MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Williamsport's Evan Summers does the backstroke in the boys 200 IM during the Williamsport Coaches Invitational at Williamsport Saturday.

Ask any swimmer who competed at Saturday’s Williamsport Coaches Invite if they thought that type of atmosphere and event was beneficial in the long run, and the answer was an unequivocal yes.

Outstanding swimmers in lanes next to you, motivation to PR, fans being extremely loud in a district-like atmosphere. What else would a competitor want?

“There’s a lot of people here and obviously we don’t swim against these people at districts, but to see them now in this competitive environment and competition with all the different schools is nice,” Williamsport’s Kendall Cohick said. “You really get to push yourself here.”

Numerous swimmers hit PRs throughout various races and shaved time, which is at the perfect time of the season to do so as the District 4 championships are just two weeks away.

There’s too many swimmers to list each one, but a look at a handful who dropped time in various events:

• Central Mountain’s Ana Persun shaved eight seconds in the 200 free as she finished in first.

• Williamsport’s Keller Griswold shaved three seconds off his time in the 200 free for a second-place finish behind Lewisburg’s Mason Ordonez, who also dropped a second.

• All three top finishers shaved time in the girls 50 free including Jersey Shore’s Reese Charney (0.26 seconds) and Central Mountain’s Camryn Bair (0.43 seconds).

• Central Mountain’s Ana Persun dropped four seconds in the 100 fly and re-broke her own school record in the process with a time of 1:00.45.

• Central Mountain’s Abrianna Hosley shaved seven seconds and Williamsport’s Dylana Richards shaved four seconds in the 500 free.

• Williamsport’s Cal Hockman dropped a second in the 100 back to win the event and improved his time in the 50 free by nearly a quarter of a second.

• Central Mountain’s Jonathan Hughes shaved two seconds in the 100 breast and re-broke his own school record in 1:00.98.

• Williamsport’s Cooper Allmaras shaved three seconds in the 200 IM.-

I could go on and on.

“It’s 100% beneficial. There’s much more competition at invites and the ability to warm down after you swim and have a little bit more time after events definitely helps,” Bair said.

In the 200 medley relay, Williamsport’s foursome of Hockman, Parker Johnson, Keller Griswold and Brady Ross swam a 1:40.40, which was not only good enough for first place but broke the school record by 0.21 seconds. That competition swimming against Central Columbia, Bloomsburg and Central Mountain helped contribute to that record-setting performance.

“It gets us in the mindset of what we have to do and where we have to be mentally. It’s just great swims by everyone,” Hockman said. “A lot of us PR’d today. It’s just being able to practice and swim in meet suit, it feels great. It always feels great to get a PR.”

And while the competition itself helps motivate and push everyone, the atmosphere and being at Williamsport gives it an extra advantage of being the same site as districts. Just ask Lewisburg’s Kimmy Shannon, a six-time District 4 champion and six-time state medalist.

“Especially since it’s at Williamsport and just kind of getting a feel for the pool and being able to race against a bunch of girls who are going to be at districts anyways is also super helpful,” Shannon said. “I think the event is a little bigger than most invites anyways, because you’re getting toward the end of the season and kids want to see what they’re able to do (in different events).

“So the environment is just a little bit different, so yeah, I like going to this meet.”

Ask any swimmer who competed Saturday, and they’ll tell you they like going to that meet as well.

Jon Gerardi is the sports editor at the Sun-Gazette. Email comments to jgerardi@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JonGerardi.