Parkland’s girls and boys swimming teams were roundly defeated by rival Emmaus during their Valentine’s Day meet at Parkland High School. However, the Trojans can find legitimate solace in some outstanding diving performances that week.

“We’ve had a good season,” said Parkland diving coach Cary Lehman. “We schedule a lot of meets that build toward the end of the season, so now we’re there. It’s time to go.”

Three Parkland girls divers were ready to go against Emmaus. Junior Katharine Gottwald unleashed an awesome performance to win the girls diving meet with 274.55 points. She was followed closely by teammates Alexa Brinker with 259.70 and Lexi Lehman at 241.20 for second and third places. On the boys side. Logan Choma displayed fine attention-to-detail in earning a second place finish with 290.50 points, behind Emmaus’ Brendan McCourt with a 306.50 score.

“Our top three girls are so close,” Cary Lehman said. “Every meet out there it switches around. You just never know what is going to happen.”

Five days earlier, on Feb. 9 at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Diving Meet at Parkland, the girls squad earned the top three spots.

Brinker finished first with an outstanding performance, earning 448.40 points. She was followed closely by Lehman at 445.70 and Gottwald at 437.40. The Trojans secured the sixth through ninth positions, with Ally Roth, Nicole Stoffko, Cora Hochstettler and Aija Tighe receiving the honors. Finally, Katey Kunz took 15th at 204.20.

“Ally Roth is our surprise freshman this year,” the coach said. “She really came on strong at the end of the year and will be our fourth girl at districts.”

The boys team also represented their school well. Choma finished a distant second with 457.95 points to Emmaus’ McCourt who won with 531. In third place was Parkland’s Ethan Radio, who earned 429.80 and three places behind him was teammate Michael Salvino, who claimed 318.15 points and in ninth was Trojan Jack Biomme with 235.85.

“Mike has come a long way,” Lehman said of senior Salvino. “He’s really got the consistency now where he can really contribute at districts.”

The Trojans are focused on doing their best when it counts the most.

“It was a great tune up for districts,” said Lehman. “Our district isn’t much larger than our conference, so it’s a really good predictor.”