For a school that doesn’t have a pool or a swim team, Northwestern has had more than its share of success in the high school swimming ranks this year.

Several Tiger swimmers and one diver qualified for districts independently by competing in dual meets between other schools. Three of them performed well enough at the district championships to advance to the state championships, held last week at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.

All three made some type of final in an event last week and one even returned with a state medal.

Junior diver Hayden Slaski finished two places away from the podium last year when he was 10th overall at the state meet.

A seventh-place finish with a score of 375.0 this year earned the Tiger sophomore a state medal.

“I’ve dove better in the past,” he said. “But with all the nerves and stuff at states, you can’t expect to be on you’re A game. I’m just happy I was able to podium.”

Slaski was in sixth place after prelims (six dives), and was battling Tunkhannock’s River Strauss and Shamokin’s Ryan Henz for fifth-to-seventh place.

Slaski had his best and favorite dives in the beginning of his rotation to secure his spot in the semifinals and finals. Cuts are made after the fifth and eighth dives. Finalists dive 11 times during the meet.

“I like my first five,” Slaski said. “All of them were pretty good dives, pretty solid. It didn’t fall apart after that, but I started not doing as well.

“I wanted to get at least 400. I got 375 so we were close. And then fifth place was ultimately my goal, but I got top 8, so I can’t complain about that.”

Tiger senior Hunter Slaski qualified for states in two events and reached the consolation finals in both. Swimmers at states compete in preliminary heats to see which 16 swimmers advance to finals. The top eight prelim times go on to the championship finals, while the next eight swim in a consolation final, often called the B final.

Hunter Slaski reached the B final in the 200-yard freestyle where he finished 11th overall. In the 100 butterfly he swam a 52.74 in prelim, which was the ninth-fastest time and just .12 away from reaching the championship final. He swam a 53.19 in the B final to finish 16th.

Northwestern freshman Olivia Wozniak competed in her first state championship meet last week and tied for 13th in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.33, and was 24th in 2:18.41 in the 200 individual medley.