After a difficult 116-70 loss at Wilson West Lawn, the Emmaus girls’ swimming and diving team rebounded nicely to defeat Northampton 135-50.

The win puts Emmaus at 6-4 overall on the year and at 6-1 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

The Lady Hornets swept all three relay events and added wins in seven of the eight individual swimming events, while Emmaus divers failed to grab the top spot, but took the next three spots against Northampton.

Northampton senior Olivia Szerencsits took individual wins in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events, placing just ahead of Emmaus junior Morgan Gould in both distances.

Hailey Reinhard won the 200-yard individual medley and finished second to Mya Puentes in the 200-yard backstroke. Izzy Sparaco won the 100-yard freestyle and finished second to Reinhard in the IM.

Other first-place finishes in individual races went to Natalie Molnar (50 freestyle), Chloe Vlaeminck (100 butterfly), Georgia Magditch (100 freestyle) and Catharine Sirignano (100 breaststroke).

“I was pretty happy with all my events today and the team was supportive. It was a fun meet,” said Reinhard of her performance against Northampton. “We are competing hard and pushing each other and being supportive. We are grinding our way through practices and working our way toward districts and giving our best effort.”

In the loss to Wilson, Puentes still managed to tie for the lead in points scored in girls’ events, finishing with 12, and tying the Bulldogs Ella Kahn. Puentes’ day was highlighted by wins in 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly to go along with her role on the 400-yard freestyle relay team that took second, finishing close on the heels of a Wilson team. Vlaeminck completed the day with 10 points scored for her team, winning the 200-yard IM.

In relays, the meet opened with Vlaeminck and Sirignano teamed with Abby Hark and Veronica Karboski to win the 200-yard medley relay. The tandem of Karboski, a freshman, and senior Reinhard again contributing to a winning team along with Sparaco and Gould to win the 200-yard freestyle relay, almost five seconds ahead of another Emmaus relay team that edged out Northampton by .18 seconds for second place. In the girls’ finale for the meet, Emmaus took the top three spots in the 400-freestyle relay as Mia Baldwin got into the mix along with Gould, Vlaeminck and Puentes to win by just under four seconds.

Northampton’s Bella Kish turned in a score of 147.60 in diving, to beat Emmaus’ Morgan Belisle, who finished with a 130.60. Kiera Gilboy (130.05) finished third and Sara Christine (118.50) was fourth.

“The girls team is all close and we don’t have issues with each other. If anything comes up, we can talk about it and handle it, but we all get along well,” said Reinhard. “We are feeling confident about our chances the rest of the way and in districts.”

January is the most difficult month of the season for swimmers. Not just the rigors of practice and meets, but the month is also filled with growing concerns about hitting qualifying times for districts as the end of the season draws closer. Academically, midterms take up a lot of time, adding more to the schedule.

“A lot of the kids are at the tail end of midterms now and are excited to race rather than just practice and I think we saw that today,” said coach Tim O’Connor. “I am really pleased with the performances today. We saw a lot of kids in familiar events and others in different events than they might be used to. It is always nice when the end of January comes into view because of all the demands. We are seeing kids hit best times even during all of the commotion and no matter how hard I push them in practices, they come into a meet and find a way to give a little extra and that is a big testament to how much they want to compete and win.”