District 11 diving concluded last weekend, and swimmers jumped into the pool on Friday for the first of four sessions.
Among local schools, the Saucon Valley girls team finished the opening session in second place in the team competition, while Moravian Academy took second place among the boys.
The women's 50-yard freestyle was the closest contest of the day, with Saucon Valley's Julia Cote having a strong performance, defeating Notre Dame Green Pond's Donja Tripp by just 0.02 seconds to win the gold medal. The bronze medal went to Blue Mountain's Victoria Elex, who helped the Eagles lead in team scores after the first session.
“I knew that the girl who won last year had graduated. So I've really worked hard for this and practiced a lot. I'm always ready to bring it,” she said of last year's 50 points. said Cote, who won silver in the freestyle. . “There was definitely a lot of competition and it was a close game, so I’m glad we made the extra effort because I think that made the difference.”
Court was the only gold medalist for the Panthers in this session, but their depth and ability to score points with multiple finishers in their events made the difference. They will enter the second day of the team game with a 224-144 loss to Blue Mountain.
Moravian Academy won its only individual medal in the boys' 200-yard IM, with Oliver Ritchie beating Allentown Central Catholic's Gavin Mahon by nearly nine seconds for the gold medal. The Lions also won a silver medal in the 200-yard medley relay, with the team of juniors Grayson Butcher and Xavier Zumba, sophomore Nathan Pellegrino, and senior Sebastian Malavar finishing in a time of 1:47.31. Obtained.
Central Catholic also took advantage of the depth of the boys team to score points. Mahon, a freshman, had a great day for the Vikings, winning silver in the 200-yard individual medley and bronze in the 100-yard butterfly. His teammate Nick Janis took third place in the 50-yard freestyle, and Blue Mountain's Noah Powers set a district record of 20.72 seconds to win the gold medal. Janis was just 01.99 seconds behind Powers in this event.
Salisbury University had two athletes take the top two spots in the women's 200-yard freestyle, with Phoebe Barek winning the gold medal in 1:57.67 and teammate Olivia Amorim taking silver in 1:59.11. .
“I was very motivated, I was competitive, and my taper went really well, so I was pretty confident and ready to go into today,” said Amorim, who has played against Amorim since the two were in fifth grade. Barek said. “We've been going back and forth for years, so we've been competitors almost all of our lives. Every time I swim next to her, I just seem to be able to swim so well, but that's because we've outgrown each other. I think it's because we're enhancing each other.”
Amorim returned with a time of 1:00.50 in the 100-yard butterfly, beating Adalia LaSelva of Pottsville by 01.37 seconds to win the gold medal.
“I knew I couldn’t think about two races at the same time, so I focused on the 200 freestyle first and then turned my attention to the butterfly,” Amorim said. “Normally I'm more of a 200 freestyler and this is my other event. When this year started, I thought 200 freestyle would be my event this year. I didn’t even know if I was going to continue butterflying all season.”
2A competition resumes Saturday with 100-yard and 500-yard freestyle events, 100-yard backstroke and breaststroke, and 400-yard freestyle relay.
3A swimmers were scheduled to compete in Friday night and Saturday afternoon sessions.
Swimmers who win the gold medal will automatically qualify to compete in the PIAA Swimming Championships, to be held March 13-16 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.
Other swimmers will have to wait to see if their times are good enough to earn a bid to states.
Chuck Hixon is a freelance writer.
