If you had to pick just one race to see at the District 11 Swimming Championships last weekend at Parkland High School, the likely pick would have been the boys 100 freestyle.

The third heat of that event matched Salisbury’s Mahlon Reihman against his friend and rival Gabe Castano of Central Catholic. Reihman and Castano are good friends, who both swim for the Parkland Aquatic Club, making them both teammates and rivals in the sport.

Reihman came into the event, having won gold in each of the past two years, with Castano coming in second in those races. Both swimmers have won gold at states, with Reihman being a three-time state champion and Castano capturing gold in the 50 freestyle last year in states.

In the latest installment of their story, they showed just why swimming doesn’t leave determining the winner to the naked eye. The two seniors finished just .02 seconds apart, with Reihman winning the gold to secure a spot in states. Not surprisingly, Castano also got a spot in states based on his time, with the two friends seeded first and second for the 100 freestyle championships at Bucknell University next week.

“It’s that extra push for both of us, when you get super-psyched, and then you see that this kid, this friend, this teammate, this rival of mine is directly to my left or to my right,” said Reihman. “It’s a big push, but there’s no animosity when someone wins, because you know you’re both going to swim great times and you’ve pushed each other in the weight room and in practice. I don’t think either of us would be where we are today without the rivalry.”

Reihman had kept up a rather rigorous training schedule coming into districts rather than laying back a bit to prepare for the event with tapering and shaving. Instead, he’s saving that for states, where he plans on taking his high school career out on a high note before he heads off to Harvard in the fall.

The training schedule, which was also followed by teammate and fellow senior Daniel Bonge, didn’t interrupt Reihman’s achievements at all, and it also didn’t stop Reihman and Bonge from joining forces to help the 200 medley relay team break a district record in their pursuit of gold at states.

In the relay, Salisbury took an astounding 12 seconds off its best time in the event to set a new district record time of 1:38.16, locking up a spot in states, where the foursome will be seeded third in the event.

“Nobody expected that,” said Reihman. “We didn’t expect to be anywhere close to that time. We had everyone nail the splits that we needed to go and I think that’s exciting to see, because it’s just two seconds off the state winning time last year.

“Considering that some of us weren’t even rested, it’s going to be interesting to see where we can go at the big meet.”

“They weren’t really focused on districts,” said Salisbury coach Patrick O’Connor. “We thought that they could keep working and get their spots in states and then push to do big things at Bucknell, so that’s the approach that they chose to take. It worked for districts and I think they’ll be very strong heading to states.”

Reihman also won gold in the 200 freestyle at districts and he is the top seed in that event at states. While the 400 freestyle relay team, which also features Reihman and Bonge, is seeded third at states after collecting gold in the event at districts, just missing a district record in that event.

For Reihman, the PIAA Championships will be his last high school meet and he doesn’t want to be shutout of any medal opportunities that he and his relay teams have at Bucknell.

“I’m super happy,” he said. “I don’t think that I could have asked for more. Coming into this race, we were tired, not rested, not shaved, and this is really the preface to the big things to come at states.

“Two more weeks of putting in the work and then it all comes down to the race.”