Whitehall’s participation at last weekend’s District XI AAA Swimming and Diving Championships produced a trip to the medal stand, highlighting a strong showing for both the boys and the girls.

Daniel Jablonski arrived at the medal stand following the 500 freestyle. He finished third in the race, touching the wall in 4:48.25. He also placed fifth in the 200 freestyle, finishing in 1:46.15. Moreover, head coach Pete Rile said that Jablonski set four school records at the district meet, an outstanding achievement by the senior whose name is splattered all across the school record board in the natatorium. With those new records, the senior just keeps adding to his legacy.

“That was pretty good for him to go four for four,” said Rile.

In order to achieve that, Rile said that Jablonski led off the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and those times for the first 50 yards, 22.71 and 23.61, respectively, qualified for school records.

The winner of each event gets the automatic bid to states, and this year with the amended format for qualification, Rile said that Jablonski had a good shot of making the PIAA Championships held at Bucknell University. However, he got the news on Monday that Jablonski missed the cut in both the 500 and 200 by mere seconds.

Still, the third-place medal was the highest finish ever for a Whitehall boy swimmer at the district meet. It also caps an outstanding career for a swimmer who has become synonymous with the boys program the last four years.

With that development, the D-11 Championships served as the final event of the year for the Whitehall swim team.

Rile knew that coming into the meet that they may fall a bit short in some of their relay races because of the need to juggle their lineups. He said everyone pulled together and exceeded expectations, dropping time in those relay races.

“That was great,” he said.

In fact, dropping time became the overriding theme at the District 11 Championships. Rile said that they had an excellent meet, and that was reflected in how well everyone same in their individual events along with the relays.

“In terms of dropping times, I felt it was an excellent meet for us,” said Rile.

Senior Martha Giletto finished 15th in the 200 freestyle, finishing in 2:05.92. Right behind her was Madelyn Kutney who was 16th with a 2:06.18 mark.

Lindsay Solderitch was 17th in the 50 freestyle, finishing in 26.08, while Kallie Lyle was 17th in the 100 butterfly with a 1:04.24 mark. Lyle was also 12th in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 1:03.83. Solderitch followed her 50 free with a 18th-place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:15.55 time.

Rachel Alulis was 21st in the 500 freestyle for the girls, hitting the wall in 5:58.79, whole Connor Barnes was 23rd in the 500 for the boys, finishing in 5:45.04.

Rachel Dolan finished 27th in the 100 butterfly in 1:09.01, while Lexi Bartosh was 22nd in the 200 freestyle at 2:12.14.

Both the boys and girls shined in the 200 freestyle relay with the girls foursome of Gillette, Lexi Bartosh, Lyle and Solderitch finishing seventh with a 1:45.25 mark. The boys finished eighth in the same race as Jablonski, Michael Nguyen, Brandon Deutsch and Ahmed Hamada combined for a 1:39.07 mark.

Rile said that he was extremely pleased with how everyone competed throughout the two-day meet, everyone rising to the occasion to put in their best performances.

Both the boys and girls finished 11th, putting a strong stamp on the 2018-19 season for the maroon and gold.