For the fifth straight year and the ninth time in the last 10 years, the Parkland girls are District 11 Champions in swimming. The Lady Trojans held off a challenge from Emmaus and Liberty to come out on top and sophomore Siena Salvaggio performed well enough to capture the Dennis A. McGinley Award as the events top female swimmer.

Salvaggio competed in the maximum of four events (two individual and two relay) and captured first-place finishes in all four. In relays, Salvaggio teamed with Erika Freeman, Alexandra Bodnar and Erin Jordan to take gold in the 200-yard freestyle relay and teamed with Freeman, Jordan and Tori Connolly to capture gold in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In individual events, Salvaggio took gold in the 200-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard freestyle, where she set a new district record of :51.0, breaking the old record by nine one-hundredths of a second.

The record was something that Salvaggio had hoped to accomplish and she had a lot of thanks to spread around for setting the new mark and for capturing the McGinley Award.

"It's a great accomplishment and I want to thank my team for all of their help and pushing me so hard," said Salvaggio. "It's really an honor. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was at and I was just focusing on all of the races, so it's kind of a surprise."

In addition to Salvaggio and the two relay teams that took gold, Jordan will also be heading to states after her first place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

"I'm actually really happy with how I've done," said Jordan after receiving her gold medal. "I'm also very happy with how my teammates are doing, like Tori [Victoria Connolly], she is doing really well and our team is doing well, so I'm happy."

Only the top finisher in each event is guaranteed a trip to states, which will be held next Wednesday and Thursday at Bucknell University. Other swimmers may qualify based on times posted by swimmers from across the state.

"We'll go up and put our best foot forward," said coach Rob Robitaille. "We're going to increase the training yardage for a while here and then we'll back down before the meet starts.

"I'm looking to put on a good show up there. This is only the first step and whoever we get in, I'm looking to advance as far as we can at that level."