Heading into the final of her two individuals events, Bethlehem Catholic's Sydnee Karam was eyeing a top-three finish in the 500-yard freestyle to go along with her bronze medal in the 200-yard freestyle.

And while the senior wasn't able to meet that goal, she did cap off a stellar high school season at the state swimming level.

Karam, after her third-place finish on Wednesday (the first day of the PIAA Swimming and Diving Class AA Championships), secured fifth place in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:04.48 at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium. That finish earned Karam yet another medal at states, the eighth of her career.

"I was expecting to get higher maybe at least a third," Karam said of the 500-yard freestyle. "The time I'm not really happy with. I was hoping for something faster.

"Overall, I placed eight out of eight times in my whole high school career at states. I'm happy with the overall big picture."

Two other Hawks participated in the state meet on Wednesday and Thursday. Jill Spirk finished 18th in the preliminary round of the 100-yard butterfly. Jarod Laselva earned eighth place and a medal in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 54.11 seconds.

Swimming in the A Final of the 500-yard freestyle, Karam remained in fifth place for much of the opening 200 yards. But as she regularly does in her dual meets, Karam turned up the pace in the middle of the race to move into third place after 250 yards.

But that pace eventually wore off, as Freeport's Bria Otwell and Octorara's Madison Oster edged Karam by nearly three seconds for third and fourth place, respectively. Highlands' Bailey Bonnett took first in a time of 4:52.89, followed by Twin Valley's Hannah Schlegel.

"That is what I usually try to do," Karam said. "In the 500, I'll try to increase my tempo, my hand speed, my kick and everything along those lines. I almost reached the point where I couldn't increase it anymore. I had a hard time picking up my pace.

"It didn't feel like it was a very pushed kind of swim. It felt very relaxed and held back. I couldn't get my tempo going as fast as I would've liked it to be. I think that definitely have a negative impact on my race overall."

Karam didn't even participate in the 500-yard freestyle last season, when she earned medals in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles.

On the first day of the meet, Karam was one of three swimmers that were neck-and-neck as they reached the finish line of the 200-yard freestyle. And while she came in third place in 1:51.86 . 15 seconds by first-place finisher Carson Cross of York Suburban she was much more pleased in her finish.

"I was happy with my time," Karam said. "I got out-touched by .1 for first place."

Quaker Valley finished with 174 points to capture the boys' team championship. Bloomsburg (140) and Trinity (122) finished second and third, respectively.

On the girls' side, Villa Maria Academy breezed to the championship with 267 team points. Gwynedd Mercy Academy (155) came in second, while York Suburban (131) placed third.