Cerimele has record-breaking day
Sophia Cerimele took a year off from competing as a member of the Parkland swimming team and then returned for her senior season. Apparently during her time away she wrote a pretty impressive script and followed it perfectly at the District 11 swimming championships, which got underway Friday at Parkland High School.
Parkland’s 200-yard medley relay team opened the festivities with not just a win but set both a school and district record with a time of 1:44.04. Cerimele was the lone senior on the team and was joined by freshman Sydney LaBaugh and sophomores Kelsey McPeek and Milla Hahn.
In the 200-yard IM, Cerimele had over a five-second cushion as she again set a school and district record with a time of 2:03.31. Swimming in her third event of the day, Cerimele also bested the district record when she finished with a time of 55.58, just 00.05 ahead of the previous best time. Unfortunately for Cerimele, she was not the only swimmer to break the mark as East Stroudsburg South’s Kseniia Luniushina smashed the record by finishing in 54.31 to take gold.
“I was aware of the school record in the IM, and I have been aiming to beat it all season, so I couldn’t believe it when I looked up and saw my time,” said Cerimele. “I was hoping that would happen and I definitely knew it was within reach.”
Luniushina was also awarded the EPC Swimmer of the Year trophy as the best girls swimmer in the conference based on a point formula from the season. The boys winner was Liberty’s Malcolm Collins.
Parkland girls had a 264-219 lead over Emmaus in the team standings and are followed by Southern Lehigh (155), Liberty (139.5), and Nazareth (111).
Collins won gold in the 200-yard IM for the second straight year. Collins posted a time of 1:53.65, besting Emmaus Logan Hartman by :02.81 and will compete at states.
“My qualifying time was about five seconds better than my closest competition, so I felt pretty good coming into the race. Even though I was confident, I was a little nervous but the confidence took over and I was really happy with the race,” said Collins.
The Emmaus boys team has a 16-year streak of winning district gold that is in jeopardy this season as Parkland snapped the Hornets’ hold on EPC championships this season and have a 277-264 edge in the team standings.
Logan Shriver helped Emmaus with a win in the 200-yard freestyle in a close battle against Whitehall’s Aaron Stinner that saw Shriver have just a 00.06 advantage at the end of the race.
“We’re definitely motivated and it’s hard to keep long streaks going and we’re hoping to continue it. We just have to do our best to keep it going,” said the Emmaus senior.
While Stinner was nosed out for gold in the 200-yard freestyle, teammate Ian Thomas put together a gold medal win in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.84.
Parkland and Emmaus were battling for the top spot among the boys teams with Nazareth (141 points) is third, Liberty (126) and Northampton (111) round out the top five teams.
The 3A swimmers were to compete in sessions Saturday afternoon but ended too late for this edition.
Swimmers who win gold medals are given automatic berths into the PIAA swimming championships, which will be held March 13-16 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.
Other swimmers will have to wait to see if their times are good enough to earn at-large bids into states.