The final meet of the regular season produced a sweep for the Whitehall swim team, and now the focus will be to see if they can ride that crest into the district championships.

The Zephyrs hosted Allentown Central Catholic last Thursday in what was a “home” meet for the Vikings. The WHS girls prevailed 96-74, while the boys won 116-46.

By virtue of closing out the season with victories, both the girls and boys end the 2019-20 campaign with winning records. The girls finished 12-4; the boys ended 9-6-1.

Head coach Pete Rile, who was still wet after the traditional end-of-the-year dunking, said that ACC was supposed to present some problems, but the Zephyrs responded with a slew of personal best times, prompting Rile to say that he lost count of just how many.

“We came in knowing what we had to swim, knowing who they [Allentown Central Catholic] were, and we wanted to win out at the end,” said Rile.

The girls completed an exceptional season, relying on their depth that earned them points in almost every event. They were the model of consistency this year and that led to matching last year’s win total.

Once again the boys had to fight from behind, but they managed to overcome that deficit like they’ve done so many times this season.

“They came out a lot stronger than we thought,” said Rile.

That strength is what propelled them to their second winning season in their reconstituted history. The boys program began in 1964, but they’ve experienced some lapses since that early formulation, finally regrouping in 2005 without interruption. This marks their second winning season since that point, a huge accomplishment.

Rile said it took a while to build it back up, and is looking forward to next season with a strong group that returns.

“It was excellent,” said Rile. “It was a great finish the season and go into districts.”

While they didn’t have any more district qualifiers during Thursday’s meet, Rile said that some swimmers achieved consideration times as the season wound down. He said that a couple of those times were vastly improved and he’s hopeful that will earn them a spot.

He said that now he’ll concentrate one getting his swimmers to hone in on their individual performances, with a few of the girls looking to close out their careers with outstanding performances. He also believes the boys have a chance to topple some records heading into the D-11 Championships.

Rile said while it will not be as big of a contingent in years past, it’s still a solid core of swimmers.

One of those swimmers is Lindsay Solderitch. She’ll be joined by Madelyn Kutney and Lexi Bartosh at the district tourney, who will represent Whitehall girls swimming next weekend. Solderitch, who qualified for the districts in the breaststroke, won the event against ACC, posting a 1:15.73 mark.

Solderitch is a familiar name for those who follow Whitehall sports. Solderitch’s sisters Julia and Kay both gravitated to softball, while Lindsay went a different route, embracing swimming form an early age.

“I’ve been swimming since I was little and playing softball too, but I liked swimming better so I did [swimming ] club instead of softball club,” said Solderitch. “It worked better for me, I guess.”

She’s been swimming since first grade, and now she wants to continue making waves as she heads into the championships. She enters the championships after posting her best time this season in the final meet. She said her goal now is to shave off another second and hopefully reach 1:14 in the district meet.

“I’ve just been working hard at practice to drop my times the best I can,” said Solderitch.

Solderitch firmly believes that there’s room to get better and that’s what she be focusing on as she prepares to swim against the district’s best.

She said that of the four strokes that comprise swimming, breaststroke has always been her strongest. She immediately leaned toward that event.

“I was always a breaststroker,” she said.

She said that it will be a tough road to make it to states, since the times to qualify are “crazy fast.” Still, it’s something the junior is aiming for next weekend.

Solderitch has seen her time drop two seconds over the last two weeks. She said she was really surprised she finished in 1:15 against ACC since the field wasn’t that strong so there was no one to really push her. That performance gave her a big boost as she sets her sights on the AAA championships.

“I really proved to myself that I can do better at districts,” she said.

In the win, the Whitehall girls took first place in five events with Solderitch (breaststroke), Kutney (100 freestyle), Lexi Prentice (200 freestyle), and Rachel Dolan (200 Individual Medley), all taking individual honors. They also won the 400 freestyle relay.

The boys claimed nine firsts. Sabastian Solarte won the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, while Nik Martinovic won the 100 freestyle and the 100 backstroke. Additionally, Justin Lesperance won the 50 freestyle, while Ahmed Hamada won the 200 Individual medley, and Connor Barnes was tops in the 500 freestyle. They also won the 200 medley relay as well as the 400 freestyle relay.