Emmaus competed in the District 11 swimming championships this past weekend at Parkland High School. The girls team came out firing and saw six different swimmers collect medals in either individual or relay events.

Hornet senior Chloe Vlaeminck finished the two-day event with three gold medals to lead all Emmaus swimmers.

The diving portion of the event was held a week earlier and saw Morgan Belisle take sixth place for Emmaus while Keira Gilboy finished ninth and Sara Christine finished 10th. Diving was won by Easton’s Rachel Marcus, whose performance gave the Red Rovers the team lead coming into the swimming portion of the competition.

Emmaus quickly closed the gap when Vlaeminck teamed with senior Mya Puentes, junior Hailey Reinhard and sophomore Izzy Sparaco to take gold in the 200-yard medley relay, the opening race of the event.

Emmaus took over the team lead when juniors Mogran Gould and Catherine Sirignano finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle and sophomore Amelia Baldwin also garnered team points with a ninth-place finish in the event. Parkland moved into the second spot with the Hornets holding a 105-97 edge in the fight for the district championship.

Vlaeminck’s win in the 200-yard IM kept Emmaus in front of Parkland with a 140-139 edge. The Lady Hornets maintained the one-point lead through the 50-yard freestyle where Puentes picked up a bronze medal. Puentes came back to take silver in the 100-yard butterfly to increase the Emmaus edge.

Parkland battled back to again narrow the gap and moved ahead with Kayla Johnson’s win in the 100-yard freestyle event. The Lady Trojans would lead the rest of the way to win the team title with Emmaus finishing second.

“I am really proud of my teammates because we really battled,” said Vlaeminck. “We are friends with the Parkland girls and they’re all sweet and it’s always great to compete against them. We all fought hard and were able to medal and that’s all we could ask for.”

In addition to gold in the 200-IM, Vlaeminck took gold in the 100-yard breaststroke where she posted a time of 1:06.87, besting Parkland’s Sydney Platt by three-and-a-half seconds. With two individual golds and another in relays, Vlaeminck competed in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay in search of her fourth gold medal. Parkland swimmers Johnson and Claire Weaver were also both in search of their fourth gold. The Emmaus team finished third behind Parkland and Southern Lehigh. The Lady Trojans won by just .14 seconds to give Johnson and Weaver four gold medals.

“I realized that would have been my fourth, but I just wanted the girls to focus on the race and really wanted them to dig in and do the best that they could,” said Vlaeminck. “I truly believe that we did what we could and we put our best in the pool.”

Gold medalists in individual and relay events are guaranteed spots in states, which will be held next week at Bucknell University. Other medalists have the opportunity to win a bid for spots based on their time in districts when compared to other swimmers from across the commonwealth.

Last season, the PIAA competition was held at Cumberland Valley High School and fans were not permitted to attend because of COVID restrictions. This season, the event goes back to Bucknell University with fans able to attend. Vlaeminck qualified for states last season in the 100-yard butterfly and placed 16th. This season she will have two shots at individual gold and she is looking forward to the opportunity.

“I actually am really excited about the relay (200-yard medley) because we have been looking forward to that all season and getting to states was a goal for us,” said Vlaeminck. “It’s going to be great to end my high school career getting to swim with my teammates and competing one more time.”

The following are results from the District 11 Class 3A girls Swimming and Diving Championships, including the top five finishers in each event along with all Emmaus finishers.

Team Scores

1. Parkland 447, 2. Emmaus 386, 3. Southern Lehigh 316, 4. Nazareth 227, 5. Stroudsburg 144, 6. Pocono Mt. East 142, 7. Liberty 139, 8. Easton 128, 9. Northampton 109, 10. Freedom 71, 11. East Stroudsburg So. 48, 12. Allen 40, 13. Whitehall 36, 14. Pocono Mt. West 35, 15. Dieruff 10.

200 Medley relay: 1. Emmaus (Isabella Sparaco, Chloe Vlaeminck, Mya Puentes, Hailey Reinhard) 1:47.3, 2. Southern Lehigh 1:47.71, 3. Nazareth 1:50.64, 4. Parkland 1:54.8, 5. Liberty 1:55.8.

200 Freestyle: 1. Claire Weaver (Parkland) 1:53.96, 2. Garrity Ford (So. Lehigh) 1:55.96, 3. Madison Camden (So. Lehigh) 1:56.78, 4. Ovlivia Szerencsits (Northampton) 1:57.8, 5. Morgan Gould (Emmaus) 1:59.38, 6. Catherine Sirignano (Emmaus) 2:00.52, 9. Amelia Baldwin (Emmaus) 2:04.98.

