The Northampton varsity boys and girls swim teams joined 17 other area high school teams on Feb. 29 and March 1 for the PIAA District 11 AAA Championship Meet at Parkland High School. Overall, both the boys and girls finished in seventh place and both teams had their share of victories to bring the 2019-2020 swim season to a positive close.

For Northampton, the highlight of the district meet came on Saturday afternoon when sophomore Olivia Szerencsits took to the blocks for the 500 freestyle. Szerencsits came out strong with a fast first split of 28.11 and then settled into a 31-32-second pace for most of tough, 20-lap race. As the swimmers surged for the wall in the final stroke of the longest event on the championship program, Szerencsits shattered her season best time by over 7 seconds and broke her own Northampton High School record, set last year. The sophomore claimed second place with an amazing time of 5:11.28 and in addition to standing atop the podium with silver, Szerencsits earned a spot at states.

Among other highlights from the meet, Friday evening began with the 200 medley relays. Northampton’s Ava Gower, Sarah Hosking, Szerencsits and Morgan Thomas took eighth, dropping almost 2 seconds off their previous competition time. The boys followed with Tommy Nichols, Connor Oswald, Bryce Fisher and Benjamin Christy dropping almost 5 seconds for seventh.

Up next was the girls 200 freestyle in which senior Morgan Thomas placed 14th with a time of 2:07.79 and Szerencsits claimed third with a time of 1:57.58 and a new Northampton record. Bryce Fisher competed in the 200 freestyle, achieving 13th and a season-best time of 1:56.63.

Additionally, Hosking placed sixth in the women’s 200 individual medley at 2:14.12 and Nichols took seventh in the 200 individual medley, dropping over five seconds from his season best time for a 2:02.22. Christy finished 23rd in the 50 freestyle (24.66) and Oswald placed 17th in the 100 butterfly (58.18). The evening ended with a 13th place finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay for the Northampton team of Leslie Medina, Ava Gower, Andrea Davidson and Allison Nemeth and a 12th place relay finish for the team of Christy, Amir Hamilton, Ambrose Roland and Myles Merced.

As the district championship meet continued on Saturday, Northampton continued to post season-best times with Thomas dropping almost eight seconds off her season best time to achieve a 5:44.37 and a 13th place finish in the women’s 500 freestyle. Fisher followed in the men’s 500 freestyle, dropping over six seconds from his best with a 5:15.47 finish. Hosking placed fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.67), and in the men’s 100 breaststroke, Oswald placed seventh (1:02.27) and Nichols placed 12th (1:04.16).

In the final event of championships, the women’s team of Szerencsits, Thomas, Medina and Hosking dropped almost six seconds from their season best time for seventh in the 400 freestyle relay and the team of Nichols, Oswald, Christy and Fisher claimed sixth.

Looking back at the season, Northampton head coach Cullen Mentzell seemed satisfied with both the championship meet and the season in general.

“Overall I am pleased with the way the season went. The boys finished the season 8-5 and the girls 7-6,” he said.

“I am excited for Olivia to get the opportunity to compete at the state meet and get some valuable experience,” and already planning for the future, Mentzell continued. “Next year I am hoping to get more swimmers qualified for the state meet.”

The coaching staff will now turn their focus toward Szerencsits and the PIAA State Championship meet which will be held at Bucknell University on March 12 and 13.