Parkland's boys and girls swim teams both picked up strong wins over Southern Lehigh Tuesday night, with the girls winning 120-66 and the boys taking a 105-80 win.

Victoria Connolly had a big night for the Lady Trojans in both individual and relay events. Connolly was part of the 200 medley relay team that opened the meet with a first-place finish and was also on the 400 freestyle relay team that captured a first-place finish. Connolly had little competition in her two individual events, winning the 200 freestyle by just under 11 seconds and then blowing the competition out of the water, winning the 500 freestyle by almost 27 seconds.

The exciting part about Connolly's performance was that her 500 time of 5:19.92 fell almost a full 15 seconds short of her career best, which she is trying to top this season. Her times in both the 200 and 500 were good enough to already have her qualified for districts in those two events. Last year at states, Connolly finished 24th in the 200 and 16th in the 500 and she figures to be able to move up in those two races this season.

"It's always a tough race," said Connolly of the 500. "I really was going for time and trying to beat my best time and get as close as I could."

While her success is primarily due to hard work and a strong training regimen, Connolly believes that there is another driving force behind what has her in a position to trump her best times and move up in both districts and states.

"I love my team. They motivate me every day and I think we're doing pretty well, especially the underclassmen, they're really stepping up this year," said Connolly, who is in her junior season.

Having strong performances from the younger kids on the team was one of the keys that coach Rob Robitaille pointed to coming into the season. The girls team has just five seniors, while the boys have just two seniors among their numbers.

When you look through the performances from the win over Southern Lehigh, freshmen and sophomores are well represented. Freshman Courtney Sicinski took second in the 100 breaststroke and sophomore Nicole Nesland grabbed second in the 100 butterfly. Underclassmen boys dominated the 200 IM, with sophomores Hyunbin Kim and Matthew Engler finishing one and two, respectively, while Bar Maymon, another sophomore, finished fourth. Freshman Ian Johnston took second in the boys 500 freestyle, behind senior teammate Anthony Coates.

In relays, Kim and Engler teamed with seniors Coates and Adam Sicinski for a second place finish in the 200 freestyle relay and freshmen Matthew Ceh, Brian Reifinger and Adam Kucharczuk joined sophomore Charles Villano to finish third in the 200 free relay. Twin freshmen Courtney and Megan Sicinski and sophomores Sheilagh Farrell and Sailee Rane came in fourth in the girls 200 free relay.