The Parkland girls swim team pushed its record to 3-0 recently with its biggest win of the season, beating rival Emmaus 98-88.

The win came after Emmaus (2-1) had a huge start to the meet with 13 of its 15 swimmers in the first five races setting lifetime best times.

The most impressive performance in the meet came from Parkland senior Kayla Johnson as she pushes ever closer to the school record in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. The record in each is held by Siena Salvaggio, who went on to swim for Penn State. In the 50 freestyle, Johnson finished with a time of 23.37, just .44 seconds behind Salvaggio’s mark from 2016. In the 100 freestyle, Salvaggio’s high school best time was 49.34 and Johnson swam the event in 51.59 against Emmaus, just over two seconds behind the school record.

“Yeah, that feels phenomenal, really,” said Johnson of chasing an athlete with the stature of Salvaggio. “When I was a freshman, I never dreamed of touching that mark, but as I started to get faster I thought that I had a chance of breaking it when I hit my senior year. Now, I am close, and I think that it will happen.”

Johnson also was part of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team with fellow senior Hillary Roth, junior Natasha Goldman, and sophomore Madison Roseman in the only relay event win of the day for Parkland.

“She is really trying to go after a milestone and it is really a compliment to be compared to someone like Siena Salvaggio, who was one of the best athletes in any sport to come through Parkland,” said coach Rob Robitaille of Johnson’s performance. “Kayla is doing great and just four and a half years ago she wasn’t swimming and now, she is chasing school records. Her college program is going to get nothing but growth from her.”

Senior Claire Weaver won two individual races, taking both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events, while Roth won the 100 butterfly.

In diving, Nicole Stofko bested five other divers and outpaced Emmaus’ Morgan Belisle by a score of 194.90 to 167.20 in the seven-dive event.

Emmaus held a two-point edge over Parkland early in the meet, but the Lady Trojans took the lead and started to pull away. Weaver’s win in the 500 gave Parkland an eight-point lead over the Hornets and when she returned to win the 200, the lead stretched to 14 points.

It was Johnson’s runaway win in the 100 freestyle that pushed the lead to its high point at 16 points. Emmaus put together a strong showing in the 400-yard freestyle relay to close the gap, but it was not enough.

“It was close in the beginning, but after diving we really started to get into gear and finished with a good win, so it was a great day for us,” said Johnson.

Robitaille credited Emmaus’ swimmers for their fast start and setting multiple career-best times. He also praised his team for showing consistency throughout the meet and believes that they are only going to get stronger as the season progresses.

“The girls were very resilient today, but I just don’t think this is us at our best yet,” Robitaille said. “There is a lot of room for growth. We knew the job today was the long haul. It could have gone a lot of different ways, but the girls team showed a lot of good resilience, but I still don’t think this is our best.”

Parkland opened with wins over Pocono Mountain West (133-34) and Stroudsburg (72-22) before facing their biggest challenge of the season against Emmaus. The Lady Trojans are chasing their third straight EPC championship and are the defending District 11 champions.