The annual swim meet between Pennridge and Quakertown was once the meet of the season for both programs, back in the days when they shared the pool at the Quakertown YMCA .
Pennridge has its own natatorium now, but the Suburban One League Continental Conference tilt with Quakertown hasn’t lost its luster for either team.
They met on Friday with host Pennridge winning the girls meet by a score of 90-79 and the boys, 119-57.
With the win, the Pennridge boys team raised its record to 2-3, 1-1 in the SOL Continental. It was the first victory of the season for the girls team (1-4, 1-1).
Quakertown boys dropped to 2-3-1, 0-2 in the SOL Continental and the girls fell to 2-4, 0-2.
It was senior recognition for the Rams, who honored Joseph Ereifej, Rachel Keyser, Ethan Lionetti, Ian Livengood, James Maine, James Sandt, Olivia Silbert and Reese Trauger.
The Panthers got off to a strong start, winning both 200-yard medley relays. The girls quartet of Shelby Lanyon, Julianne Redmond, Janell Keller and Erin Figueroa touched in 2:08.47 while the boys foursome of Caleb Einolf, Tyler Einolf, Jacob Lewis and Daniel Litvinchuk hit the wall in 1:49.00.
It was the only event win for the day for the Quakertown boys. For the girls, Redmond picked up a victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:25.19), Janell Keller topped the field in the 500 freestyle (5:46.85) and Shelby Lanyon won the 100 backstroke (1:11.84).
“This is still a rivalry,” Figueroa said. “It’s still a special meet. We didn’t win but we tried our hardest and we had some good swims.
“It’s very motivating to swim in a nice pool like they have at Pennridge and against a team that really is our traditional rival. I think it brought out the best in both teams.
“We’re in a really tough conference so it’s hard for us to win meets but I’d like to see us score more points and I think if we work hard we can do that.”
Pennridge collected victories in every other event.
For the girls, Lauren Scott won the 200 freestyle (2:05.10) and 100 freestyle (56.58), Bryana Burke took first in the 200 individual medley (2:26.63) and Reese Trauber won the 50 freestyle (25.81).
Trauger, Keyser, Lea Preston and Scott won the 200 freestyle relay (1:50.76) and Scott, Preston, Burke and Trauger capped off the day with a win in the 400 freestyle relay (4:07.35).
“This is definitely still a big meet for us,” said Trauber, who also plays water polo for the Rams. “Coming into the meet we knew there were going to be some tough races and there were. We hadn’t won any meets so far this year so we were all really excited and ready to race because we knew this one was going to be competitive and also because it was senior night.
“Starting off the meet we weren’t sure how it was going to go and then they won the medley relay but we all pulled through the rest of the meet.
“It’s good for us to get a win. It’s good for our confidence.”
Trauber is .18 off the District One Class 3A automatic cut time in the 50 freestyle.
“I’m going after that one so every race counts,” she said. “Every day at practice I’m looking at it and trying to critique it. Last year I qualified for districts at the very last meet so that lit a fire under me.”
Her first college choice is Grove City, where she hopes to swim and play water polo while studying biology with an eye toward a medical career.
For the boys, Joseph Hong won the 200 freestyle (1:48.93) and the 500 freestyle in a school record time of 4:54.58, eclipsing his own previous mark of 4:55.96 set in 2018.
Sandt also won two individual events for the Rams, taking first in the 50 freestyle (23.17) and 100 freestyle (52.49) while Ereifej won both the 200 individual medley (2:07.60) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.17).
Maine won diving (204.85 points), Lionetti won the 100 butterfly (56.45) and Greg Bashaar took first in the 100 backstroke (59.65) for the Rams.
Sandt, Ereifej, Lionetti and Hong won the 200 freestyle relay (1:33.34) and Lionetti, Bashaar, Sandt and Hong ended the meet with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay (3:34.24).
Maine was the lone competitor in diving.
“The meet was important to our team,” said Maine, who has committed to Binghampton University, where he plans to study biochemisty. “For me, it was difficult because I wasn’t competing against anyone so I was just trying to score as well as I could.
“It was a little frustrating and I didn’t get a break between dives, which is weird, but I’m happy with how I dove. I’ve been scoring over 200 (points) consistently this year and my goal is to score 225 and qualify for districts.
“As a senior this is my last chance to do that and to really just have fun with diving.”
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