Northampton swimmers Connor Oswald, Ryan Franke, Ambrose Roland, and Thomas Nichols were fourth place medal winners after placing in the 200 free relay at the District XI Class 3A Swimming Championships on Saturday at Parkland High School.

The foursome finished the relay with a time of 1:34.72, edging out fifth place finisher Pocono Mountain West with a time of 1:34.89.

“I went in, and my underwaters felt good, but I was just trying to catch that guy next to me, and I was pushing, I was pushing, and it didn’t happen until the last 10 yards or so, and I pushed past him,” said Nichols, who was the anchor. “It felt good. Really, really good.”

Oswald led off, followed by Franke, and then Roland.

“My turns were strong. I feel like we had a pretty decent start on that relay and carried it out for the entire thing,” Oswald said. “For sure, lane seven pushed us harder. We were just hoping to move up and do better.”

The K-Kids were in lane eight, and Pocono Mountain West was in lane seven.

“I was watching the lane next to me and that played a big part in how hard I was pushed. Our main goal was to beat Pocono Mountain West,” said Nichols. “This is the first time we’ve raced another team. We’ve only been racing ourselves and our teammates, so to have another relay that close, made a really, really big difference, and it felt great.”

Later in the day, Oswald placed fifth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.25.

“I couldn’t be more happy with the way they swam. They really moved up in their seeds and dropped time,” said Northampton coach Cullen Mentzell. “Our kids did well in the virtual meets this season and put up some really good times.”