It usually takes the swim of a career to win a PIAA championship. For Moon senior Zina Grogg, one of the worst swims of her career would have to suffice.

Grogg entered her feature event, the 100-yard butterfly, as the top seed Wednesday at the PIAA Class AAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University.

She was runner-up in the event a year ago but came into this PIAA meet with momentum after winning the WPIAL title two weeks ago.

"The swim was one of my worst ever, I probably swallowed three gallons of water on my third lap," Grogg said.

She still managed to out-touch her closest opponent, Yurie Nakano of Hershey, to win the gold. Her gold medal was the second of the day for the WPIAL.

Earlier, Franklin Regional senior diver Samantha Pickens completed a clean sweep of PIAA championships in Class AAA girls' diving by capping her career with her fourth gold medal. She is the first Class AAA diver to claim four consecutive golds.

The WPIAL girls' team champion, North Allegheny, finished with two third-place relay finishes in the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.

North Allegheny sophomore Allie Pennetti had one of the busiest days, swimming in both relays and winning the consolation final of the 50 freestyle to finish ninth in the state.

The North Allegheny boys' spent a lot of time on the podium as well.

North Allegheny senior Jonathan Buerger improved on his third-place finish a year ago season to win the 200 freestyle.

In the next event, his younger brother, sophomore Matthew Buerger, turned in a second-place finish in the 200 individual medley.

The older Buerger would return to lead off North Allegheny's gold-medal 200-freestyle relay to cap the night.

After one day, the North Allegheny boys, the defending team PIAA champions held first with 127 points.

Other local winners included Upper St. Clair junior Kyle Dudzinski, who won the gold medal in the 100 butterfly, his new event, to go along with the gold medal he won a year ago at the PIAA meet in the 100 backstroke.

The Mt. Lebanon boys left with three bronze medals, Sam Wilshire finished third in the 100 butterfly, Sho Sugmito placed in the 50 freestyle and the Mt. Lebanon 200 freestyle relay also finished third.

The Class AAA portion of the meet concludes today.

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