The Northampton varsity swim team honored senior swimmers and their parents during the team’s last home meet on Friday evening.

Northampton celebrated its senior class not only with flowers and memories of their years and accomplishments, but with a double win over Pocono Mountain West.

With final scores of 123-56 and 102-73 for the girls and boys, respectively, the meet had no shortage of first place finishes for the Kids. Some races were decided by fractions of a second like the boys 50 freestyle where Northampton senior Jarin Gaumer was first to the wall by just three hundredths of a second.

Other races were decisive wins: senior Becky Nothstein rocketed to the wall in the 100 butterfly beating the second-place finisher but over two seconds, the senior girls 200 relay team of Nothstein, Brynn Delvecchio, Larissa Calvo and Nicole Somers took first place by over 15 seconds and senior Greg Milnes claimed first place in the 100 breaststroke with a 12-second victory. Milnes, who had taken a break from swimming for the past three years, returned to the sport in his senior year and dominated multiple opponents in the breaststroke and relay events.

Milnes credits swimming with teaching him about what it takes to win.

“One of the main things swimming has taught me is the importance of confidence,” explained Milnes. “You need to be confident to succeed.”

When asked what they would remember most, the common theme among the seniors was the friends they had made. Deante Miller, a newcomer to the Northampton team who started swimming just two years ago commented that he would always look back on the time, “just being with the team,” and Larisa Calvo, a six-year swim veteran echoed Deanta’s comments, adding, “I’ll remember my swim family and how important it is trust myself, my team and my coach.”

Among the emotion and celebration of senior night, these swimmers reflected on the skills they learned in the pool that they will take with them long after their high school swim careers have drawn to a close.

Gaumer explained, “Swimming taught me discipline and how to really push yourself to achieve something more.”

Brynn Delveccio agreed, adding, “Swimming teaches you how to work hard for what you want, that kind of discipline is not just necessary in swimming, it’s necessary in life.”

Most of the senior swimmers from this year’s varsity team will hang up their goggles for good at the close of this swim season with only one swimmer planning to go on to swim in college. They won’t use the endless hours of fine tuning strokes and perfect starts in their future but they will take with them some valuable lessons that they will apply to any area of their lives.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” commented senior Nicole Somers. “Sometimes you have bad times but you can use those bad times as fuel to get better. It’s all about perseverance, perseverance is the key to success.”

The team will continue to press on for one more away meet against Easton High School on Thursday. From there, many of the team members begin to prepare for District 11 Championships which are held at Parkland High School the first weekend in March.