Salisbury’s Phoebe Ballek went to the District 11 Swimming Championships as the defending champ in two events. She came away as a two-time gold medalists in both events.

The Salisbury High School junior won the 500-yard freestyle by a wide margin, touching the wall more the wall more than 22 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. She was seeded first by 15 seconds and swam the whole race with a comfortable lead.

“It’s definitely your own kind of race,” she said. “I knew that going in. I was like a ‘this is going to be all in my head.’ Relying on my own pace and seeing my teammates cheering me on really helped.”

Ballek, who took fourth in the 500 as a freshman and has won the race each of the past two years, swam this year’s event in 5:15.35. She was hoping for anything under 5:20.

“I made that so I’m very happy with that,” she said. “It definitely will seed me well for states.”

She also expects a big drop in time at states, where last year she took of nine seconds. After swimming a 5:22 at districts last year, Ballek turned in a career-best 5:13 at states.

“If we keep that same pattern, hopefully we see a lot of drop,” she said Saturday at Parkland High School, the site of the annual district championship meet.

Ballek also defended her district title in the 200 freestyle, another event in which she has earned a medal all three years of high school. She swam that in 1:58.32 last Friday with teammate Olivia Amorim in second place at 2:00.69.

“I went a season best, which is a win, like the 500,” Ballek said. “It was a god race. It will seed me fine for states. I was looking to go a little bit faster.”

Amorim earned a pair of silver medals in her two individual events at districts, while displaying her versatility. She now owns district medals four different district events.

As a freshman Amorim won gold in the individual medley then switched to butterfly as a sophomore and won gold in that event. But both of those are swum on the same day as the 200 freestyle.

This year she switched to the breaststroke, which is contested on the second day of the meet and allows her to have one individual event each day.

“Last year I did two events the same day and I didn’t really feel like I had enough time to prepare myself for each one,” she said.

After trying different events, one stuck out.

“I started really liking the 100 breaststroke,” Amorim said. “The most important thing is that I actually enjoy the event. That’s how I’m going to do well.”

Amorim did very well, taking second place in the breaststroke in 1:08.22 and, like Ballek, has earned a medal in all six individual events she’s entered over three years. She also surprised herself by dropping time at districts.

“It was really unexpected. I was really happy with how I performed,” she said. “I dropped over a second from my best in-season time.

“I’m hoping if I make it to states I go under 2 (minutes), which is like my best time overall.”

While Ballek qualifies for states automatically as a district champ, Amorim will have to wait until times from other districts are tabulated and hope hers is fast enough to qualify. Both swimmers have qualified for states each of their first two seasons of high school swimming.

The two juniors also helped a pair of Salisbury relay teams earn district medals, which go to the top four finishers in each event.

The Falcons’ girls 400-yard freestyle relay team took fourth place with a time of 1:48.29. Ballek and Amorim were joined by teammates and junior classmates Gwyn DeFazio and Meredith Kelley on that relay.

The Falcon girls 400 freestyle relay also took fourth place, finishing in 4:00.29 with the team of Ballek, Kelley, Amorim and junior Samantha Conrad.

Also earning a medal for Salisbury was freshman Caeden Amorim, who swam the boys 200-yard individual medley in 2:05.92. He also just missed out on a medal in the breaststroke with a fifth-place finish.

The Salisbury boys 200-yard freestyle relay team finished sixth at districts in a time of 1:39.90. That team included seniors Cameron Kubinsky, Joshua Orach and Greg Tenzer and junior Emerson Juhasz.

Two other Salisbury boys relays both finished seventh. The medley relay team of Orach,Caeden Amorim, Rafael Carpo and Pablo Reyes swam the event it 2:00.17. The 400 free relay team of Kubinsky, Tenzer, Caeden Amorim and Juhasz finished in 3:39.94.

Salisbury’s girls medley relay team took eight place in 2:12.56 with the foursome of Conrad, DeFazio, freshman Rachel McKelvey and junior Soledad Lausch.

Other Salisbury swimmers who competed in individual events at districts include Kelley (ninth in 200 free, 2:19.56); Conrad (10th in 100 backstroke, 1:14.25); Juhasz (11th in 50 free, 24.34 and 11th in 500 free, 5:44.92); DeFazio (12th in breaststroke, 1:19.08 and 16th in 50 free, 28.16); Kubinsky (13th in 200 IM, 2:23.07 and 14th in backstroke,1:05.80); Tenzer (16th in 200 free, 2:07.09); Lydia Fogel (13th in 200 free, 2:26.83 and 14th in 500 free, 6:24.43), McKelvey (13th in 100 butterfly in 1:12.98); Lausch (14th in 100 fly 1:17.12); and Orach (19th in 50 free, 26.03)

Salisbury’s girls team finished third in the team standings with 192 points, behind district champ Blue Mountain (321) and second-place Saucon Valley (239) with Moravian Academy (182) fourth and Schuylkill Haven (174) fifth.

The Falcon boys team took eighth place. Southern Lehigh, which competed in Class 3A in girls, took the 2A boys title with 390 points. Blue Mountain was second with 356, followed by Pottsville (228), Central Catholic (201) and Saucon Valley (169) to round out the top five.

While a lot of the Falcons will be back next season, Kubinsky, a four-year varsity swimmer, leaves a big hole to fill on the boys team.

“He had top times in everything he did [at districts],” said Salisbury head coach Mackenzie Sikora. “I’m happy to see that.”