When asked about the upcoming showdown with Emmaus, Parkland swimming head coach Rob Robitaille was literally speechless. All he could manage was to admit that the meet would be “interesting.”

That “interest” comes from having both girls teams come into the meet undefeated, while on the boys side, Emmaus is undefeated with Parkland having just one loss on the year. The winner of the girls meet takes the EPC Championship, while the Parkland boys need a win to take a share of the conference title.

In years past, Parkland’s girls have had a fairly commanding edge on Emmaus, while the boys have struggled against the Green Hornets. Emmaus comes in very confident, with a group of strong seniors and impressive young swimmers who have progressed quickly and are looking to keep the Parkland girls from taking the conference crown for a fourth straight season.

Like Emmaus, Parkland’s group of senior swimmers has been impressive and garnered much of the attention, but you can’t discount the contributions of underclassmen that have had big seasons for the Trojans on both the boys and girls side of the team.

Senior Zach Colangelo is looking forward not just to the competition against Emmaus, but is looking forward to simply taking in the experience of his final meet with Parkland’s rivals.

“It’s almost as if the whole essence of swimming, everything, every meet, is in this one meet,” said Colangelo. “Because at Emmaus, there’s so much energy and a lot of people show up. It’s so loud all the time and the tradition of dumping the waters in the pools is great. Not only is it fun to have a rival, but when it’s that great and you respect each other, it makes your team grow as well.

“These upcoming freshman have never seen this meet before and it’s going to be crazy when they see it, because it’s crazy and they’re going to be so hyped up. It’s just something that’s special.”

Meanwhile, Caroline Stang wants a fourth straight conference title as much as anyone, but says that the team keeps its focus on bigger goals that are still off in the not-too-distant future.

“That’s not really what we focus on,” she said. “We just focus on doing our best and it doesn’t ever really matter what the scoreboard says.

“It just matters how well we do and how well we perform, especially at districts. That’s our biggest goal, I guess.”

Stang also is interested to see how the underclassmen respond, although she suspects that they’ll be ready to perform in the biggest meet of the season.

As for looking ahead to the meet, Stang prefers to simply prepare herself to succeed and not think about all of the implications of the meet against Emmaus.

“It’s hard to think about sometimes, because it’s a little scary,” Stang admitted. “We’re going to be ready and it’s going to be a great meet. I’m excited for all of the energy and everything.”