This week’s notebook highlights swimmers from CR South, Pennridge and Upper Dublin.
National Conference
Eastburn has eye on districts - Emily Eastburn is anxious to see where this year will take her.
“Last year went well and I’m really hoping this year will go even better,” said the Council Rock South junior. “I want to push myself to see how far I can go.”
She has her eye on the District One Class AAA meet.
“Last year I was really close in the 50 freestyle, and this year I’m off to a good start,” she said. “I’m even closer right now than I was at the end of last year so I’m very optimistic.”
Eastburn is the defending National Conference champion in the 50 freestyle. She was also seventh at last year’s conference meet in the100 freestyle. She anchored the second place 200 medley relay and led off the second place 200 freestyle relay for the Golden Hawks.
She began summer swimming at age nine and continued with the sport.
“I just enjoyed it so I kept going,” said Eastburn, who is on the yearbook staff at CR South and also ran cross country this past fall.
The CR South girls team has a new coach this year in Lauren Myers. She is the third head coach in as many seasons for the program.
“That’s obviously not an ideal situation, but it is what it is and you have to deal with it,” Eastburn said. “I try to look at the positives and just roll with it. Each coach brings something new to the table so you learn a lot.
“We have a lot of new girls this year and we work well together so I think it’s all going to come together for us as a team.”
Continental Conference
Rams on the rise - It’s an exciting time to be a swimmer at Pennridge.
And Keri Salanik knows it.
“I feel like we’re right on the verge of doing big things as a team,” said Salanik, a junior who also plays water polo for the Rams. “It’s still early in the season, but we’re really doing well.”
The Continental Conference features some top teams including defending District One Class AAA champion North Penn.
“Our league is really competitive, so it’s really hard to move up but I think we’re going to make some noise and people are going to take notice of us,” she said.
“We do have a lot of top schools to compete with but hopefully we’ll add some more wins this year.”
Salanik was 22nd in the 500 freestyle at last year’s Continental Conference championships and 26th in the 200 freestyle.
“For myself this year I feel that I’ve really started getting better and really focusing on swimming and pushing myself to new levels,” she said.
She has set goals for herself.
“I’d like to improve my times a lot,” she said. “This year I started focusing on the 200 individual medley and I’d like to get my time down a lot in that. That and the 500 are probably going to be my big events this year.”
The 200 IM and the 500 freestyle are a bit of an odd combination of individual events.
“They’re both distance events, but they are very different,” Salanik said. “I just have to do what’s right for me and what my team needs me to do.”
Swimming is a family affair for the Salaniks.
“My older sisters swam so I followed in their footsteps and I really have grown to love it,” she said. “I didn’t really like it in the beginning, but now I really do love it and it would be hard to give it up.”
American Conference
Paris looking to contribute - Evan Paris has faith in his team.
“I feel very confident in how our team is doing,” said Paris, a senior captain for the Upper Dublin boys. “We work hard and we’ve worked hard throughout the year so I think that will pay off for us in the end.”
The Cardinals lost some truly outstanding swimmers to graduation, most notably Bob Bantley, the PIAA Class AAA champion in the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
“Of course that hurts,” Paris said. “But this is high school, and you can’t hang on to those guys forever so you have to move on.
“Everyone is stepping up and picking up the slack and that’s what is really going to help us down the line.”
The team has some lofty goals.
“Winning the conference is very important and we want to do that,” Paris said. “But we also have long term goals that are higher.
“We’d like to win the district and I think that’s a reachable goal for us. We have a lot of great guys on our team and I see a lot of potential in everybody.”
The team fared well in the Cardinal Carnival, which it hosted right before the holiday break.
“I think this was a good showing for us because we saw a good mix of teams from our own district and also some really good teams from outside our district and we did really well against them,” he said.
At last year’s American Conference championships, Paris was seventh in both the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle.
“I just want to do really well and drop some time and score points for the team,” Paris said. “I feel great about all the guys on our team and I think we’re going to do great and I just want to contribute to that any way I can.”
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