200 Individual medley: 1. Chloe Vlaeminck (Emmaus) 2:07.94, 2. Marianne Tassinari (East Stroudsburg So.) 2:14.05, 3. Sophia Cerimele (Parkland) 2:14.11, 4. Hailey Reinhard (Emmaus) 2:18.55, 5. Isabel Sheridan (Parkland) 2:20.25.

50 Freestyle: 1. Kayla Johnson (Parkland) *22.95, 2. Brianna Wasem (So. Lehigh) 24.19, 3. Mya Puentes (Emmaus) 24.66, 4. Jewel Little (Stroudsburg) 25.07, 5. Alexis Hoyer (So. Lehigh) 25.37.

100 Butterfly: 1. Tori Fenn (Pocono Mt. East) 57.25, 2. Mya Puentes (Emmaus) 57.71, 3. Brooke Sergent (Liberty) 59.35, 4. Jillian Kingsley (Nazareth) 59.52, 5. Hillary Roth (Parkland) 1:00.3, 7. Natalie Mack (Emmaus) 1:02.15, 11. Abigail Hark (Emmaus) 1:04.72.

200 Freestyle relay: 1. Parkland (Claire Weaver, Sophia Cerimele, Madison Roseman, Kayla Johnson) 1:38.29, 2. Pocono Mt. East 1:40.47, 3. Nazareth 1:40.49, 4. Emmaus (Isabella Sparaco, Hailey Reinhard, Amelia Baldwin, Morgan Gould) 1:41.28, 5. Southern Lehigh 1:43.32.

100 Freestyle: 1. Kayla Johnson (Parkland) 50.14, 2. Tori Fenn (Pocono Mt. East) 51.74, 3. Jillian Kingsley (Nazareth) 53.85, 4. Brianna Wasem (So. Lehigh) 54.07, 5. Cameron Alvino (Nazareth) 55.64, 9. Natalie Mack (Emmaus) 56.76, 12. Isabella Sparaco (Emmaus) 56.97, 13. Natalie Molnar (Emmaus) 57.34.

500 Freestyle: 1. Claire Weaver (Parkland) 5:04.0, 2. Olivia Szerencsits (Northampton) 5:14.1, 3. Morgan Gould (Emmaus) 5:21.4, 4. Julianne Zaffior (Parkland) 5:22.1, 5. Sada Fleischaker (Parkland) 5:23.8, 7. Amelia Baldwin (Emmaus) 5:36.82, 12. Abigail Hark (Emmaus) 5:54.87.

100 Backstroke: 1. Garrity Ford (So. Lehigh) 56.52, 2. Madison Camden (So. Lehigh) 57.34, 3. Sophia Cerimele (Parkland) 1:00.5, 4. Christine Sirignano (Emmaus) 1:01.05, 5. Isabella Sparaco (Emmaus) 1:01.07.

100 Breaststroke: 1. Chloe Vlaeminck (Emmaus) 1:06.87, 2. Sydney Platt (Parkland) 1:10.34, 3. Sada Fleischaker (Parkland) 1:10.57, 4. Julianna Rice (Nazareth) 1:10.62, 5. Natasha Goldman (Parkland) 1:11.01, 8. Hailey Reinhard (Emmaus) 1:11.91, 9. Georgia Magditch (Emmaus) 1:12.49, 12. Harper Daly (Emmaus) 1:15.34,

400 Freestyle relay: 1. Parkland (Claire Weaver, Ashley Settle, Sophia Cerimele, Kayla Johnson) 3:34.22, 2. So. Lehigh 3:34.36, 3. Emmaus (Mya Puentes, Morgan Gould, Catherine Sirignano, Chloe Vlaeminck) 3:40.48, 4. Pocono Mt. East 3:46.11, 5. Stroudsburg 3:53.09.

Diving: Rachel Marcus (Easton) 379.8, 2. Keller Pooley (Liberty) 369.85, 3. Nicole Stofko (Parkland) 336.4, 4. Madison Conrad (Easton) 324.1, 5. Isabella Kish (Northampton) 288.7, 6. Morgan Belisle (Emmaus) 274.0, 9. Kiera Gilboy (Emmaus) 252.85, 10. Sara Christine (Emmaus) 240.75.

*Denotes District 11 record