The Emmaus boys and girls swimming and diving teams both got off to strong starts this season in dual meets and in the annual Cedar Crest Invitational held at Parkland (swimming) and Emmaus (diving) high schools.

In dual meets, the Emmaus teams are both 5-0, including a tri-meet win over both East Stroudsburg South and Stroudsburg recently.

In the Cedar Crest Invitational, several Emmaus swimmers set personal best times in various events, including junior Luke Rautzhan, who set personal best times in his leg of both the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays and then reached another personal best in the 50 freestyle individual event.

The invitational came on the heels of a dual meet win over Liberty where a number of Hornet swimmers set the pool records at Liberty High School.

Emmaus swimmers now hold Liberty pool records in the boys 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley and in the 200-yard medley relay. The girls 200-yard medley relay team also set a pool record at Liberty.

The Liberty meet also saw promising freshman diver Carly Lennett pick up her first win in a varsity diving event with a score of 181.35. Morgan Belisle finished second and Audrey Davidson placed fourth for Emmaus in diving.

On the boys side, Brendan McCourt set the pool and Emmaus team record with a score of 345.75 against Liberty. In the Cedar Crest Invitational, an 11-dive meet, the defending state champ set the Emmaus pool diving record with a score of 541.85.

The boys then beat Nazareth 102-69, while the girls downed the Blue Eagles 106-74. In that meet, another freshman diver, Molly O’Connor, took top spot with a score of 162.30.

In the swimming events, Emmaus would have swept all of the relay events, but their teams in the 400 freestyle relay races were entered as swimming as an exhibition rather than counting toward the team score.

Emmaus relay teams took the top three spots in the boys and girls 200 freestyle relay and the boys 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the tri-meet with East Stroudsburg South and Stroudsburg, Emmaus did sweep all of the relays on both the boys and girls sides.

In individual events, Nick Soares and Luke Rautzhan took first and second in the 200-yard IM, with Rautzhan finishing four-seconds ahead of the third-place finisher from East Stroudsburg South.

Emmaus swept the top three spots in the boys 50 freestyle against the Cavaliers with Michael Iacobelli, Connor Shriver and Alex Magditch finishing one-two-three. Iacobelli and Shriver also finished in the top two spots in the 100 freestyle, with Emmaus’ A.J. Lamack finishing third.

On the girls side, Lauren Sharpe, Chole Vlaeminck and Lexi Shuryn grabbed the top three spots in the 100 freestyle and Sharp, Kera Reinhard and Vlaeminck swept top spots in the 100-yard backstroke against East Stroudsburg South.

The season picks up again on January 4 when Emmaus heads to Bucknell University for the annual New Year’s Challenge meet. One week later they’ll compete in the competitive Wilson Relays, with a dual-meet against Allen squeezed between on January 9.