By the time Emmaus swimmers travel to Liberty for their meet on Thursday, it will have been a week since their last competition, thanks to the Blizzard of 2016. The Liberty match will be a huge test for Emmaus, who come in with both their boys and girls teams at a perfect 7-0. Liberty’s boys are 7-0, while the girls are 6-1 on the season. The Liberty girls’ only loss came to Parkland, whose girls are also 7-0 on the year.

While Parkland and Liberty split their meet, the Hornets are hoping to sweep, with wins on both the boys and girls sides, which would put them squarely in line for a late season showdown with rival Parkland for the EPC title. A loss for either side would make winning the conference much tougher for Emmaus.

Senior Maura Beuttel believes that Emmaus is ready for the meet and has every reason to be confident going into the showdown with Liberty and the later meet with the Trojans.

“This year, with the class of girls that we’ve had coming up, in combination with everybody else on the team,” said Beuttel. “ I think that if we put everything into a meet, we’re going to win. As long as everyone keeps up a great attitude, there’s no reason that we wouldn’t be able to win.”

Beuttel has gone from swimming distance events last season to shorter stroke distances, focusing primarily on the backstroke and butterfly in her last season before heading off to Ithaca College in New York. The change has brought on a different training regimen, but Beuttel likes the shorter distances. Even with the shorter races, it’s that time of the season where the work load from practice and meets is starting to wear on a lot of swimmers, including Beuttel.

“The practices are a lot different, it’s not the same amount of yards and it’s more drill and focusing on technique and tempo, as opposed to pacing,” said Beuttel. “Personally, I think that I could be doing better, but I’m also very tired, because I’ve been working my butt off at practice and at the gym. In the next couple weeks, when we start tapering and resting, I think that everyone is going to drop time and start to do very well.”

This season has been bittersweet for Beuttel, who has enjoyed success in the pool, the classroom and with her art. Beuttel recently was named to the Honor Roll and won a Gold Key in an AP Art scholastic competition.

“I’m really sad that this is my last year competing with Emmaus,” said Beuttel. “It’s been such a great ride and it’s going to be sad to see it end.”

While she hates the idea of leaving Emmaus behind, she’s excited about continuing her education and swimming for Ithaca, which became an early target for her higher education.

“I talked with one of my business teachers at school last year when I was starting to look at college, and she mentioned Ithaca,” said Beuttel. “When I started looking at it, they had a really great business program and the campus is really nice and then I saw the pool and I said ‘we have to go check this out.’ My mom said ‘no, it’s too far away, you can’t go there,’ and then we went up there and I knew that was it. This is where I want to go.”

Emmaus coach Tim O’Connor believes that Maura’s development has added a lot to the team’s depth with her ability to be versatile.

“Maura has done a tremendous job this year, as have all the seniors,” said O’Connor. “She is diverse, swims whatever is needed, gives it her all in workouts and meets and is really enjoying her senior year. I look forward to seeing her come back each year over breaks and train, and I know she will do well at Ithaca.”