys' Class AA team championship. Bloomsburg (140) and Trinity (122) rounded out the top three finishers.

Villa Maria Academy ran away with the girls' team title with 267 points. Gwynedd Mercy Academy (155) and York Suburban (131) finished second and third, respectively.