When the Whitehall swim team hosted Parkland last week, head coach Pete Rile knew it was an opportunity for his swimmers to have some fun since toppling the Trojans would be a herculean task.

While that turned out to be true as the Zephyrs girls lost 132-38, and the boys succumbed 121-44, one swimmer who made a statement that he meant business was junior Daniel Jablonski. He set another school record, this time setting the mark in the 100 backstroke with a 58.88 finish, toppling the previous mark of 59.18 set in by Mike Ponte in 1998.

Jablonski now owns five individual school records and is a part of three more. He’s put an everlasting imprint on the program.

Jablonski said that he’s been close to setting the record, narrowly missing it his sophomore year as he was just 3/10 off the mark.

“All this season I’ve been trying to go for it,” said Jablonski, who was told he was closing in as witnessed by his effort against Liberty on Jan. 23.

“It was just a matter of whether or not I could finally get it, and I did today,” said Jablonski.

He was racing against Parkland’s James Zhang, and had the lead going into the first turn, but the Trojan’s length aided him out of the flip, and he narrowly beat Jablonski for the win, touching in 57.76.

Jablonski said that he knew he had to keep pace with Zhang who was in the lane next to him.

“When I can see them and race them, I can really get myself going,” said Jablonski.

With his name firmly etched in the record books, Jablonski said it’s been a long journey, and that most of the best swimmers in the area come from Emmaus, Parkland or Nazareth, but he’s been able to carve out a special place by his determination and work ethic.

That workload also includes swimming for the Parkland Aquatic Club, as well as competing in meets and attending practice throughout the year. He also has to balance his time at the pool with his school work, and is currently maintaining an A average in courses that include AP classes.

He said it’s important to not get overloaded and manage his time.

“It’s a pretty good achievement that I can also compete at his high level, and not be overwhelmed by the things that I do,” said Jablonski.

Rile said that Jablonski has the best times across the board, and is starting to face some competition from Ziyad Khafagy. Rile said that they bring out the best in one another, with Jablonski currently enjoying an edge.

Rile has been the coach for a number of wins against the Trojans, but the pendulum’s swung since the arrival of head coach Bob Clark who turned them into a perennial state powerhouse. While Clark retired in 2004, that tradition has continued.

He said the same holds true for Emmaus who have also been successful year after year. It stems from a robust feeder program.

“They have such a great program set up that they’ll always come in with a dozen freshman of which six or eight are going to be district qualifiers,” said Rile.

Rile said that he enjoys swimming against those teams since it doesn’t come with any pressure.

“Our good kids can swim against good kids, and kids that don’t have as much experience and skill at that level, get an opportunity to swim,” said Rile.

He said it frees him from the task of matching swimmers in each race as they jockey for the win. He said they just go out and compete to the best of their ability.

“It’s a lot of fun; it’s a good time for us,” said Rile.

As they get ready for two tough meets, Rile said it was a time to relax. Yet they still swam well enough to set a school record and earn two district qualifying times. One of those was Ziyad Khafagy in the I.M. and Martha Gilletto in the backstroke.

“Those were nice moments,” said Rile.

He also said that they had a number of personals bests, notably Erika Croughn in the 100 freestyle was able to set a personal best at both the halfway mark and the finish.

They conclude the season with meets against Moravian and Allentown Central Catholic.