Emmaus swimmers finally got to face some competition from other schools in an invitational meet against both Freedom and Wyoming Valley West. The meet didn't count toward any of the team's season records, but the times posted by the swimmers were official and can go toward qualifying for district events.

Seniors Carter Paules and Tori Bingham had impressive days, as did junior Casey Young. Paules turned in two first-place finishes, coming in first in the 200-yard individual medley and in the 100-yard backstroke. In the 200 IM, Paules just missed setting a pool record.

"It was a pretty good start to the season," said Paules. "I was only a little over a half-second over the pool record, so that was a good start. It's encouraging, because it's the first meet of the season and I can definitely improve on that. I've been training hard and I think if I had a little rest, I would definitely get it. It would be nice to get both the team and the pool record."

Young picked up a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle and was tops in the 200-yard freestyle, which was dominated by the Hornets, with their swimmers taking the first four spots. Young was followed by Bingham and juniors Samantha Mull and Maura Beuttel. Bingham complimented her second-place finish in the event with a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke. Bingham was happy with her day, but is hoping for bigger things from herself in her senior season.

"I feel like I did really well," said Bingham. "My goal is to go to states and qualify in an individual event. I went last year in a relay and would like to do that and go as an individual this year."

While there was no team scoring during the event, Emmaus coach Tim O'Connor believes that it was a good way to start the season and give swimmers an indication of where they're at compared to other programs.

"That's the great part of the coaching community that we have, in that you get to communicate and set up a meet like this to open the season," said O'Connor, a recent inductee into the Pennsylvania Swimming Hall of Fame. "The scoring doesn't matter and these guys don't worry about the scoring. They don't have egos. They're in it for the kids and finding out where the kids are at this point.

"I thought our kids did great tonight, there's a lot of improving that we still need to do, but they've been focusing in their racing tonight on the things that we've been working on and as a coach, that's all you really can ask."