Every season a new group of senior boys at Emmaus High School have a torch and a challenge passed on to them: Don’t be the senior class that breaks the streak of consecutive district titles. This year’s seniors can officially pass that torch to the current juniors because Emmaus captured its 14th straight District 11 swimming championship by coasting to a team title on Saturday at Parkland High School.

The team bested second-place Parkland by a score of 576-358 and took gold in five individual events and all three relay events. Gold medal-winning swimmers and relay teams will advance to states, which will be held on March 20 at Cumberland Valley High School.

In previous seasons, second-place finishers and others who posted the fastest times among nonautomatic qualifiers would move on to the PIAA championships. This season, the field was limited to just district champion individuals and relay teams to reduce the field because of COVID precautions. While some swimmers used the added pressure to motivate them, some simply looked past the pressure.

“To be honest, I was just riding along with the vibe,” said Hornet senior Luke Rautzhan, who won individual gold in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. “If you get caught up in times or places or how you’re feeling, it’s just not going to be good for you as a swimmer. So I just rolled along with it, stayed loose and had fun.”

Fellow senior Michael Iacobelli also won gold in two events with victories in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke. Iacobelli won the IM easily with a margin of 4.77 seconds over Southern Lehigh’s Andrew Wendling. Emmaus’s Connor Shriver, also a senior, won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:44.01, just .70 ahead of Parkland’s Shawn Kushner.

In relays, Rautzhan also won two gold medals as part of the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams, giving him the maximum four gold medals for the day. Iacobelli was part of the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle gold medal teams and Shriver added two gold with the 200 and 400-freestyle relay teams, giving both swimmers three medals on the day.

Junior Alex Magditch and sophomore Andrew Taylor won two relay gold medals, with both being on the 200 freestyle relay team. Magditch won gold with the 200-yard medley team and Taylor grabbed his second gold with the 400-freestylre team. Senior Nick Soares and sophomore Ryan DeJohn were also members of the 200-yard medley team to collect gold medals.

For his success on the day, Rautzhan was named the winner of the Dennis A. McGinley Award, given annually to the top swimmer at districts.

As for the 14th straight district championship, Iacobelli was looking forward to keeping the Emmaus streak going and was excited with their win.

“It doesn’t get old. It’s exciting every time,” said Iacobelli. “My favorite trophy is always the next one and I think that’s the mentality for the entire team.”

Districts was the first time this season that Emmaus swimmers had competitors from other schools in the lanes next to them. The East Penn Conference ran all swim meets virtually this season to minimize the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. The Hornets also swam knowing that there were no guarantees on how many meets they would take part in because the pandemic was always hanging around threatening to end the winter sports season.

“We just worked through it,” said Rautzhan. “We were in the pool when we could be, and we could never let up. It was fun having competitors in the lanes next to you. I really missed that this season, but it was just one of the things that we had to deal with and work through.”