The Salisbury swimming team has already swam two meets this season. And despite coming up on the losing end on both of those meets as a team, there have been plenty of individuals making a name for themselves in the early going.

Beginning with the boys side, junior Mahlon Reihman has seemed to already take the next leap forward after his remarkable state run last year. In a meet two weekends ago in Maryland in which he swam for Parkland Area Aquatic Team (PAAC), Reihman posted a number of career-best times. His time of 4:38 in 500-freestyle and 1:41 in 200-freestyle beat his district and state times from last year. He also swam a 21.65 in the 50-yard freestyle and 54.00 in 100-yard butterfly.

Just this past weekend, Reihman improved on those times from that Maryland meet to set the bar even higher.

Danny Bonge also swam in that meet for PAAC, posting a 54.50 in the 100-yard butterfly, a 50.00 in the 100-yard freestyle, a 1:50 in the 200-yard freestyle, and a 57.03 in the 100-yard backstroke.

“I love the way our team is growing,” O’Connor said. “I love the way they are getting stronger.”

Sophomore Tim Sechler-Stone has continued to grow and has impressed O’Connor after just a few weeks together.

“From what I’ve heard, because I’m only a first-year coach, he [Sechler-Stone] has come miles and miles. I’m trying to push him.”

A number of freshmen have stood out to O’Connor on the girls’ side, beginning with Sarah Bobeck. She swims a number of the sprint freestyle events, including a time of 26.5 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, 57 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle and 1:06 in the 100-yard backstroke.

“Sarah has some serious promise,” O’Connor said. “All of the freshmen girls at Emmaus, Sarah swims with...She is physically gifted. She can do what those girls are doing right now, but she’s not there yet. I hope to get her there by the end of the year.”

Maddie Jewell and Cathryn FitzSimmons are two other first-year swimmers at the high school level that has shown promise thus far.

“I think she [Jewell] can be a star, honestly, over the next couple of years,” O’Connor said. “She has a beautiful stroke. She just needs time.”

Due to Salisbury being closed because of cases of whooping cough in the school, the team has been forced to postpone meets in the immediate future. Practice has also been put on hold, but once the Falcons return to the pool on December 28, they’ll be working on their fundamentals until their next meet on January 15 against Tamaqua.

“We can start swimming on the 28th together,” O’Connor said. “It’s basically a 6-10 day window which they cannot allow anyone to train together.”