LEWISBURG — Another day, another chance for Michael and Lydia Strucko to bring home more state medals.

One day after the Marian Catholic siblings captured silver medals at the PIAA Class AA Swimming Championships, they were back at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, eager to return to the podium.

Michael, a senior, qualified for Saturday’s championship finals in the boys’ 100-yard backstroke after strong swims in he morning preliminaries. His performance basically guaranteed the District 11 standout a second state medal this weekend to go with the ones he earned in previous years.

Michael recorded the second fastest prelim time (50:03) among the boys in the event. He trailed only Erie Cathedral Prep’s Jack Raimy (50:03), but was ahead of top-seeded Owen Eisenhofer, of Schuylkill Valley. Eisenhofer was clocked in 50:36.

Meanwhile, Lydia was expected to return to the finals in the girls’ 100 backstroke later Saturday. She was seeded second based on her winning time of 55.68 seconds at the district meet. Mahanoy Area’s Lily Brown also competed in the preliminaries of the same event after earning an at-large berth for states.

On Friday, Michael and Lydia finished runnerup in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly, respectively. Only the top seeds in those finished ahead of the Struckos.

In Michael’s case, his finals time of 1:40.56 was a full second faster than his swim in the morning prelims. But he still couldn’t catch Eisenhofer, who won the gold medal in 1:37.20.

Both Struckos finished with the second fastest times during the preliminary heats of their respective events, easily earning them spots in the finals later on Friday.

Seeded third overall, Michael swam his heat in the boys’ 200-yard free in 1:41.56, shaving more than a second off his time of 1:43.28 from his gold medal-winning effort at last month’s District 11 meet. Eisenhofer was the only swimmer faster than Strucko during the morning prelims, though Eisenhofer’s time of 1:40.99 was slightly off his qualifying mark of 1:37.93 from the District 3 competition.

Meanwhile, Lydia Strucko made her No. 2 seed in the girls’ 100 butterfly hold. Her prelim time of 56.53 seconds was a tad better than the 57.49 she recorded while capturing her district gold medal and fast enough to start the finals with the second quickest time. Sheets touched first in the prelims in 54.39.

In the finals, Lydia was clocked in an even faster 56.01 seconds. Hampton’s Lainey Sheets was the race winner in 54 seconds flat, earning her a place on the National Federation High School Honor Roll.

In Saturday’s 100 breaststroke, two-time District 11 champion Savannah Wilson, of Tamaqua, was poised to show why she entered as one of that event’s top seeds. At No. 3, she was in a great positionto reach the finals and bring home a state emdal.

Later, the Lady Raiders’ 400 freestyle relay team of Janna Brown, Behun, Wilson and Shaylee Gormley attempted to cap its season with strong showing in the final preliminary race of the four-day PIAA meet.

Swimmers with the eight fastest times in the prelims advanced to the championships. Those with the next eight fastest times competed in the consolation finals.

For updates on how local swimmers fared at the PIAA meet, please visit standardspeaker.com.