Emmaus had four girls qualify to swim at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships held at Bucknell University last week. The four – seniors Mya Puentes and Chloe Vlaeminck, junior Hailey Reinhard, and sophomore Izzy Sparaco – teamed up to form the 200-yard medley relay team while Puentes and Vlaeminck both swam individual events.

Unfortunately, the event started with a heartbreaking finish for the foursome as it was just :00.51 seconds short of qualifying for the finals. Instead, the Hornet relay took an 18th-place finish.

“We all did our best and of course, the competition is really tough when you get to that level,” said Vlaeminck. “It was still nice to be out there as a senior and get to compete with my high school teammates for the last time.”

In districts, Vlaeminck won gold in both the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard breaststroke. She won the breaststroke with a time of 1:06.87 and dropped her time to 1:06.48 in the preliminary round of states. Unfortunately, the improved time left her just 0.20 seconds away from gaining a trip to the finals of the breaststroke.

In the individual medley, Vlaeminck turned in a slower time in the prelims than she did in districts – 2:09.35 compared to 2:07.94 - but did qualify for the consolation final where she finished with a time of 2:08.75 to finish in 14th place.

“It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way that it goes,” said the Niagara University recruit. “It was still a lot of fun to be there with the whole team since last season was so limited (because of COVID). It was great to be able to watch their swims and have them cheering me on from the deck. It’s a great memory.”

Hornet head coach Tim O’Connor believes that all his student-athletes swam well, and he was happy with the camaraderie that the team built throughout the season and how they banded together.

“I was pleased with how our kids performed,” said O’Connor of the most recent trip to states. “Chloe really was focused on having an opportunity to race in the consolation finals and I think she may have been a little disappointed in her times, but she really focused and gave it her all.”

O’Connor believes that both the boys and girls teams put in all the necessary work during the season and were prepared for states. Emmaus will lose several senior swimmers creating opportunities for younger swimmers to fill next season.

“I am super proud of our seniors and how they performed,” O’Connor said. “Most importantly, our returning swimmers learned so much that they can immediately put into practice to perform at that level or higher moving forward.”