Freedom High School's swim team knew the Easton Red Rovers would be one of their biggest challenges of the season, but the Patriots scored two victories last Thursday when both Freedom girls and boys teams won, 98-85 and 95-81, respectively.

Freedom's 200 medley relay team of Carly DelFranco, Kelly Kopko, Helen Hsu, and Shannon Howell placed first with a time of 1:54.17 to open the meet, but in the day's second event, the Patriot boys medley relay team placed second.

Howell said, "The Easton girl and I dove in at the same time. I was definitely nervous watching it because we knew it would be a close race in the medley relay. When I saw Helen come in, I knew I had to pull my side of the relay."

In individual events, Howell won the 200 free in 2:04.51 and placed second in the 100 free, missing first by .62 seconds. Easton's Nathalie Paczes won the event with a time of 55.78.

"We knew Easton would be our biggest meet, our hardest meet so far. We've definitely had a lot of girls improve, and we have a wide variety of girls on the team swimming different strokes," said Howell.

Hsu won two individual events, the 50 free with a time of 24.74, and the 100 fly with a time of 58.66. Rileigh Ellis took first place in the 500 free with a time of 5:45.78.

The Patriots won the girls and boys 400 free relays, the last two events of the day.

Hsu, Ellis, DelFranco, and Howell placed first in 3:47.56, and Sam Magnan, Shjon Watlington, Brian Seitz, and Tyler Higgins placed first in 3:33.89.

Magnan also won the 200 IM in 2:01.35.

In perhaps the closest event of the meet, Trevor Watlington won the 100 breaststroke for Freedom with a time of 1:09.18. Teammate and fellow captain, Brandon Burnette, was second with a time of 1:09.27. Easton's Greg Sherman came in third in 1:09.41, and Theo Gouskos, also from Easton, placed fourth in 1:09.79.