The Parkland High School boys and girls swim teams open their 2024-25 regular season next week and have a lot of excitement around the program heading into the new year.

“As we embark on this season, I am excited about a number of different things,” said head coach Allison McPeek. “We have a couple of new coaches on our staff that bring a wealth of knowledge and are excited to be joining our team. I am excited to continue to build upon what we have accomplished over the last two years and to continue to work toward the goals that we have for both the boys and girls teams.”

McPeek is happy with the number of student-athletes that she has competing for both the boys and girls teams. There are two seniors on the girls roster in Mackenzie Platt and Julianne Zaffiro and 10 on the boys side, including Doug Bell, Colton Chung, Sam Ciampittiello, Harry Epstein, Eric Friday, Zane Kanarr, Gabriel Krizel, Brad Kunz, Pedro Teran Moreno and Michael Toth.

“We are excited to have a large team this year with 32 swimmers on our boys team and 40 on our girls team,” McPeek said. “We will have a large number of competitors that we will be counting on to deliver for our program both from an individual side and the team aspect.”

Parkland graduated some strong seniors in district record-setter Sophia Cerimele and Madison Roseman on the girls side, along with district medalists Dannik Khais and Logan Hartman on the boys side.

Parkland swept the girls relays at last year’s district championship meet and several members of those teams are back this year, including juniors Milla Hahn and Kelsey McPeek, who both swam on the district record-setting and state medal-winning medley relay team.

Hahn, who swam the anchor leg of the MR, also was part of a district champion 400 freestyle relay team and earned a pair of individual district medals last season.

Kelsey McPeek swam on the winning 200 free relay at districts and won the individual breaststroke before earning a state medal in the event with an eighth-place finish.

Zaffiro was also part of both of last year’s district-winning freestyle relay teams.

Sophomore Sydney LeBaugh returns after winning the 100 freestyle at last year’s district meet and taking second in backstroke. She made consolation finals in two events (backstroke, 100 free) at the 2024 state championship meet and was part of the Trojans’ MR and 200 free relay.

In boys events, Kunz returns after earning the District 11 diving gold medal last season.

Sophomore Dominic Faenza returns to the Trojan boys team after placing in the top five in all four of his events at last year’s district meet. His best individual finish came in the 500 free, where he finished third overall.

Parkland also returns three of the four members of last years’ district runner up 400 free relay team in Krizel, Faenza and sophomore Jacob Piccini.

The Trojans enter the season as defending Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 3A champions on both the girls and boys sides. McPeek feels that she has the rosters talented and experienced enough to be able to accomplish their goals and defend those titles, along with qualifying many different swimmers for the postseason.

“Our goal this year is to have as many athletes as possible make the district team, defend our district titles for both the boys and girls teams and to have as many athletes as possible on our states meet roster,” said McPeek. “The roster this year on both sides is very talented so I think we will be able to accomplish these goals.”

Parkland begins its 2024-25 campaign at home against conference opponent East Stroudsburg South.