Peter Conzola and Seth Watlington each set pool records for Freedom.
The Freedom boys lost 120-60 and the girls team dropped a 110-75 decision to the visiting Green Hornets. Still, the Patriots were encouraged by their performances.
"Like we have every meet, we had some best times," Freedom coach Barb Glaser said. "When a swimmer swims their personal best at this time of the year, it's always good; it's always a psychological boost. They are sore, stiff, they're tired, all the complaints you can think of and then they come out and swim their best time and renew their confidence."Freedom sophomore Peter Conzola broke the school's pool record in the 100 backstroke (53.84 seconds) with a time of 53.00.
"I was really relieved to get it," Conzola said. "I have been trying to get it pretty much every home meet we had this year. I knew I just had to leave everything out there and go for it."In the next boys event, the 100 breaststroke, senior teammate Seth Watlington broke the pool record with a time of 58.43.
"It was really great. I knew I wanted that pool record since my freshman year," Watlington said. "I was really hoping to get it before the last meet of the season."Watlington had set the school record in the 100 breaststroke on Jan. 12 at Parkland with a time of 58.23.
"He has been there in the 58s," Glaser said. "He has been there at that time, but he really wants a 57, but he is happy with a 58 right now. The pool record is really what he wanted tonight."Watlington wanted to get the record to alleviate some of his stress.
"I am a little more relieved and I think it will correlate to better swimming," Watlington said. "When you are a little bit more stressed you don't swim as well. Now that the stress is relieved, it adds a little bit more fun to it and now I hope the next meet we can break all the records again."The boys meet started with the 200 medley relay, and Freedom placed second, missing first place by .11 of a second. Conzola, Watlington, Eric Lawrence and Daniel Csakai swam well but Emmaus' Gary Sharesky made a comeback to get the win.
Carly DelFranco earned the first win for the Freedom girls with a comfortable victory in the 200 IM.
Freshman Helen Hsu turned in another dominating performance in the 100 freestyle. She touched the wall in 53.86, just behind her fastest time of the season of 53.52.
"Going into this meet we were in really good spirit," Hsu said. "Everyone was really excited for this meet and everyone wanted to do their best. I think we did really well and we put some really nice times out there."Emmaus is a team many of the Freedom competitors know well.
"I know a lot of guys on the Emmaus team," Watlington said. "I swam with them my whole life and in USA club swimming, so I know them very well and they are fast swimmers."
"It adds a lot more competitiveness because you know everyone. You can see how at the end of every race everybody was shaking hands. Even people that were not swimming and out of the pool were still shaking hands. It's a really fun experience and our team did really well. I was really happy with the performance."