Twelve swimmers from Northampton competed in the PIAA District 11 AAA Championship meet held at Parkland High School this past weekend. The squad came away with three individual medals, two relay team medals, two state championship meet qualifications and multiple personal best times.

The boys finished the meet in 8th place overall, very close to where the team was seeded and expected to perform. Northampton was among the top-10 finishers in three events including a 7th place finish for Tommy Nichols in the 200 individual medley, a 10th place finish for Jack Kennedy in the 200 freestyle, and a 10th place finish by Connor Oswald in the 100 breaststroke.

Northampton’s girls finished 5th overall, moving up several positions from the team’s overall seeding and beating Southern Lehigh by just one point. Among the accomplishments for the girls, sophomore Sarah Hosking qualified for the PIAA state championship meet in the 200 individual medley with a third place finish of 2:09.04 and the 100 breaststroke with a second-place time of 1:05.99. Hosking broke the Northampton High School record in both events, both had been set by Hosking herself last season. Hosking will go on to compete in the PIAA championship meet which will be held at Bucknell University, March 13-16.

Among other district championship highlights for the women’s team, senior Brynne Rockovits earned a 4th place medal in the 100 freestyle event (53.77). Freshman Olivia Szerencsits also received a 4th place medal in the 500 freestyle event. Szerencsits’ time of 5:15.50 broke an over 20-year-old Northampton High School record by 7 seconds.

Hosking, Rockovits and Szerencsits were part of two relay teams which both medaled during the champs meet. On Friday, Freshman Olivia Green joined the three individual medalists in the 200 medley relay where the team placed 4th with a time of 1:52.43. On Saturday, junior Morgan Thomas joined the trio for the girls 400 freestyle relay, earning a 4th place medal and another spot on the podium.

Overall, Northampton’s head coach Cullen Mentzell summed up the district event well as he discussed a strong season and great showing at the district championship event.

“I’m really happy about how the kids finished out the year,” explained Mentzell. “They did a great job despite a few snow days that interrupted our practice.”

Perhaps the best commentary on the season and the district championship meet overall was Mentzell’s final comment.

“I’m really proud of all of them, it was really a lot of fun this weekend,” he added.