The Whitehall Zephyrs swam away with eight medals, multiple school records, and a special award at the District XI Class 3A Swimming Championships on March 1 and March 2 at Parkland High School.

Whitehall senior Ian Thomas was presented the Dennis McGinley Award for being the outstanding male swimmer in Class 3A after being crowned district champ in the 50 freestyle and the 100 free.

“It’s been two weeks of tapering and focusing on the 50, and kind of taking my mind off the 100,” Thomas said. “There was good and bad stuff getting in my own head... I’m happy I was able to execute, and I really would’ve been happy with whatever, just going out for my senior year.”

Thomas’s time in the 50 free was 20.84, and his time in the 100 free was 46.03.

“There were some great swimmers in that 50,” he said. “My start felt pretty good. My coaches were big on not staying under the water too long because my kick isn’t crazy strong. The wall, I was able to get a quick glimpse, and I think I flipped first. I’m excited, and I’m happy my senior year I can head to states.”

Zephyr senior Aaron Stinner was the silver medalist in the 200 free and the 500 free.

“It was a really good race, really close, but I’m still happy with it, and there’s a lot of good things to take away from it,” said Stinner, regarding the 200. “Hopefully, I’ll get another chance with it at states, but I’m still really happy about it.”

Stinner’s time in the 200 free was 1:43.33. Emmaus’s Logan Shriver out touched Stinner with a time of 1:43.27.

“We were right next to each other. I saw him the whole race,” Stinner said. “Especially for the first half of the race, I felt really good. Felt some fatigue at the end. My senior year, coming here with the school record, it feels really good.”

Stinner’s time in the 500 free was 4:38.76 to Shriver’s first place finish of 4:38.37.

Whitehall coach Pete Rile reacted to Stinner and Thomas’s accomplishments after the events of Day 1.

“The 50 free is such a strange race in that just to start, was within a second from the top eight spots. Ian did a phenomenal job. Great start, phenomenal turn, and he just walked away at the end, but it was a lot of work for him,” Coach Rile said. “I felt bad for Aaron. You can’t fault a guy for going and doing his best by a second in a race he’s been swimming forever. He did his best time, and six hundredths of a second, I can’t stop a watch that fast. It was a great race. It was disappointing, looking for that gold. Silver’s nothing to laugh at, surely enough to get us up to states.”

The Zephyrs made the most of their last chance to medal in the final event of the district meet, the 400 free relay, with a fourth-place finish and a step on the podium for Stinner, Thomas, Andrew Deutsch, and Gabe O’Brien.

“My coach was talking to me throughout the whole meet. I was really nervous about the whole thing, but I knew that this last record would wipe the board for this group of boys, and I was so excited and pumped up throughout the whole thing,” said O’Brien, the relay team’s anchor. “I looked up at the board, and it took me a second to calibrate everything, and once I saw it, I was so excited, and they were going crazy, so I need we did something right.”

Stinner was first off the block.

“This means a whole lot. These are my friends since when I was little, and getting to this point and ending my high school career on a note where we medaled at districts, that’s huge, and dropping 10 seconds to get the school record, that means everything to me,” Stinner said. “Having it actually happen was awesome because we’ve had DQs and so many mistakes throughout the year. Having this solidified was great.”

Whitehall’s time was 3:20.54.

“I was talking to myself to make sure not to ruin what Aaron started,” said Thomas, who swam second. “I tried to run through the same mental checks that I did with the 100 free event, to take it by each 50.”

Deutsch swam next.

“It felt like an eternity from Ian flip turning at the other end and coming back, but I was locked in and thinking about the big picture,” Deutsch said. “I could tell when I was at the end, struggling to find the last bit of energy, kicking as hard as I can, as soon as I touched the wall I knew I did as best as I could.”

The foursome accomplished one more feat at districts, one they’d been aiming for all season: the school record in the 200 free relay, now set at 1:29.69.

“We were focusing on it all two or three weeks of practice, and it paid off,” said O’Brien. “I knew we had it by a good amount because our time was much faster.”

Next week, Thomas and Stinner will compete in two events apiece at the PIAA Class 3A State Swimming Championships at Bucknell University.