The number one rule to sibling rivalry is that a younger brother is not supposed to show up his older brother.

When Hayden Slaski won gold at the District 11 Diving championships late last month, Hunter Slaski knew that gold was the only option for him when the swimming championships rolled around this past weekend at Parkland High School.

“He was one of the biggest motivators for me today,” said the elder of the Slaski brothers, who is a junior at Northwestern Lehigh, after he won gold in the 100-yard butterfly. “He put a lot of pressure on me to get something today and I just thought all right, I have to do this.”

While the brothers are competitive, the rivalry is friendly, and they are motivation for each other.

“I was really happy for him when he won gold because I know he works hard, and he really did a great job,” said Hunter Slaski, who later added a silver medal with a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle. “Now we get to go to states together and that’s going to be a lot of fun.”

While only gold medal winners are guaranteed a spot in the PIAA meet later this month, Slaski was one of the silver medalists who earned an at-large bid into the 200 freestyle championships based on his time compared to other swimmers from across the state.

The trip to states will be the first for the two brothers, who train and compete with the Parkland team because Northwestern does not have a pool or a swim team. While their scores do not count toward Parkland’s team totals in dual meets, they can set qualifying times for districts, which puts them in a position to earn a spot at states.

Another Northwestern Lehigh swimmer, junior Aidan Braadt, won silver in the 100-yard breaststroke, but his time of 1:06.32 was not fast enough to qualify for an at-large bid. Braadt finished just under two seconds off the pace set by Blue Mountain’s Christian Fisher in the breaststroke.

The 2A swimming and diving competitions for states will be held March 15-16 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.