The Emmaus swimming teams put together an impressive win over Central Catholic, with both the boys and girls teams winning all but one event in the meet. The boys won by a score of 131-54, while the girls bested the Vikettes by a score of 137-45, to put both teams at 1-0 on the season.

The win included an Emmaus victory in diving, where freshman Jess Hurlburt, competing in her first high school event, put together a score of 277.05, a new team record. Hurlburt edged out perennial District 11 favorite Nicole Sagl, who finished third in girls AA diving last year at states.

"Jess is doing great," said swimming coach Tim O'Connor. "As you know, most successful swimmers are committed to more than just the winter season, and that is what Jess has brought to the table. She is not lucky; she has worked very hard at her craft and everyone knows it and is feeding off of her knowledge.

"She is a really great kid and like the swimmers, still has more to work on and learn too, if she has aspirations of continuing this success."

In the first official meet of the season, Emmaus turned in 27 times that qualified for districts, although many of those times are likely to be improved upon during the season. Many of the better times were turned in by underclassmen, who are continuing to develop, which will be important thanks to a relatively small group of seniors on the team. The boys team has just five seniors, while the girls have just two.

Sophomore Nathan Luey picked up an impressive win in the 500 freestyle, finishing just under 30 seconds ahead of teammates Sean Kujas and Michael Brennan. Another sophomore, Kaitlin Hur grabbed wins in the 100 backstroke and 200 freestyle.

"Our staff has been working very hard with all of the kids and the new ones seem to be taking it all in and progressing nicely, but we still discuss that from time-to-time, we need to keep things simple for them to continue to grow and not be overwhelmed," said O'Connor. "Overall though we are very pleased."

In addition to Hurlburt's top finish in girls diving, Emmaus divers grabbed the top three spots on the boys side, led by Andrew Vanim. Vince Cucchiara finished second and Matt Semet finished third, giving the boys an easy win in diving.

While the opening win was impressive, O'Connor knows that his team will have to keep focusing on what it needs to do as it comes into tougher meets throughout the season.

"Now that we have hit some busy time with meets, we have been really focusing on keeping the kids healthy and balanced between training and the little things of a race that will help them improve," said O'Connor, who is in his 12th season as the team's coach. "It is a hard balance, but the staff and I have been handling it all in stride."

Next up for the team are conference meets at Easton on Thursday and a meet against Dieruff at home next Tuesday, before the team goes into the holiday break. Before they return to conference meets after the New Year, they'll take part in the New Year's Invitational at Bucknell University on January 3.