For the eighth straight year, the Emmaus boys swimmers can call themselves District 11 Champions. With a total of 422 points, Emmaus had pretty well wrapped up the title early on in the meet, which was held last weekend at Parkland High School. Liberty placed second with a total of 285 points, while Parkland finished third with 269 points. Southern Lehigh and Freedom rounded out the top five finishers in the team competition.

The first gold came in the 200-yard medley relay, with senior Carter Paules teaming up with sophomores Ethan Carr and Connor DeJohn and freshman Patrick McAllister to easily down second-place Liberty by just over four seconds. The event was the start of a big weekend for Paules, who teamed with Carr, DeJohn and John Woltornist on the first-place 400 freestyle team.

Paules also picked up gold medals in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke, with his time of 1:53.24 setting a new district record in the IM.

Paules was also presented with the East Penn Conference Male Swimmer of the Year Award for his performance over the course of the season.

Emmaus pretty much put the meet away when Carr, McAllister and Jason Yerger captured the top three spots in the 100 yard backstroke to give them a 102-point lead over Parkland, who was holding down second place at the time.

"My race went really well and I dropped a solid amount of time," said Carr. "Patrick and Jason had really good swims as well to get second and third; that's a big deal for us. As underclassmen, we've been doing really well throughout the year and we've been showing that we can keep up with the older guys."

Woltornist and Tom Schlechter finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle event, which also helped to cement the Emmaus victory. The two were separated by just three tenths of a second.

"We're all performing very well," said Woltornist. "We were seeded pretty high and we're basically meeting all of the expectations and having a great meet."

"Coming off of last year when we had a team of mostly seniors," said Schlechter. "This year, a bunch of us had to step up, and I think we've done a great job doing that."

Emmaus head coach Tim O'Connor was pleased with the boys team as a whole and gave particular praise to Paules, Woltonrist and Theo McAllister as swimmers who caught his eye during the two-day event.

"There are a lot of good kids who have really been very coachable," said O'Connor. "They want to get better and I think that's the key."

The first-place finishers in both individual and relay events will move on to compete in the PIAA Swimming Championships, which will be held March 11-14 at Bucknell University. In addition to the first place finishers, Carr also qualified in the 200 IM based on his time compared to times from district competitions in the rest of the state.