The Northampton swim team jumped into their 2014-2015 season with their home season opener on Tuesday, Dec. 16, when they hosted Saucon Valley. Overall the boys and girls teams both scored a win with the boys winning 85-81 and the girls squad won 104-66.

The Northampton team features some familiar names this season including senior Kaden Chambers, the 14th place finisher in the 500 yard freestyle event at last year's District 11 AAA Finals and junior Rachael Pursell. Another District 11 AAA finals veteran, Pursell finished 11th in the 100 yard backstroke at the close of last season.

In Tuesday's season opening meet, Chambers claimed first place in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:57.63. Chambers also played a key role in Northampton's first place finishes in the 200 yard freestyle relay (with teammates Michael Bauer, Gavyn Frankenfield and Steton Weber) and the 400 yard freestyle relay (with teammates Jarin Gaumer, Jared Iasiello and Josh Millan).

This season it seems the 100 yard backstroke for the girls will once again belong to Pursell. She finished first in the event (1:05.27) and also came in first in the girls 200 yard individual medley (2:28.91). A busy meet for Pursell, she also helped the Northampton girls' first place finishes in the 200 yard and 400 yard freestyle relays (with teammates Brynn Delvecchio, Morgan Fehnel and Kaitlin Nemes in the 200 and Annalise Christy, Kelly Thoma and Delvecchio in the 400).

Among the swimmers to watch this season are senior Steton Weber who seems as comfortable in the sprints as he is in the distance races and one of Northampton's seasoned distance swimmers, junior Annalise Christy. Weber took first place in both the 50 yard freestyle (24.95) and the 500 yard freestyle (5:39.79) while Christy claimed first place in both the 200 yard and 500 yard freestyle events for the girls with times of 2:14.50 and 5:57.87 respectively. Sophomore Gavyn Frankenfield also did his part to earn the Kids some points against Saucon with two first place finishes in the 100 butterfly (58.28) and the 200 IM (1:57.63).

The Kids entered the second week of their season with a 1-1 record after an earlier loss to the Liberty on Dec. 9. At press time, Northampton was looking forward to facing Pocono Mountain East for their next match up on Dec. 18.