The PIAA District XI AAA Championship Meet began last Friday with the diving competition and culminating on Saturday, Feb. 26, with two sessions of swimming events. Northampton sent 20 swimmers and divers to the district championship meet in both individual and relay events with great results.

The Northampton divers provided a big points boost to the team total with great results in the boys’ 1 meter diving competition, Junior Alex Szeplaki placed third followed closely by brother Andrew Szeplaki in fourth place. Northampton’s Sam Hayes achieved a 10th-place finish. In the girls’ competition, Northampton’s Isabella Kish had a stunning performance, winning a silver medal and securing a spot in the state diving meet.

Northampton began the swimming portion of their championship meet with an eighth-place finish by the girls’ 200 medley relay team of Brenna Caley, Gabriella Oswald, Gigi Esteban and Sophia Pina, dropping over 3 seconds from their entry time. Up next, the boys’ 200 medley relay team of Josiah Hippert, Aiden Kuntz, Ethan Brobst and Tobias Scott placed fifth overall.

The individual events began with the girls 200 freestyle where sophomore Toni Bubier dropped over a second from her seed time, placing 14th overall. In the boys 200 freestyle, sophomore Nicholas Isaac had a good time drop and an overall 14th place finish. Two Northampton athletes made the cut in the boys 200 individual medley event with Ethan Brobst placing 14th overall followed by freshman Nathan Scheirer in 15th place. As the crowd favorite, the lightning-fast 50 freestyle sprint came to the starting blocks Northampton’s Olivia Kuhns placed 18th with a nice time drop. For the boys, senior Ryan Franke achieved a 7th place finish, covering 50 yards in a blistering 22.83. Also in the 50 freestyle, teammates Tobias Scott and Steven Carrasco grabbed 22nd and 23rd place finishes. In the final individual event of session 1, Northampton’s Brenna Caley placed 16th in the girls 100 freestyle event and Northampton’s Logan Saylor had a substantial time drop to achieve 14th place, coming in just behind Northampton’s Josiah Hippert with a strong swim in 13th place.

In the girl’s 200 freestyle relay the Northampton team of Kuhns, Caley, Ava Keenan and Oswald grabbed 8th place with the boys relay team of Franke, Scott, Isaac and Saylor placing 9th.

In the second session, Northampton’s Ryan Franke achieved 11th place in the boy’s 100 freestyle. Up next, the grueling 20-lap girls 500 freestyle event produced two excellent time drops by Northampton’s Toni Bubier placing 13th and Northampton’s Gigi Esteban placing 15th. For the boys, Northampton’s Logan Saylor dropped over 6 seconds to place 10th overall in the 500 freestyle event followed by teammate Ethan Brobst in 12th place also with almost a six second drop. Northampton senior Brenna Caley had a great showing in the girl’s 100 backstroke event placing 16th and dropping half a second off her season best time. Following Caley’s lead, Northampton freshman Josiah Hippert posted another strong Northampton swim placing 15th overall with just over half a second dropped from his season best time. The final event of the championship meet was the 400 freestyle relay were the Northampton girls team of Oswald, Bubier, Keenan and Kuhns placed eighth, dropping over 6 seconds from their entry time. Finally, the boys of Franke, Hippert, Scott and Saylor finished out a terrific championship showing with a 6th place finish and a reduction of over 7 seconds off their entry time.

“This year I was really happy with the depth of the team,” commented Northampton head coach Cullen Mentzell when asked about any closing thoughts for the 2023-2024 swim season.

In the wake of some great individual and relay swims during this district championship meet, Mentzell was already looking toward what is next.

“It was a really fun team to coach this year,” said Mentzell. “The kids grew so much and had an awesome regular season, and I’m already looking forward to next year.”