For the first time in at least three years, Liberty High School's boys swim team defeated Freedom 207-93 during the final meet of the regular season on senior night last week at Liberty.

Hurricane captain, Ryan Brong, said, "It was one of the best feelings I've ever had. We thought it would be closer. It was a lot of fun."

Liberty had huge gains by winning all three relays, the events that garner the most points.

Alexis Calderon, Nolan Vannata, Reid Rossi, and Jacob Jones won the 200 medley relay in 1:42.40. Jones, Robert Negron, Brandon Hlavaty, and Evan Smith took first place in the 200 free relay in 1:29.54, and Negron, Jones, Vannata, and Smith won the 400 free relay in 3:25.62.

"Relays are always huge because of the points. For example, we swam at Stroudsburg in a four-lane pool, and you have to win two of the three relays, or you're sunk," said Brong.

The Hurricanes did, in fact, win their meet against Stroudsburg two weeks ago.

Individual event winners in the Liberty-Freedom meet were Sam Magnan in the 200 free in 1:42.86 and the 500 free in 4:31.94, and Shjon Watlington in the 200 IM in 2:07.23, both for the Patriots.

Negron won the 50 free in 21.88.

In diving, John McGinty placed first for Freedom with a score of 211.70.

Watlington outtouched Rossi in the 100 butterfly by .09 seconds.

Smith won the 100 free in 49.33, Calderon took first place in the 100 backstroke in 58.52, and Vannata won the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.66.

Regarding senior night, Brong said, "It was awesome. It was humbling to see the team lined up there for us. I've seen it for four years, and I thought I knew what it would be like, but you never really know. It was an awesome feeling."

This past Saturday was the Last Chance Meet at Emmaus High School, which gives swimmers a final chance to qualify for districts.

Liberty's John Buttillo was the fourth Hurricane swimmer to qualify for the 100 butterfly, dropping two seconds in his time, and qualifying the maximum number of swimmers in each event.

Brong said, "That was our team goal from the start, to have four in every event."