Competitive swimming is all about dropping time. When swimmers are not getting faster, they feel like they're standing still.

Northwestern senior Trey Shackleton kept getting faster through three years of high school swimming, culminating this season when he finished his career with a second-place finish at states.

He might have been hoping to go a little bit faster in his final high school swim, but his second-place finish last month in the PIAA 500-yard freestyle championship was one place higher than he finished in his first two trips to states.

"Time-wise I feel like they weren't the greatest swims ever," said Shackleton. "But the way it all turned out in terms of place, it was great. It was such an enjoyable experienced. I relaxed this year an let it all happen."

In his third trip to states, held annually at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium, Shackleton earned two more states medals, a silver for the 500 freestyle and a bronze for fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle. He did that two weeks after earning a gold and silver at the Districts 11 championships.

Those performances resulted in his third straight TIMES NEWS Swimmer of the Year Award.

Shackleton's swimming career started around 10 years old at the Orchard View Swim Club in Schnecksville. He started swimming and training year round at an early age, joining the Parkland Area Aquatic Club for winter swimming. He started getting faster and as he did, he enjoyed the sport more and more.

"Right around when I was 12 or 13 years old I started really improving," he said. "When you start getting better at a sport it becomes more fun."

Because Northwestern doesn't have a pool or a swim team, Shackleton didn't swim in many high school meets during the regular season.

While he competed in meets all over the country for his club team, the high school meets held a special place.

Shackleton, who began swimming in high school meets during his sophomore season, earned a gold medal in his first District 11 championship race, the 200 freestyle back in 2013. He came from behind to win that race in 1:43.6. He also won the 500 freestyle that year in a district record time of 4:41.9

Since then he's continued to get faster. He swam another district record 500 as a junior (4:39.04).

His state-meet times also got lower each year. As a sophomore he swam the 500, his best event, in 4:37.77. As a junior he did it in 4:33.93. This year his time was 4:33.06 in the state final.

As he gets older and faster, it becomes more difficult, yet more satisfying to drop time.

"My freshman year I dropped 28 seconds in one year," he said. "This year I dropped even less time. The improvement is still there, but it's just harder to get faster."

Even with his place secure on a Division I college team, Shackleton continues to work hard and drop time. He will go on to Indiana University in fall, where he'll join one of the better team in the Big Ten. He could have gone to Michigan State and been one of the fastest swimmers on the team as soon as he got there. But he decided to go where his teammates will push him to become better. Even a better scholarship couldn't lure him away from the Hoosiers.

"I decided to forgo athletic money in order to improve and be the best I can be," said Shackleton, who will major in kinesiology with plans to eventually go to medical school.

But his shorter term goals are to see how fast he can get in college. As a club-team swimmer, he never had access to a pool for morning training. In Bloomington, he'll have world class facilities at his disposal.

"I feel like I have the potential to get a lot faster since I've never done morning practices," he said. "When I'm at Indiana I'll be doing morning practice every day. For a distance swimmer that's huge. I'm excited to see how much more time I can drop."

"I'm hoping by the end of freshman year I'll be on the Big Ten team."

While the setting might be changing, his work ethic in the pool never will.

"What sets me apart is my training," said Shackleton. "I'm doing the right training and I'm doing it the right way. That's what it comes down to in swimming whoever works harder."

Most high school swimmers train with their team in the morning and after school. Being from a school district that doesn't have a team, Shackleton would practice in the afternoons after the high school practices with many other non-pool swimmers and some that were part of high school teams.

Those are the people who have helped him keep getting faster over the years, and the people he will miss most when he moves on to college.

"People who say swimming is an individual sport have never had to train by themselves because it's so hard," he said. "I made so many friends in my swimming career. They're not going to be there."