Leigh Waltz of Dallastown and Lyndsey Dickson of Eastern York just missed leaving the 2009 PIAA State Swimming and Diving Championships with medals.

The first eight finishers in each event earn the lifetime keepsakes. Waltz placed ninth in Girls' Class AAA Diving and Dickson finished in the exact spot in Girls' Class AA diving.

Fortunately for both, they'll have another chance to climb the podium at states. The 2010 championships will take place Wednesday through Saturday at Bucknell University.

The Class AAA portion of the meet is set for Wednesday and Thursday, and the Class AA part is listed for Friday and Saturday.

Dickson will enter seeded fifth in AA, one spot ahead of another York Countian, Courtney Gress of Dover. Waltz is seeded 15th in Class AAA, but she's been having a terrific season, so a jump to the top eight is definitley not out of the question.

Dickson and Gress are among a handful of York-Adams League swimmers and divers who are seeded among the first eight in a particular event.

Delone Catholic's Andrea Staub earned the highest seed, No. 2 in the Girls' Class AA 200 individual medley. Staub, competing as an independent since her school doesn't sponsor a swimming program, is also seeded fourth in the 100 butterfly. Staub was second in the IM and third in the 500 freestyle at the 2009 state championships.

Dallastown's Julie Brown is seeded fourth in the Girls' Class AAA 50 freestyle with a time of 24.11 seconds. Brown, though, has gone faster this year. She put up a :23.99 effort in winning the York-Adams League title. The senior could be in the hunt for a gold, silver or bronze medal.

Red Lion's Morgan Pfaff and West York's Brad Strathmeyer are the only other York-Adams swimmers to have top 10 seeds. Pfaff is sixth in the Girls' Class AAA 200 IM, and Strathmeyer is 10th in the Boys' Class AA 100 butterfly.

Pfaff's seeded time, from her performance at the District 3 Meet, is 2:07.28. She covered the distance two seconds faster at the York-Adams meet.

The district meet, is of course, a huge one. However, it's not the state meet, which attracts the best of the best in high school swimming from throughout Pennsylvania.

Spurred on by capacity crowds at Kinney Natatorium, swimmers at states often turn in some remarkable performance.

Records are usually broken, although it's very unlikely there will be as many record-breaking performances at states this year as there was last year, when 22 of 44 standards were rewritten.

The talent certainly had something to do with that, but a lot of people also felt the high-tech swimsuits played a role, too.

The full-body suits on display last year won't be around this year. The new PIAA rules specify that the guys' body coverage can't go above the waist or below the top of the kneecaps, and girls' coverage can't go beyond the shoulders or below the top of the kneecaps.

Dick VanOlinda covers high school sports for The York Dispatch. He can be reached at dvanolin da@yorkdispatch.com or 505-5407.