OREFIELD - Every athlete, regardless of the sport, wants to win gold.
Tamaqua senior Joann Butkus - and the rest of her Blue Raiders teammates - proved that silver is not too shabby at Saturday's District 11 Class AA Swimming Championships at Parkland High School.
Butkus collected four silver medals during the two-day competition after placing second by 14-hundreths of a second in the 100 breaststroke and anchoring Tamaqua's 400 freestyle relay to a runner-up finish in 3:45.34.
Those two finishes proved to be critical when the Blue Raiders surged past Moravian Academy to capture the District 11 Class AA runner-up team trophy with 220 points. Southern Lehigh won the overall title with 514 points.
"Winning the team silver is phe-
nomenal," Butkus said. "We came into this not even expecting it or focusing on it. We didn't even know we were a contender for it until yesterday.
"Everyone on the team did their best, and you can't be upset with that."
Butkus entered the weekend looking to win her first district gold medal. In her three previous trips to Parkland, Butkus had collected two silvers, six bronze and a fourth-place medal - and placed fifth in the other three events.
In one of those fifth-place finishes - the 100 freestyle her sophomore season - her time was good enough to earn an at-large berth to states. Despite not winning an event at districts, Butkus had qualified for states in two events all three years.
Friday, Butkus nearly won the 50 freestyle, finishing 17-hundreths of a second behind Southern Lehigh's Jenna Forrester, and helped the Blue Raiders to a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay.
Saturday, Butkus led Southern Lehigh's Raechel Rodriguez through 75 yards in the 100 breaststroke, an event she swam for the first time at districts. Rodriguez surged over the final half of the last lap, out-touching Butkus 1:07.43 to 1:07.58.
"I've won so many races in my career by a margin of just hundreths. Now, for the past four years at these bigger meets, that's how I've been losing races," Butkus said.
"It does hurt a little bit that I never quite got district gold, but I find it just as satisfying qualifying for states through the at-large berth, because I feel that's really saying something to be among the top 16 times in the state.
"Of course, it would be nice to have a gold around my neck, but there's nothing wrong with silver."
Butkus has swam the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle over the past three years, and decided to try breaststroke this season. She felt her lack of experience in the race might have cost her over the final lap against Rodriguez, the 2012 district champ.
"I was really nervous swimming the breaststroke this year, being that was never really a race that I've swam in the postseason before and I never really swam during the season, only a handful of times," Butkus said.
"I didn't know when I 'die' during my race how I was going to make up for that in my swim. In the freestyle I know how to do it, in the fly I know how to do, in the breaststroke I wasn't sure how to do it.
"That last lap, I felt myself getting really, really tired. I was completely dead. Rather than keeping my stroke long and gliding, I started shortening my stroke to keep my hips from sinking and kind of fighting myself in the water. She swam this last year, and she had the experience."
Tamaqua's Rebecca Kanaskie was fourth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.04, giving the freshman four medals in her first trip to districts. Miranda Amey, Danielle DeCindio, Kanaskie and Butkus comprised the Raiders' 400 freestyle relay team.
Other female medalists Saturday included Marian's Katie Kurzinsky, third in the 100 backstroke (1:02.53), Schuylkill Haven's Allison Adams, fourth in the 100 backstroke (school record 1:02.76) and Schuylkill Haven's 400 freestyle relay team of Elizabeth Bayliff, Taylor Felty, Mary Zimmerman and Adams, fourth in school-record 3:48.52.
Adams finished with four medals - two bronze, two fourths - for the Hurricanes. Zimmerman broke school records in the 200 freestyle (2:01.02) and 500 freestyle (5:31.34), while Haven's 200 freestyle relay team set a school mark by placing third Friday in 1:42.78.
Kurzinsky combined with fellow freshman Timmy Dando (fourth in boys' 500 freestyle) to give Marian two medalists on the same day.
"It's exciting. I'm just so happy," Kurzinsky said. "I worked for this all season. I just wanted to get up on the podium and to do my best.
"It's exciting that Marian is representing again. It shows that we're small, but we're mighty."