The Emmaus and Parkland swim meet has moved around on the schedule over the years, but seems to have settled into the early portion of the schedule. Both teams can use the meet to gauge where they are and what holes they have to fill to compete for leagues and districts.

While the Hornets girls team didn’t come home with a victory against the three-time defending district champion Trojans last week, it did come home with a strong performance that it can build off of for the rest of the season.

Gloria Klees had first-place swims in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events and was also a member of the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relay teams, both of which finished second.

Veronica Karboski, Sophia Harmon, and Mia Baldwin joined with Klees in the 200 and Baldwin, Karboski, and Georgia Magditch were contributors on the 400 freestyle relay team.

In addition to her second-place swim in the 200 relay, Harmon was on the second-place team in the 200-yard medley relay with Izzy Sparaco, Magditch, and Karboski. To round out her day, Harmon finished second in both the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard breaststroke events for the Hornets.

Emmaus has a small number of swimmers compared to other seasons. The fact that they were able to put together enough quality finishes to get 80 points against Parkland, which came into the season as the early favorite to win league and district championships, is a good sign.

“That’s the thing with having this meet early in the season,” said O’Connor, “you know what needs work and where you are right now and you still have time to fix things and make adjustments before you’re going up against these same swimmers in districts. I told the girls that I’m excited that they got 80 points against a great team. Coming in, I told them to be tougher than we have been in the past and we did that. It’s always a great moment and they responded well.”

In diving, Parkland took the top two spots with Keira Gilboy finishing third, just 1.6 points out of second. Ellie Bagley finished fifth to pick up a point for Emmaus in diving.

With the loss, the Emmaus girls fell to (4-1, 4-4) this season. The holiday period provides another opportunity to measure where they are because they will be competing in high profile invitationals. First is the Cumberland Valley Invitational in Mechanicsburg, followed by the New Year’s Challenge at Bucknell University and the relay teams will then compete in the Wilson Relays at Wilson West Lawn High School. Sprinkled among the invitationals are dual meets against Allen and Easton. Another measuring stick is on Jan. 19 at Wilson West Lawn when Emmaus takes on the Bulldogs in a dual meet. Wilson is perennially one of the top contenders at states, which will be in March at Bucknell University.

Parkland 106, Emmaus 80

200 medley relay: 1. Parkland (Sydney LaBaugh, Kelsey McPeek, Milla Hahn, Madison Roseman) 1:47.32, 2. Emmaus (Izzy Sparaco, Georgia Magditch, Sophia Harmon, Veronica Karboski) 1:50.38, 3. Emmaus (Mabry Krause, Druthi Reddy, Liz Mazzetti, Harper Daly) 1:58.47;

200 freestyle: 1. Sydney LaBaugh (P) 1:55.14, 2. Mia Baldwin (E) 2:02.00, 3. Gabriella Antunes (E) 2:05.72;

200 individual medley: 1. Sophia Cerimele (P) 2:07.08, 2. Milla Hahn (P) 2:19.99, 3. Georgia Magditch (E) 2:14.33;

50 freestyle: 1. Gloria Klees (E) 24.90, 2. Madison Roseman (P) 25.65, 3. Izzy Sparaco (E) 26.0;

Diving: 1. Johanna Cook (P) 178.35, 2. Sam Schultz (P) 165.85, 3. Keira Gilboy (E) 164.25;

100 butterfly: 1. Milla Hahn (P) 58.57, 2. Sophia Harmon (E) 59.89, 3. Julianne Zaffiro (P);

100 freestyle: 1. 1. Gloria Klees (E) 54.13, 2. Kelsey McPeek (P) 55.14, 3. Madison Roseman (P) 55.62;

500 freestyle: 1. Sophia Cerimele (P) 5:02.89, 2. Georgia Magditch (E) 5:26.37, 3. Ella Rafeld (P) 5:36.01;

200 freestyle relay: 1. Parkland (Kelsey McPeek, Madison Roseman, Milla Hahn, Sophia Cerimele) 1:40.15, 2. Emmaus (Veronica Karboski, Sophia Harmon, Gloria Klees, Mia Baldwin) 1:42.79, 3. Emmaus (Liz Mazzetti, Jillian Fidelman, Gabriella Antunes, Kendall Shriver) 1:49.14;

100 backstroke: 1. Sydney LaBaugh (P) 57.46, 2. Mabry Krause (E) 1:02.60, 3. Julianne Zaffiro (P) 1:03.25;

100 breaststroke: 1. Kelsey McPeek (P) 1:05.74, 2. Sophia Harom (E) 1:11.82, 3. Druthi Reddy (E) 1:14.58;

400 freestyle relay: 1. Parkland (Sophia Cerimele, Julianne Zaffiro, Mackenzie Platt, Sydney LaBaugh) 3:37.72, 2. Emmaus (Mia Baldwin, Veronica Karboski, Georgia Magditch, Gloria Klees) 3:42.79, 3. Emmaus (Jillian Fidelman, Gabriella Antunes, Mabry Krause, Izzy Sparaco) 3:54.71.