The District XI Class 3A Swimming Championships looked kindly on the Liberty Hurricanes who took home medals in two boys and two girls events on Feb. 20 and 21 at Parkland High School.

In addition, Liberty sophomore Adam Barlow won the Dennis A. McGinley Outstanding Swimmer Award with the most points earned in the district meet.

Barlow captured the gold medal in the 200 IM with a time of 1:54.09.

“Before I walked in the building, yes,” said Barlow, acknowledging some nerves. “I knew (Parkland’s) Ethan (Coleman) was .2 off of me, and it was going to be a close race no matter how hard I trained. But I trusted my coaches, I trusted the taper, I trusted all the training they had given me and knew I had this. Anything can happen, but I had to focus on myself, and I just went. I felt good throughout the whole race. It’s where I wanted to be. I looked right over to my coaches, and all the emotions hit.”

Earlier in the meet, Barlow was part of the 200 medley relay team along with Jonah Korpics, Darren Nguyen, and John Cornish that placed fifth, just missing a medal by .12.

“That’s frustrating, but you look at it, and you don’t want to base it on places,” said Liberty coach Reik Foust. “You’d love the kids to get up on the podium, and you really want them to get a medal, but when you actually look at it, and you see our times, we swam phenomenally. We had huge drops all meet. They just weren’t big enough to get the boys or the girls onto the podium. That’s why we ended up in fifth place several times, but our drops were huge.”

Cornish was fifth in the 50 free with a time of 22.63, and in the 200 free relay along with Nguyen, Quinton Brown, and Barlow with a time of 1:28.98, missing the podium by .06.

But Barlow went on to clinch a gold medal in the 100 breaststroke with a district record time of 55.13 that had stood since 2012 when Freedom’s Seth Watlington recorded a time of 56.28.

“I didn’t even realize it when I looked at the scoreboard,” Barlow said. “It was when I looked at my coaches, saw their reaction, looked back at the scoreboard, and then I realized I got the district record. I got first place. As I was going, I felt much different than I’ve felt at all this season. I felt very good in warm-up and throughout the race. I just knew I was gonna go a 55. Something [Coach Reik] says all the time, ‘It’s my pool. Seven feet wide, 25 yards long. Swim my race.’ That’s what motivated me and got me through.”

Hurricane teammate Darren Nguyen placed sixth in the 100 free with a time of 49.23 and eighth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.74.

Freedom’s 200 medley relay team of Asa Lawser, Ben Rader, Cristian Urena, and Joseph Volkert placed eighth with a time of 1:49.12.

Freedom’s Griffin Kleinle also placed eighth in the 200 free with a time of 1:49.86.