Athens Boys' 400 Free Relay Punches Ticket To States; Boys Place Third, Girls Fifth At Districts
By: Tim Birney / February 27, 2026
WILLIAMSPORT - Athens juniors Brayden Pettitt, Eli Hicks, Dominic Musick and Eli Hicks punched their ticket to States here Thursday night with a gold-medal effort in the 400-yard freestyle relay here at Day 2 of the District 4 Boys Swimming Championships at Williamsport High School.
The Wildcats placed third in the Class AA standings with 258 points. Danville won the team title with 279 points, while Bloomsburg was second with 266, Central Columbia was fourth with 216, and Mifflinburg was fifth with 216.
The Athens junior quartet won the District 4 title in the 400 free relay in a time of 3:23.42 - nearly 4 1/2 seconds faster than runner-up Danville (3:27.83).
The Wildcats will now have to wait until wild cards - based on times - are handed out next week to see if there will be more state qualifiers.
Read more on Valley Sports Report.
About the Author
Tim Birney
Tim Birney is the founder / owner of River Road Media Group. He was born and raised in the Valley, graduating from Waverly High School in 1984.
Birney earned an Associate's Degree in Journalism from SUNY Morrisville in 1986 and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism / Public Relations from Utica College of Syracuse University in 1988. He began his newspaper career at The Daily Review in Towanda in 1989, before moving on to The Evening Times in 1995. He spent more than 10 years at the Times, the last four as Managing Editor.
River Road Media Group includes five sites in "The Sports Reports" family that cover 24 school districts in five counties: Valley Sports Report (launched Aug. 10, 2009), Tioga County (NY) Sports Report (Aug. 13, 2018), and Northern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 31, 2020); Northern Tier West Sports Report (March 15, 2021) Southern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 16, 2021).
