The swimming season is moving closer to the finale at Bucknell University when swimmers and divers compete in states. To have any chance of going to Bucknell, the first thing to do is qualify for the District 11 championships, which are coming up March 3 and 4 at Parkland High School. The last chance for swimmers to earn a qualifying time for the district championship meet came this past weekend when they competed in the Last Chance Meet at Emmaus High School.

The meet, which was the brainchild of former Hornet swimming coach Mike Seip 30 years ago, gives swimmers that last opportunity to post a time that will qualify them and put them in the top 16 times in the district.

Emmaus swimmers took their best shot Saturday, with many posting qualifying times and some reaching personal best times in the event.

Senior Jack Engel finished among the top five times in both the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard freestyle. His time of 1:55.95 was the fourth fastest in the freestyle and finishing with a time of :56.30 in the butterfly gave him the fifth-best time of the day. Classmate Jack Niggel posted the fastest time of the day in the 500-yard freestyle, an event that saw three Emmaus swimmers finish in the top six. Niggel finished with a time of 5:06.59, while a pair of freshmen, Aaron Kenny and Will Reichart, posted times of 5:23.60 and 5:34.06, respectively.

Another freshman, Reid Lovett, finished the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.66, the second-best time of the day.

Two sophomores also finished with top five times. Julian Vlaeminck swam the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.86, the second fastest time of the meet, and Jared Petre had the fifth fastest time in the 50-yard freestyle when he finished in :23.30.

Coach Tim O’Connor was happy with the performance of his swimmers and noted that a number of them posted personal best times in their events. Now, all they can do is wait to see if those times are among the 16 fastest of the season.

“This year felt like old times as we had so many teams and kids performing for the opportunity to qualify for the 16 spots in each event,” said O’Connor. “The best was seeing all the team spirit of our kids and the other 20-plus schools seeing great camaraderie, sportsmanship, and joy. I love this meet because of the spirit and the kids keep these memories for a lifetime.”