Two Emmaus girls swimmers came home from the District 11 swimming and diving championship with gold medals Saturday. As a team, Emmaus finished second to Parkland in the final team standings, falling 553-408, followed by Southern Lehigh, Liberty and Easton in the top five.

The day started with a near-miss for Emmaus when seniors Bella Buchman and Peyton Rautzhan were matched up with juniors Mya Puentes and Lauren Sharp to form the Emmaus 200-yard medley relay team. The team finished second, just .09 seconds behind a team from Parkland.

The EHS girls 200-yard freestyle relay team also came close to gold when Rautzhan and Sharp joined senior Kera Reinhard and junior Avery King, finishing just .07 seconds off the pace set by another Parkland relay team. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, King and Reinhard teamed with sophomores Hailey Reinhard and Morgan Gould for a third-place finish.

The first individual gold of the day for Emmaus came when Sharp bested Madison Tewksbury of Parkland by .64 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley, with Emmaus junior Chloe Vlaeminck finishing third. While Sharp and Tewksbury are competitors on rival teams, they’re also close friends who missed the opportunity to compete head-to-head this season because all East Penn Conference meets were held virtually. For Sharp, having her friend race in the lane next to her was one of the best parts of swimming at districts.

“It was amazing to finally get the chance to race against one of my closest friends and to experience districts with her,” said Sharp. “It was great to really have that true race feeling again instead of just competing in different pools and only having your teammates to challenge you in the virtual meets.”

In a normal season, the top two finishers in each event would go to states and others would have the potential to also qualify based on their times compared to other times across the state. This season, COVID precautions have forced the PIAA to reduce the number of competitors at states, so only gold medal winners will move on to compete at Cumberland Valley High School on March 20.

While Vlaeminck missed in the IM, she had two Parkland swimmers chasing her in the 100-yard butterfly, but pushed past both to capture gold in the event and secure a spot at states.

“I was focused on one event at a time, so I came in knowing I had two shots and the IM was first,” said Vlaeminck, whose strategy worked well. “After that, I had a little break and then had the 100 fly, so I really wanted to focus on getting done with the IM and then think about the fly.”

The Emmaus girls team is dominated by sophomores and freshmen, giving the Hornets a young team that continued to post better and better times throughout the season. Head coach Tim O’Connor was happy with the progress and is looking forward to even more accomplishments down the road for his team.

“This really is a young team and to see these girls come in here today and have many of them post best times in this setting is exciting,” said O’Connor. “This isn’t a wide-eyed group of girls. They’ve worked hard and put in a lot of work through all of the craziness this season and had to sometimes practice at crazy times and under difficult situations. I’m happy with the effort that they gave, and I think they see how the hard work pays off.”