BLOOMSBURG - A bee flaps its wings twice in a hundredth of a second.
It takes six times that long for an eye to blink naturally.
And the average 500-yard freestyle event is made up of thousands of hundreths of a second.
But Line Mountain's Michelle Giordani needed just one-hundredth (.01) of a second to edge Danville's Lexi Cole for first place in the 500 at Saturday's District 4 championship at Bloomsburg University.
Giordani burst onto the scene as a freshman three years ago and had the entire pool at Bloomsburg University talking about her two golds.
With a scintillating finish in the meet's longest event, Giordani had fans and competitors buzzing again.
The Line Mountain senior finished her district career by replicating her freshman meet with gold medals in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events.
The wins qualify her for the PIAA meet in both events, to be held at Bucknell University starting March 5.
Coming up through as a sprinter, the 500 was a new addition to Giordani's program.
"My coach felt that since I do the 200 it would be better to train with the distance group," Giordani said after having a fresh gold medal hung around her neck. "I think I'm better now at distance."
The race started with Giordani in the lead through the first 14 laps of the 20-lap race, and Danville's Cole right in Giordani's pocket for every stroke, every turn.
Then over the course of the last six laps, Cole caught up to and passed Giordani.
That's when it really became a race.
"I was trying to stay ahead from the beginning of the race," Giordani said. "About the last 150, I saw her slowly catching up, and by the last 50 she was a little bit ahead of me. At that point, I was thinking I need to win. I went that far, so I need to finish it."
The two were neck and neck heading into the last five yards, with Giordani getting the slight advantage with her touch of the electronic timing board.
"I thought of the last part of the 500 as a sprint race," Giordani said. "Last year, I swam the 100 free so I thought of my last 100 like the 100 free and went as fast as I could, and it worked out."
Her winning time of 5 minutes, 13.42 seconds was more than nine seconds faster than her best time all season.
Giordani's other gold medal was much less contested.
She took the lead from the start of the 200 and slowly edged forward until she was able to cruise through the last 50 yards and win by more than a length with a time of 1:57.15.
Shamokin and Mount Carmel girls swimmers also participated in the district meet with Mount Carmel's Rachel Fletcher earning a pair of 12th place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly and 500-yard free. Shamokin's top individual swimmer was Emily Bridy, who won finished 12th in the 200 free.
District 4 Swimming Championships
Girls
200 medley relay - 1. Central Coumbia 1:50.44, 9. Mount Carmel, 10. Shamokin; 200 free - 1. M. Giordani (Line Mountain) 1:57.15, 12. Noelle Erickson (Shamokin); 200 IM - 1. Kelsey Williams (Danville) 2:11.05, 17. Emily Bridy (Shamokin); 50 free - 1. Katie Salosky (Central Columbia) 23.89, 19. Cathy Fletcher (Mount Carmel), 21. Maria Bielski (Shamokin), 23. Steph Hile (Shamokin), 27. Nicole Fiamoncini (Mount Carmel); 100 butterfly - 1. Maggie Storm (Lewisburg) 59.92, 12. Rachel Fletcher (Mount Carmel), 14. Noelle Erickson (Shamokin), 19. Emily Bridy (Shamokin), 21. Nicole Fiamoncini (Mount Carmel); 100 free - 1. Adrianna Grabski (Mifflinburg) 52.83, 21. Cathy Fletcher (Mount Carmel); 500 free - 1. Michelle Giordani (Line Mountain) 5:13.42, 21. Cathy Fletcher (Mount Carmel); 200 free relay - 1. , 8. Shamokin, 9. Mount Carmel; 100 backstroke - 1. Kelsey Williams (Danville) 58.31, 15. Hilary Feudale (Shamokin), 17. Kayleen Klemas (Mount Carmel); 100 breaststroke - 1. Nicole Brunozzi (Central Columbia) 1:08.21, 15. Lauren Giordani (Line Mountain), 19. Amy Besser (Mount Carmel), 21. Molly McDevitt (Shamokin);400 free relay - 1. Lewisburg 3:45.14, 8. Shamokin, 11. Mount Carmel.