The KIDS Swim Club dove into their summer season on Thursday night, June 15, with an away meet against the Lower Macungie Lasers. The KIDS continued their early summer season meets with their first home meet against Macungie on Monday (June 19) and an away meet on Thursday, June 22 vs. Palmerton.

“So far, the summer season has been fun,” commented KIDS head coach Cullen Mentzell. “We’ve had three meets with one win. We were competitive with Lower Macungie and defeated Palmerton. Macungie is always a strong team; they won championships last year.”

The summer swim team rostered 92 swimmers this season, with a good mix of experienced and new swimmers.

“We have a really nice mix of swimmers,” explained Mentzell. “Some of our swimmers have been swimming for several years, and others just joined this summer or in the spring with the swim for your school program.”

While highlights of their three initial meets are too numerous to mention, the team’s win over Palmerton brought the most notable performance. Among them, the girls 13 & over medley relay team (Gigi Esteban, Megan Layton, Tyla Block, and Olivia Kuhns) and the boys 13 & over medley relay team (Joseph Kennedy, Shane Foley, Josiah Hippert, and Henry Schoenberger) both placed first in Thursday’s meet against Palmerton.

Other great performances at the Palmerton meet included a one-two finish for Luca and Trace Snellmen in the boys 8 and under 25-yard breaststroke. Gianni and Joseph Caruso also took first and second place in the boys’ 11-12 100-yard individual medley event. Zua Esteban grabbed three first-place finishes for the girls 11-12-year-old age group; all were 50-yard races in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly. Teammates Maliya Walp and Lance Armetta also grabbed three first-place finishes for the girls 13-14 age group and boys 9-10 age group, respectively. Walp’s first-place finishes came in the 50-yard freestyle, breaststroke, and butterfly, while Armetta placed first in the 25-yard freestyle, butterfly, and backstroke.

The KIDS Summer Swim Team competes with seven other Lehigh Valley summer swim clubs in the Suburban Swim League. The summer season includes swimmers of all levels from ages 6-18.

“It’s nice to have a team with swimmers in grades K-12 in Northampton. It gives the swimmers and parents a chance to see everybody at one meet and not in split sessions,” explains Mentzell. “It also allows the younger swimmers a chance to watch the older swimmers.”

Nothing displays the varied ages of swimmers on the summer team more than the all-ages crescendo events. These 5-person, 200 yard freestyle relay events for the girls and boys are the final two events of the summer season meets and bring a wave of cheers from swimmers and spectators alike. Swimming the crescendo event for the girls team at the KIDS first home meet vs. Macungie were Norah Goldfeder (8), Sarah Harding (11), Sophia Pina (15), Gigi Esteban (14) and Zua Esteban (10). For the final event of the evening, the boys crescendo relay team included Dante Esteban (8), Joseph Caruso (12), Ethan Brobst (16), Henry Schoenberger (13) and Lance Armetta (10). Both teams placed first in their respective events.

Sitting at a 2-1 season, Coach Mentzell seems pleased overall, “The season has been going well, We still have four meets to go, and hopefully they are competitive meets.”

The KIDS are looking forward to welcoming Bethlehem for their second home meet on Thursday, June 29, starting at 6 p.m. at the Gwen L. Whildin Natatorium in the Northampton Middle School.