Like most great athletes, Salisbury junior Phoebe Ballek thrives on competition.
As a sophomore in 2024 she won a state medal. Last week in her third trip to the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships, Ballek came up a couple places short of a medal, but enjoyed the competition just the same.
“I’ll take a fun race over a medal any day,” she said Saturday after finishing 10th in the 500-yard breastroke.
A year earlier Ballek placed seventh in the same event. Last week her time in the prelimnary heats didn’t get her into the championship final, meaning her chances of earning another state medal were gone.
Her time of 5:18.41 in the preliminaries was good enough to earn a place in the consolation final, where she led most of the race before Sharon’s Allison Hegwood pulled ahead at the end.
Ballek swam the final in 5:16.37.
“I really enjoyed being so ahead in the B final,” Ballek said. “I thought that was a fun race. I got second. I got out-touched by this girl in lane 1. I was ahead for most of the race, so I’ll take second place.”
Ballke had extra motivation for the 500 last Thursday. She had competed in the 200 freestyle, where she was seeded 16th at 1:58.32. She swam a 2:01.89 in the 200 prelim at states last Wednedsay for 25rd place overall.
“I was not very happy with my 200 free, not really where I wanted to be with that,” she said. “I came back in the 500 and I gave it my all.”
Ballek was one of two Falcon swimmers who compted at states last week.
Fellow junior Olivia Amorim was seeded 24th in the 200 freestyle at 2:00.69. She raced to a 2:00.95 at states for 21st place.
Amorim was also the 24th seed in 100-yard breaststroke at 1:08.94. She swam that event in 1:10.09 at states to move up one place from her seeding and finish 23rd overall.
Both Falcon swimmers will look to return to Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, the site of the annual meet, next year as they cap stellar four-year high school swimming careers with a big senior season.
“Senior year I’m going to go crazy,” said Ballek with a grin.