Last season when Parkland and Emmaus met in swimming, the Trojans picked up a win on the girls side, but a loss on the boys side.

The results this season were the same, but a momentary error in scoring initially caused a lot of jubilation on the Parkland side, which turned into disappointment when the error was corrected, giving Emmaus a 95-90 win. The Parkland girls took a 101-85 victory for the day.

As it turned out, the backstroke would be an important event for the Trojans for both teams. With Emmaus holding slight leads coming into the event, the Parkland boys swept the top three spots, while the girls took the top two spots to turn things around, putting Parkland in front on each side.

The boys sweep was provided by Colin Orlowski, Adam Sicinski and Omer Hirschberg, who finished first through third, respectively. Erika Freeman and Katie Kapelsohn took first and second respectively on the girls side. The success in the event wasn't much of a surprise to coach Rob Robitaille.

"We knew we had a good shot at it. We were prepping for that all week to see what we could do," said Robitaille. "We told them ideally, what we got today was what we needed' to have a shot at the very end and they came up big."

Besides her victory in the backstroke, Freeman won the 200 yard IM, and was part of the team that won the 400 freestyle and came in second in the 200 yard medley.

Megan Polaha had a big day for the Lady Trojans. The senior was a part of the second place 200 yard medley team with Freeman, Kapelsohn and Emily Kingston and swam the anchor leg of the 200 yard freestyle relay, joining with Seina Salvaggio, Erin Jordan and Judith Skinker to take first place. Individually, Polaha took first in the 100 butterfly and the 100 breaststroke.

While Robitaille would have liked to have a win for both teams, he was impressed with how both teams competed and liked the passion he saw from his boys team in trying to get a victory over their LVC rivals. It's a trait that Robitaille has seen in his boys throughout the early going this season.

"We came up a little short today, but we're going to get back to it to make sure that doesn't happen again," said Robitaille.

In diving, Amanda Zerphy took home an easy victory, beating her nearest competitor by a score of 263.75 to 207.05 on the girls side. For the boys, the Trojans filled three of the top four spots, with Jacob Lenhart setting a school record with a score of 298.25. He was followed by Mitchell Keller and Josh Anderson in second and third.

The meet with Emmaus is a huge rivalry and has been held as the final meet of the season, but was moved up to right before the holiday this year in hopes that alumni who were home from college could be there for the event. The result was a big crowd that shared chants and cheers back-and-forth from the pre-swim through the entire meet.

"I think it's better for atmosphere. The crowd was outstanding. This was the biggest crowd in maybe six years and it was outstanding for our kids," said Robitaille. "I think it's a good meet to have around this time because we can bring back friends, family, alumni. Really, this is an old-fashioned throw-down and it's better when you have as many people in the stands as you can rooting for you."

Parkland is now off for the holidays before swimming at Northampton on January 3.