The Northampton varsity swim team hosted Central Catholic High School on Thursday, Jan. 29, for a meet that would become a close battle for the girls swim team.

After a meet filled with close finishes, personal best times and races won by fractions of a second, the Northampton girls would emerge with a 91-83 victory over Central. The boys team would fall to Central 109-59.

For the girls team, district qualifier Rachael Pursell lead the team in first place wins during the Central meet. Pursell claimed first place victories in both the 100 yard backstroke event and the 200 yard individual medley event. Pursell's winning times were 1:06.34 and 2:25.65 respectively.

Pursell then teamed up with Brynn Delvecchio, Morgan Fehnel and Kaitlin Nemes to capture first place in the girls 200 yard freestyle relay and later joined Delvecchio, Nemes and Kelly Thoma for a first place finish in the girls 400 yard freestyle relay.

Other strong individual performances in Thursday's meet included two first place finishes for Annalise Christy and Steton Weber. Christy placed first in both the girls 200 yard freestyle event and the girls 500 yard freestyle event with times of 2:15.13 and 5:57.02. Weber finished first for the boys in the 200 yard IM (2:15.97) and the boys 500 yard freestyle event (5:40.19).

Adding to the individual victories for the girls were Brynn Delvecchio with a first place time of 59:63 in the 100 yard freestyle and Kelly Thoma with a winning time of 1:11.79 in the 100 yard butterfly.

In the boys events, Gavyn Frankenfield placed first in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 58.25. Kaden Chambers claimed a first place win in the boys 200 yard freestyle (1:54.12) and Josh Millan out-touched two Central swimmers for a first place finish in the boys 100 yard backstroke event with a time of 1:11.44.

With several of their swimmers already heading to districts, and several more swimmers edging closer to district times at each meet, the Northampton coaches are proud of the progress the team has made at all levels.

"Overall we are pleased as a coaching staff," assistant coach Cullen Mentzel said.

In addition to those already qualified for the District 11 championship swim meet, times are improving for several others.

"Sophomores Jared Iasiello and Josh Millan, and freshman Jarin Gaumer have also dropped time and continue to pick up valuable team points. For the girls, Kaitlyn Nemes, Kelly Thoma, and Morgan Fehnel have been swimming well and are consistent members on winning relay teams," Mentzel said.

Northampton enters the last few events of the season with a meet against Easton on Thursday, Feb. 5.