Emmaus swimming coach Tim O’Connor isn’t sure when the last time was that the girls swim teams for Emmaus and Parkland came into their yearly meet both being undefeated, but he knows it’s been a long time.

Emmaus has made it through the schedule with a perfect 10-0 mark and Parkland stands at 9-0 coming into the season-ending meet that will decide the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Championship. The Emmaus boys have also gone undefeated, while Parkland is 8-1, with a loss to Liberty as the only blemish.

O’Connor has talked to his swimmers about the upcoming meet, which is always circled on the schedule due to the rivalry between the two schools. The time is here for his swimmers to get themselves prepared for the showdown.

“We talked as a team on Friday and we’ll talk to them a little bit [Monday], and then the next three days are kind of on them to figure out where they need to be and what’s going to happen,” said O’Connor. “I think the seniors – especially on the girls side – have done a really good job, because it’s been a really long time since it’s been relevant for them. For these seniors, it’s never mattered and now, it does, so I think that that’s been overflowing the last couple of days for sure.”

The seniors on both sides are pumped up about the possibilities going into the meet, but what about the younger swimmers who are coming into their first Emmaus/Parkland meet under such important circumstances? Freshman Katie Champagne has an older brother and sister who have experienced the rivalry, but she is coming into her first as a member of the team.

“It would be pretty important,” said Champagne of beating Parkland and finishing undefeated. “I know some of the upper classmen, when they were freshmen, saw Parkland beat them. If we finish undefeated, it’s means that we beat Parkland and we really want to do that, especially for the seniors.”

Meanwhile, for senior Tom Schlechter, it’s the last time that he gets to be a part of the rivalry and he’s looking to go out with both an EPC Championship and an undefeated season. He believes that every swimmer on the team, no matter what year they’re in, understands just how much the meet matters.

“It’s weird, because it’s my last one,” said Schlechter. “It’s my last meet, but it’s exciting. It’s always an amazing meet and it’s going to be extremely high energy and I can’t wait to see how our entire team swims as a whole. It’s the biggest meet of the year and they all know that. It’s going to be fierce competition and we’re ready.”

While no other meet is quite like the Emmaus and Parkland showdown, especially this season, Emmaus did face some tough teams throughout the year, including a key meet against Liberty that helped prepare them for the season finale. That meet gave underclassmen a glimpse of what they need to do if they are going to beat Parkland and use that as a springboard going into districts.

“That was a really big meet for us. They were looking – and they have the ability – to have a really close meet with us and they swam great,” said Champagne. “The younger kids saw what a high level meet was like before Parkland, so it really prepared them for what this is going to be like.”

“In years past, when this meet was very relevant, there were meets along the way which helped to prepare you for something like this,” said O’Connor. “I think for a very young, inexperienced team, like our girls side is, especially, that was a great test to see how they’re going to handle certain situations and to understand how one event can go great and the next can go horribly wrong. That meet had some ups and downs and I hope our kids learned something from it.”

Perhaps the freshman Champagne wrapped up the feeling of both the boys and girls teams best when she gave her assessment of the upcoming meet.

“I think we’re a little nervous and excited at the same time,” said Champagne. “We know it’s going to be a tough meet, but we know it’s going to be a lot of fun, too.”