The Emmaus and Liberty swimming and diving teams finished the regular season with identical 8-0 records in the EPC, leading the two teams to meet to decide the conference championship. The meet took place at Liberty High School and Emmaus came away with a 162-124 win to record their 18th straight EPC championship.

Ironically, Emmaus took first in only three of the 11 events but dominated in second-place finishes with 10 compared to just one for Liberty, which gave Emmaus enough points at the end to claim the victory.

Senior Alex Magditch set a season-best time of :21.94 in the 50-yard freestyle to finish first, while two Emmaus swimmers – junior Jack Reppert and sophomore Logan Shriver – battled for the two top spots in the 500-yard freestyle. Reppert won the battle with a time of 5:00.21, just 0.19 seconds ahead of Shriver. The 500-free saw four Emmaus swimmers finish in the top five spots, with James Taylor finishing fourth and Julian Vlaeminck finishing fifth. Magditch set a season-best time of :21.94 in the 50-freestyle event for Emmaus.

The other first-place finish of the day came in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay where the Hornets swept the top three spots and again made it four out of five top spots. The team of Ethan Ferris, Seth Metzger, A.J. Lamack and Magditch took the top spot, while Shriver and Reppert were paired with James Manley and Bobby Perose for second. Third place went to Griffin Messenlehner, Connor Burnand, Jared Petre, and Logan Hartman.

“Our boys really wanted this win,” said coach Tim O’Connor. “Obviously, when you have a long streak going, nobody wants to be a part of the team that lets that streak end, so that was a motivation. We stress having a deep team that can pick up points in addition to getting the first-place points and we showed how important that is.”

In addition to taking first in the 50-yard freestyle, Magditch collected a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle. Reppert also grabbed a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle when he reset his season-best time to 1:48.95.

The boys were undefeated in the EPC and went 11-1 overall, with just a loss to Wilson West Lawn to blemish their record. The Emmaus girls finished with a 7-1 record in the EPC, tying for second with Nazareth, while Parkland’s 8-0 league record gave them the league crown. The girls team finished the season at 7-4 overall.

The District 11 diving championship takes place Saturday at Emmaus, and the district swimming championships are set for next Friday and Saturday (March 4-5) at Parkland High School.