Liberty senior Samantha Taylor became a district champion on Saturday after winning the 100 backstroke at the District XI Class 3A Girls Swimming Championships at Parkland High School.

“Immediately after I finished, I turned and looked at the board, and then I immediately turned and looked at my coaches because this is something I’ve worked for the whole season, so they were the first people I wanted to see when I won,” Taylor said.

Taylor, whose time was 57.97, clinched the gold medal by almost two seconds.

“I have a checklist of things I’m supposed to keep track of when I’m sprinting and to keep my stroke intact, so I was thinking about that,” she said. “I felt really good mentally, and I visualized my race a bunch of times during practice, so I was ready.”

Teammate Abby Mack was there to congratulate Taylor as she climbed out of the pool.

“Yesterday, Abby swam IM and went a P.R. and we were so happy yesterday so it was nice our individuals were on different days so we could be there for each other,” said Taylor. “It feels amazing. More than anything, I wanted to win for my team more than myself because I was excited to have somebody from Liberty win an event this year.”

Mack, who is also a senior, won the bronze medal with a third place finish in the 200 IM.

“I honestly had no idea that I was close to being third. I was just racing and swimming my hardest. I looked up at the clock, and my goal time was a 2:10 and that’s what I went, and then I saw third, and I thought wow,” Mack said. “Coach Reik [Foust] told me he was jumping up and down, and everybody was super excited for me.”

Liberty freshman Brooke Sergent also won a bronze medal with a third place finish in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:00.04.

“I feel super happy,” said Sergent. “My turns were way better than I usually do, and my stroke was pretty good.”

Sergent also led off the 400 free relay that won silver medals with a second place finish with a time of 3:38.46.

“My legs were really tired, but I knew I had to keep on going so I could try to get us to states,” Sergent. “I was so happy and so proud of everybody. They worked so hard.”

Talia Lehr, who won a fourth place medal in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.55, swam the second leg of the medley relay, Taylor swam the third, and Mack was the anchor.

“I saw the Emmaus girl, and I really wanted to catch her,” said Mack, who succeeded. “Getting second in this was really special.”

Taylor, Mack, Lehr, and Sarah Park won bronze medals in the 200 medley relay with a third place finish in 1:50.14, and Sergent, Park, Taylor, and Mack won bronze medals in the 200 free relay with a third place finish in 1:39.25.

In girls’ team results, Liberty placed fourth out of 15 teams with a score of 203.

Parkland placed first with 598 points, Emmaus was second with 382 points, and Southern Lehigh was third with 219 points.

Freedom placed ninth with 91 points.