For Emmaus swimming, the perfection continues on the boys side (9-0), while the girls (7-2) have dropped two straight against tough teams. The boys easily picked off Liberty, 124-62, to give the Hurricanes their first loss of the season. On the girls side, the Hornets made a late surge, but came up short and fell to Liberty 96-90 as the Lady Hurricanes raised their record to 8-1 on the season.

The loss for the girls came on the heels of their loss to perennially tough Wilson-West Lawn three days earlier.

"Our girls had a tough string of meets," said Emmaus head coach Tim O'Connor. "A hard-fought, eight-point win over Whitehall, a tough, yet successful meet against Wilson-West Lawn where we only lost by 14, and then a six-point loss to Liberty. I think they were emotionally and physically spent. They gave it their best, but Liberty was just a better team and wore us down and we didn't have that spark at the end that we needed to pull out a great meet."

Patrick McAllister had a strong outing, competing on teams that finished first in the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay. McAllister followed the relay performances with a second in the 50 freestyle and a first-place finish in the 100 backstroke. For the girls, Tori Bingham and Lydia Garton were part of the team that took first in the 200 freestyle relay and Bingham was also part of the 400 freestyle team that finished second.

In individual events, Garton finished first in the 100 breaststroke and third in the 100 freestyle. Bingham also had a big day in individual events, finishing first in the 100 backstroke and second in the 200 IM.

Emmaus' Andrew Vanim won the boys diving competition, while Jess Hurlburt, who broke her previous school record with a score of 282.65 against Wilson West Lawn, took first in girls diving at Liberty.

Junior Maura Beuttel said while the team has dropped a couple of meets, the swimmers' attitudes are still strong and they're looking for a quick rebound even though their next meet is against a tough Nazareth team that is 7-2 on the year.

"We just finished a stretch where we had three meets over six days, so that was tough. It was a tough loss to Liberty," said Beuttel. "We have our next meet coming up on Thursday and we're really excited for that."

Beuttel has shown strong progress and is competing in more distance events this season than she has before, mainly because O'Connor believes she has the ability to handle the tougher distances.

"I am putting her in more distance and I prefer to do that with many kids who can handle it," said O'Connor. "As a result, they usually have so many more options at the end of the season as to which events they can compete in. I know she can do a sub 5:30 in her 500; it's just a matter of her pushing through the mental barrier of the event."

Beuttel picked up her first win in the 500 freestyle against Whitehall and is starting to feel more comfortable in the longer distances after competing primarily in shorter distances earlier in her career. Looking ahead at districts, Beuttel isn't sure which events she'll be competing in, but is ready for whichever way O'Connor wants to have her go.

"This year, Coach O has been having me swim a lot of distance, which is a nice change from the past two years," she said. "Now that I'm starting to practice it more, it's starting to grow on me, so I almost prefer to do distance. I swam the 200 last year and he's been having me swim the 200 and the 500 a lot, so I'm not really sure what he has in mind for this year."

While she is enjoying her opportunity in the longer distance events, Beuttel is happiest when she's competing in relay events.

"I love relays; they're so much fun," Beuttel said. "It's nice to get to feed off of the energy of the other three swimmers, especially when you win. It's such a great feeling."