North Penn starts fast in leagues
First-place finishes came in all sizes for North Penn Friday night.
“The tallest girl on the team and the shortest girl on the team,” kidded Charlotte Thamm, looking up at her teammate, Kaelan Daly, while posing for a photo after their meet at Souderton Area High School.
Different in stature but both very effective in the water, Daly and Thamm helped get the Knights off to a fast start at the Suburban One League Colonial Division Championships.
“I think it was great to see the whole team swimming really well,” Daly said, “and feeding off of that energy. We’re excited for the rest of the season because this is a good indicator of what we can do.”
Daly finished first in both the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.37) and 100 free (52.47), and also led off the winning 200 medley relay and anchored the fastest 200 free relay.
Thamm was tops in the 100 fly (59.90) and 100 back (1:00.21) and also swam on both the medley and the 200 free relay to give the Knights a tremendous open
ing kick to their postseason.
Only North Penn, Pennridge and Souderton Area competed at Souderton, with Central Bucks South, West and East competing at South. The times would be combined later Friday night for the official scoring, but there was a feeling North Penn did what it had to do to capture another division title.
“I think we’re really excited to see what we can do as a team,” Thamm said. “We’re a younger team this year — we had a lot of great athletes graduate last year.
“I think there’s a lot of young, fresh athletes who are gonna do a lot of amazing things this season.”
Daly and Thamm, both seniors, helped lead the way.
The medley relay of Daly, senior Maddie Fritz, Thamm and freshman Emma Raser — one of the promising youngsters — got it started with a 1:48.34.
Thamm, sophomore Kayla Stressman, Fritz and Daly touched first in the 200 free with a 1:38.54.
Daly felt quite at home in the 200 and 100 freestyles.
“I’ve been kind of bouncing around events the past couple of years,” Daly said with a smile, “so my freestyles felt really good.
“And to start off with a good medley and to have a good 200 free relay right before my other individual is good to get that ball rolling. And we’re all really supportive so I think that really motivated me to wanna do well and show it for my team.”
North Penn also had top times in the 200 IM (Lizzy Koerper) and 500 free (Emma Raser).
“The girls had a fantastic meet,” Knights coach Jeff Faikish said. “I was proud of a lot of their swims. A lot of girls walked out of here today really happy and that was a good thing.”
Freshman Jessica Burns had a sensational meet for host Souderton, touching first in both the 50 free (24.95) and 100 breast (1:05.16).