Liberty’s boys swim team won eight of 11 events in an East Penn Conference swim-off against Emmaus last Thursday at Liberty, a meet in which both teams were undefeated at that point until the Hornets scored more team points on Thursday, 162-124.

“I was really proud of the guys. We had a huge amount of best times. My guys swam great. The idea was just to swim fast,” said Liberty coach Reik Foust. “There wasn’t any question that [Emmaus] was gonna be fast and they had more (swimmers) than us, and that we were gonna be fast and we didn’t have as many as they had.”

The Liberty foursome of Danny Lehr, Malcolm Collins, Patrick Gilhool, and Addison Collins opened the meet with a strong performance in the 200 medley relay capturing first place and a pool record with a time of 1:34.50.

Addison Collins got right back up on the block with no rest between events to win the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:48.75, out touching Emmaus’s Jack Reppert whose time was 1:48.95.

“They already had their guys lined up for the 200 freestyle, which was the next event, and none of their guys in the 200 free swam the medley so I was still recovering,” Collins said. “I was really tired, so I started off behind a little bit, but I was too close to losing, and I knew that, so I had to stay with them. I actually swam club with these guys over the summer, and I knew I could beat [Reppert] so I stuck with him the entire time, but it was hard and I just ended up toughening it out in the last 25.”

The Liberty Hurricanes were under the impression that there would be at least some breaks between events as there are in all other swim meets within the East Penn Conference. But a decision was made to run one event right after the other, and it was the ‘Canes who bore the brunt of that effect with a smaller team than the Hornets.

“We knew Emmaus was gonna be a fast meet, and we wanted to set the tone early, and we set the tone with the medley relay by a lot,” said Gilhool. “We beat them badly, and then I didn’t have a lot of rest between the medley and the 200 IM, so my goal was just to win it.”

Gilhool won the 200 IM and then some, setting a new pool record with a time of 1:58.52.

“On my breaststroke, I saw my split was :34, and I was like, oh I should be around the record, so I tried to finish it as hard as I could, and I got the record, so that was nice. I just didn’t think I was gonna be able to break it on the little rest I had between events,” he said.

The next event, the 50 free, was won by Emmaus’s Alex Magditch with a time of 21.94, and Lehr placed second in 22.52.

Then, Gilhool was up on the block again for the 100 butterfly.

“I was really tired because that was my third event and I knew they had guys who were gonna be with me, so I just went out with them, trusted my easy speed and trusted the fact that they were gonna die and I was gonna hit my last underwater a lot better than them,” said Gilhool, whose winning time was 52.55.

Emmaus, however, started picking up more team points with second, third, and fourth place finishes.

Addison Collins won the 100 free in 46.97, Reppert took first place in the 500 free in 5:00.21, and Addison Collins, Lehr, Malcolm Collins, and Gilhool won the 200 free relay in 1:26.66.

Immediately after the relay, Lehr competed in the 100 backstroke.

“I didn’t have a lot of rest on that, so I was kind of worried that I was gonna die, but I just gave it my all at the end and it came out my way so I was happy with how that race went,” said Lehr whose winning time was 55.31. “Today was crazy. The atmosphere was crazy in here. I could definitely hear it. On the last turn, I really, really focused. My nose plug was falling off, and I knew I had to get him on the underwater to pull through in the end, and that’s what I did.”

Malcolm Collins then swam to a first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.13.

“We swam best times across the board,” said Coach Foust. “Really good times.”

Now the Hurricanes, girls included, are setting their sights on the District XI Swimming Championships, scheduled for Feb. 25 and 26 at Parkland High School.