Liberty High School swimming coach, Reik Foust, has high expectations for the Hurricanes this year, and they know it.

"They set their expectations as high as I do," Foust said.

The boys team will return three of its four 200 free relay swimmers who were District XI champs last season: Evan Smith, Jacob Jones, and Brandon Hlavaty. Also returning are Nolan Vanatta, Aaron Dolgos, Ryan Brong, John Buttillo, Reid Rossi, Anthony Delcorso, Alexis Calderon, Bryce Kessler, and Alex Fitch.

"The boys want to do better than last year and improve on their record. They want to be on that podium. We've set goals with them already. Last year we had one relay to states. This year, we want three relays to states. The guys put the bar real high," said Foust.

Last year, the Hurricane boys had one loss to Emmaus. The Hurricane girls had two losses, one to Parkland and one to Easton.

"The girls have high expectations too. They're a very close knit team, and they do a lot as a team outside of swimming. This year, we want to take three relays to states and improve on last year's record," Foust said.

Returning for the girls team will be Jocelyn Baker, Grace Walters, Emily Buehl, Kayla Drago, Julia McCarthy, Chloe Kobis, Jess Becker, Paige McCloskey, Sarah Cecchini, Lydia Csatari, Jess Bassett, Mary Kate Sheplock, and Shannon Hogan.

"Last year, our girls team missed the podium by one point and placed third [at districts]. They don't want someone else to have control over what happens to them," said Foust.

At the time, Liberty's destiny was decided by the outcome of the 400 free relay between Emmaus and Stroudsburg. Emmaus won and placed second overall. If Stroudsburg had won, Liberty would have been second overall.

With the formation of the new East Penn Conference came some omissions from Liberty's 2014-2015 schedule, namely, Easton, Central, and Dieruff, so Foust added Easton and Southern Lehigh.

"I'm non-committal to an opinion on the new conference because I don't know enough, but I'm not crazy about swimming against Stroudsburg in a four-lane pool, and they won't come to us. We have too many kids, so I'm going to have to eliminate some for that meet," Foust said.

As of Press deadlines, Liberty has added Ryan Brong, Bryce Kessler, Sean Gallagher, and Sergio Alvares to its diving team, coached by Jeff Zettlemoyer.

In addition, assistant swimming coaches, Jeff Matyus and Evan Kocon are returning.

The Hurricanes' first meet is scheduled for Dec. 9 at Northampton.