Emmaus and Parkland battled recently for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference swimming and diving championship and a quick look at the seedings for this weekend’s District 11 Championship shows why the two teams are the cream of the crop in the Lehigh Valley. Emmaus and Parkland swimmers are seeded one-two in seven of the 22 events and combine to have two of the top three seeds in 14 events.

One highlight of the meet could come in the girls 100-yard freestyle, where Emmaus freshman Chelsea Gravereaux goes head-to-head with Parkland senior Siena Salvaggio, who took gold in the PIAA Championships in the event last year. Gravereaux’s qualifying time is less than one second behind Salvaggio coming into districts. The two didn’t swim head-to-head in the event in their regular season matchup, but will both fight for a trip to states this weekend.

Freshman Abby Heilenman comes in seeded second, right behind Salvaggio in the 50 freestyle event.

The top four spots in the girls 200 yard freestyle are held by Emmaus and Parkland swimmers. Gravereaux is seeded first and teammate Casey Young is third, while Parkland’s Tori Connolly and Zoe Sheridan are first and fourth respectively. Both Connolly and Young are seniors, going up against the freshman Gravereaux and sophomore Sheridan. Emmaus also has Sammy Mull and Reilly King seeded in the top ten. Young will also face off against Connolly and Sheridan in the 500 freestyle, where the Emmaus senior is seeded second.

Another Emmaus freshman, Katie Champagne is seeded third in the 200 yard individual medley and fourth in the 100 breaststroke. Emmaus Kaitlin Hur is seeded third in the 100 backstroke.

On the boys side, Emmaus looks to dominate, with eight top seeds in districts. Connor DeJohn (200 freestyle), Ethan Carr (200 IM), Tom Schlechter (100 butterfly and 500 freestyle) and Pat McAllister (100 freestyle and 100 backstroke) are all top seeds in individual events.

McAllister, Carr and Jason Yerger are seeded first, second and third, respectively in the 100 backstroke.

In relays, a senior-laden Parkland team is the top seed in the 200 medley relay, with Salvaggio, Connolly and fellow senior Kira Karopoulos being joined by freshman Allie Lin. Emmaus counters with a young team of Champagne, Gravereaux and Heilenman being joined by sophomore Lydia Garton, and comes in seeded second in the event.

Champagne, Garton and Gravereaux with junior Marissa Decker are the top seed in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

For the boys, Carr, DeJohn, McAllister and Nathan Luey are the top seeded relay team in the 200 yard medley relay and the same group is seeded third in the 200 freestyle relay. Carr, DeJohn, Luey and freshman Matt Gertner come into districts as the top seed in the 400 freestyle relay.

Districts will be held at Parkland High School, with preliminaries being contested Friday night and championships being determined on Saturday.

In last year’s district meet, Emmaus won the boys championship, with the girls finishing second to Parkland, who won their third straight team gold in districts.