The Emmaus High School swim teams spent their holiday break competing in a pair of highly competitive invitational meets at Cumberland Valley High School and Bucknell University.

The Hornet girls team turned in good performances in both events, including a second-place team finish in the Cumberland Valley Holiday Invitational where the host team took the team championship with a score of 562 points. Emmaus finished with a score of 441 for second place.

By all measures, Keilani Silva’s freshman season is going very well as she swam against more experienced swimmers in both meets.

At Cumberland Valley, Silva reset her personal best in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.96, good enough to take the top spot in the event, ahead of Piper Heyman of Boiling Springs, who finished with a time of 54.49.

Emmaus’ Mabry Krause (54.71) finished third and Sophia Harmon (56.04) finished fourth.

At Bucknell, Silva took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle with a season best time of 1:56.24 and also had a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle.

Many of the same participants in the 100-yard freestyle at Cumberland Valley squared off in the 50-yard freestyle, but with the finishes rearranged. Heyman took top spot with a time of 24.82, just ahead of Krause’s 24.91, which was a personal best. Silva also turned in a personal best time of 25.14 to take third in what was possibly the battle of the day.

Senior Natalie Cheplick finished second in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:17.45, less than a second out of the top spot which went to Souderton’s Morgan Goldcamp (2:16.60).

Emmaus had four swimmers finish close together in the 200-yard freestyle, led by senior Veronica Karboski’s personal best time of 2:06.13 that put her in fourth place. Next up was freshman Sriya Reddy with her personal best of 2:09.73. Sophomore Liz Mazzetti (2:10.23) was sixth and another freshman, Babs Lyons (2:10.73) finished seventh.

The Hornets had a pair of relay teams finish in second at the meet.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team with Silva, Karboski, Cheplick and Sriya Reddy was exactly one second off the pace set by Cumberland Valley. Mazzetti, Druthi Reddy, Lyons and Kendall Shriver finished fifth in the 200 free relay.

In the final event of the day, Mazzetti, Silva, Krause and Karboski finished second in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:41.83 as Cumberland Valley again won the relay event. Finishing sixth was the Emmaus team of Sriya Reddy, Lyons, Maddy Roberts and Bella Marsh.

Harmon, Cheplick, Krause, and Druthi Reddy finished fourth with a time of 1:56.55 in the 200-yard Medley Relay.

Coach Tim O’Connor switched up the 400-yard freestyle relay team for the New Year’s Challenge with Silva, Harmon, Krause and Cheplick finishing with a time of 3:43.14 and a fourth-place finish.

Krause, Harmon, Karboski, and Druthi Reddy swam the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:52.29 and finished fifth. The Hornets also placed seventh in the 200-yard freestyle relay event.

The relay teams will compete this weekend at the Wilson Relays at Wilson West Lawn High School.

The Cumberland Valley event did not feature diving. At Bucknell, Elle Bagley finished sixth and Maddy Roberts finished 11th for Emmaus.