If it weren’t for virtual swim meets this year, Liberty fans would have seen Hurricane anchor Morgan Muller out-touch Easton anchor Victoria Mowad to win the 200 free relay in 1:49.95 last Thursday.

But what fans may have seen via YouTube was assistant Liberty coach Evan Kocon urging Liberty’s relay teams to swim as hard as they did in practice, if not harder.

“Evan talked to them a couple times. We tried to get them to understand that even though Easton isn’t actually here, they’re actually swimming harder in practice than they are in these meets and he told them, you’ve got to do that now,” said Liberty head coach Reik Foust. “We had lost the 200 free relay on Monday, but we knew we were faster than that. We had a really nice drop in the 400 free relay today too, but we had to get the girls thinking they could do this.”

“This” also meant beating Easton after losing to the Red Rovers by six points three days earlier, but on Thursday, the Hurricane girls defeated the Rovers, 101-84.

“Basically he was telling us we had to do it so we had no energy left. We needed the points,” said Liberty sprinter Sarah Park. “I asked to lead off because I wanted to drop time in the 50, which I did.”

Also part of the 200 free relay were Talia Lehr and Brooke Sergent.

The same team of Sergent, Lehr, Muller, and Park also won the 400 free relay in 4:14.18.

“(Easton coach) Matt Ellis puts together a really good lineup so we were quite sure he was going to look at where we were strong and try and adjust his lineup, so we had to put some girls in different places and try to cover some of the spots where we slipped on Monday,” Foust said. “Again, we don’t know what he’s doing, and we knew it was going to be close. I thought our girls did really well today. Really well. A lot of step-ups in a lot of spots. Today they were just really going.”

Individual event winners for the Hurricanes were Maddi Drager in the 200 free in 2:09.99 and in the 500 free in 5:43.87, Park in the 200 IM in 2:29.16, Sergent in the 100 fly in 1:03.11, Lehr in the 100 back in 1:07.40, and Muller in the 100 breast in 1:18.08.

Liberty’s boys remain undefeated after also winning their meet against Easton last Thursday, 123-60.

Danny Lehr, Malcolm Collins, Patrick Gilhool, and Addison Collins combined to win the 200 medley relay in 1:40.74.

Ben Service won the 200 free in 1:58.55, Malcolm Collins placed first in the 200 IM in 2:12.22 and in the 100 free in 52.21, Addison Collins won the 50 free in 21.84, Lehr took first in the 100 fly in 1:02.52, and Tim Wetmore came in first in the 500 free in 5:31.17.

A Hurricane foursome of Addison Collins, Service, Corbin Eisenhardt, and Malcolm Collins won the 200 free relay in 1:33.16.

Gilhool broke the school record in the 100 back and won in 53.19, and Addison Collins won the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.32.

Jacob Scheirer, Corbin Eisenhardt, Kevin Conklin, and Jeffrey Eisenhardt swam to a first place finish in the 400 free relay in 3:58.48.

“I feel like we did really good today, coming from a team of people who never have really been on a relay team together. Effort’s a big thing to us here, and even if you’re not feeling the best, you have to go as hard as you can,” said Corbin Eisenhardt. “Our coaches keep telling us we have to put forth the effort no matter what.”