Liberty High School's boys swim team took second place, winning the silver medal with 285 points at the District XI Class AAA Swimming Championships on Saturday.

Liberty captain, Brandon Hlavaty, said, "Being able to stand on the podium with the team is the greatest feeling."

Emmaus placed first, and Parkland, which challenged the Hurricanes for second place, came in third.

"We were really happy," said Liberty junior, Nolan Vannatta. "With every individual race, as a team, we were close to Parkland. It was a struggle coming in with their 46 diving points. We were tied after the backstroke, and then breaststroke came, and we got a few more points, and then at that point, it was still really close."

In the first boys event last Friday, Alexis Calderon, Vannatta, Reid Rossi, and Jacob Jones placed second in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:39.78.

Vannatta said, "Alexis had a very good split. When I went in we were around tied with Southern Lehigh. Reid got ahead a little bit, and Jacob just really finished it off."

Also on Friday, Julia McCarthy placed third in the 200 IM in 2:07.70, and Robert Negron also placed third in the 50 free in 21.62.

Negron, Hlavaty, Jones, and Evan Smith took first place in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:28.27.

Hlavaty said, "It was a pretty tight race, but Evan did pull ahead at the end there. Robert had a good race, and that gave us a close lead or close second. I held the same position we were in, but Emmaus was catching up. Jacob pulled ahead, and it was between Emmaus and us for first and second."

On Saturday, McCarthy placed second in the breaststroke with a time of 1:06.64, and Jones, Negron, Vannatta, and Smith took second place in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:16.16.

Vannatta said, "Jacob was just below 50 seconds, and it was really close at that point [with Parkland, who placed third]. Robert was going at around 48. I dove in, and we started to pull away, and then Evan dove in and really started to pull away."

The PIAA State Swimming Championships are scheduled for March 13 and 14 at Bucknell University.