On March 4-5, the Northampton swim team advanced to the PIAA District XI AAA Swimming Championships held at Emmaus High School and closed out the 2021-2022 swim season with a great performance at districts.

Among the highlights of the championship meet were a third -place finish in the boys 1 meter diving event by Northampton’s Boden Burkhart. The junior scored 321.85 points to clinch a bronze medal. For the girls diving team, Northampton freshman diver Isabella Kish placed 5th with a score of 288.70. Both diving performances place the Northampton team among some of the top diving teams in the district.

Also medaling in this year’s district championship meet was Northampton senior Olivia Szerencsits. Szerencsits, who has been no stranger to the headlines throughout her high school swimming career, ended her last high school season with a silver medal in the girls 500 freestyle event with a final time of 5:14.10. This event has long been a favorite of Szerencsits as she frequently dominated the results whenever she swam the 500 during Northampton’s regular dual meet schedule.

In 2020, Szerencsits advanced to the Pennsylvania states final for the 500 freestyle where she placed 27th in state competition. Despite just being edged out for another state championship appearance this year, Szerencsits ended the season with a season-best performance in her signature event. Szerencsits also competed in the 200 freestyle and placed 4th with a time of 1:57.80 as well as joining her teammates in two of Northampton’s relay teams.

In other individual district championship event appearances for Northampton, Ava Gower finished 12th in the girls 100 butterfly and Ryan Franke claimed 14th in the boys 100 freestyle and 13th in the boys 100 backstroke events.

Relay teams left their mark on the District 11 Championships as Northampton’s girls 200 medley relay team of Gower, Andrea Davidson, Gabriella Oswald, and Brenna Caley finished 9th overall. Oswald, Gower, Caley and Szerencsits also teamed up for a 9th place finish in the girls 200 freestyle relay and an 8th place finish in the girls 400 freestyle relay.

For the boys relay events, the team of Gabriel Gower, Ethan Brobst, Bryce Torres and Stephen Carrasco finished 14th in the 200 medley relay. The relay team of Franke, Brobst, Torres and Carrasco finished 13th in 200 freestyle event and 8th place in the 400 freestyle relay.

“After last year where districts was such a different experience, it was very sterile and almost boring. It was great to see the kids really get to experience what districts is like,” expressed Northampton head coach Cullen Mentzell.

Mentzell went on to explain that the last week of the season yielded district qualifying times and season best times for several of the Northampton swimmers as this fairly young team hit their stride and began to really drop times and see the results of a season of hard work.

“The most exciting thing about districts this year, for me,” explained Mentzell, “is that of all the kids that went to districts [for Northampton] there was only one senior.”

Mentzell added he is excited about the potential for this team to continue to build on this season next year, as he hopes to see his young team continue to train and grow even in the offseason.