Whitehall’s girls swim team avenged last season’s loss to Pocono Mountain West with a resounding 125.5-41.5 home-opening victory over the Panthers on Dec. 5.

“We saw some excellent, new best times. Our brand-new girls finished races. We had a whole bunch of new people hitting .500 that never did that before, and we were able to fill all the events,” said Whitehall coach Pete Rile. “We wanted to see our disqualifications drop off. We saw a bunch in relays, not in strokes, so we’re feeling better in that regard.”

Whitehall’s Kelly Wallitsch, Kendra Musselman, Kyra Giedl, and Ryann Giedl were the meet’s first winners, clinching the 200 medley relay with a time of 2:13.38.

Zephyr freshman Greta O’Brien followed up with a 2:28.19 win in the 200 free.

“We saw, from our freshman, Greta O’Brien, stepping up as though she was an upperclassman and been doing this for a long time. A lot of things we’re teaching them in practice, they were doing today. We still have a lot of instruction to go,” Coach Rile said. “In terms of both boys and girls, we didn’t get touched out at the end. We got most, if not all touches today, and that was really well done, and you don’t see that all the time.”

Kyra Giedl won the next girls event, the 200 IM, with a time of 2:37.07 and later, the 100 fly in 1:12.27.

Musselman, a senior, took first place in the 50 free in 29.09 and the in 100 free in 1:03.87.

“My 50 free was a best time for varsity. My 100, I’m trying to knock a couple seconds off that one. I felt pretty good, pretty consistent about both of my races, though,” Musselman said. “I’m feeling pretty good (about the season). We got our numbers back up, so we have a lot of girls this year, hoping to make a lot of progress on the team. We have a rec. team, Whitehall Waves, so a lot of our team are freshmen.”

Ryann Giedl won the 500 free with a time of 6:56.55.

Emma Sargent, Musselman, Kyra Giedl, and Jenna Giedl combined for a 2:00.13 victory in the 200 free relay.

Wallitsch was the 100 backstroke winner with a time of 1:18.13, and Jenna Giedl earned first-place points in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:27.44 in an exciting finish where Sargent surged to out touch West’s Sienna McNamara-Burkett for second-place points.

Wallitsch, O’Brien, Ryann Giedl, and Jenna Giedl wrapped up the girls meet with a 400 free relay win in 4:35.17.

Whitehall will host Parkland in its next meet on Dec. 12.

“A third of our team is all new people, so we’re definitely learning,” said Rile. “I was surprised Pocono Mountain didn’t have the numbers we expected. We lost the girls meet to them last year, and the boys was closer, so it was surprising.”

Rile also noted that Liberty’s numbers are down after scrimmaging the Hurricanes on Saturday.