L-L League swimming notes: Pause allows a look back (2024)

The Lancaster-Lebanon League Swimming Championships were a week ago, but the District Three championships are still two weeks away.

The seventh-inning stretch of the high school swimming world is upon us. But until someone pens “Take me Out to the Natatorium,” take a look back at some of the happenings from the L-L meet:

It takes a team

Hempfield won the boys title with 197 points. Though the Black Knights won only two of the 11 events, they had medalists in all 11 events.

They were:

200-yard freestyle relay: Andrew Gates, Kiran George, Jackson Shirey, Toby Marco, 1:37.68, first.

200 freestyle: Shirey, 1:46.37, fourth; Ivan Vitko, 1:05.08, seventh.

200 IM: George, 2:06.55, fifth; Colin Trowbridge, 2:09.00, eighth.

50 freestyle: Marco, 22.04, third; Jackson Root, 22.13, fourth; Ryan Taylor, 22.25, sixth.

100 butterfly: Shirey, 52.42, third.

200 freestyle relay: Root, Vitko, Taylor, Marco, 1:27.99, first.

100 freestyle: Root, 48.61, second; Taylor, 48.88, third; Marco, 48.94, fourth.

500 freestyle: Vitko, 5:05.05, eighth.

100 backstroke: Gates, 56.47, sixth.

100 breaststroke: George, 1:00.90, third.

400 freestyle relay: Vitko, Root, Shirey, Taylor, 3:15.43, second.

The Manheim Township girls won their team title with 250 points. Their medalists were:

200 medley relay: Emerson Mandrell, Emilie Mosner, Cami Schwartz, Adora Emuwa, 1:48.28, first.

200 freestyle: Anna Sassaman, 2:02.45, second.

200 IM: Schwartz, 2:09.30, first.

50 freestyle: Emuwa, 24.14, first; Grace Welsh, 25.01, third; Adrianna Anujin, 25.44, sixth.

200 freestyle relay: Anujin, Welsh, Sassaman, Emuwa, 1:39.33, first.

100 freestyle: Welsh, 54.66, third; Mosner, 55.39, sixth; Sassaman, 55.81, eighth.

500 freestyle: Anna Burrowes, 5:27.74, fourth; Rain Davies, 5:33.94, sixth.

100 backstroke: Mandrell, 1:01.69, third; Davies, 1:02.99, sixth.

100 breaststroke: Mosner, 1:04.38, first; Schwartz, 1:04.39, second, Emuwa, 1:09.65, fourth; Mariel Keares, 1:11.08, sixth.

400 freestyle relay: Welsh, Sassaman, Schwartz, Mosner, 3:38.18, first.

Unexpected record

Four meet records were set at the L-L girls championships and the last one was the most unexpected. Mosner’s 1:04.38 became the mark in the 100 breaststroke. She beat teammate Schwartz by .01 seconds, otherwise, Schwartz would have had her name in next year’s meet program. But they were not aiming for the record. The result came organically out of their own competitiveness.

“We’re always very competitive with each other,” Mosner said. “We’ve grown up together competing and we know it’s going to be very close between us.”

Manheim Township’s 1:39.33 in the 200 freestyle relay also was a meet record.

Expected records

The other two individual records were less surprising than Mosner’s, but no less impressive.

Ephrata’s Ava Knopsnyder already owned the meet record in the 500 freestyle and beat her old mark by over three seconds with a 5:00.28. Where the junior did provide a mild surprise was Friday when she opted to swim the 200 butterfly instead of the 200 freestyle, in which she was the defending champion. But after swimming a 56.71, she earned another gold anyway.

“I just wanted to try it differently this year,” Knopsnyder said. “I know it shocked some people, but I’ve been doing good at my fly all year.”

The silver medalist in the 100 butterfly was Lancaster Catholic’s Addison Elliott, but she had her moment when she set the meet mark in the 100 backstroke with a 56.81. Her entry time of 57.32 was just .16 off the old record, but the junior did not know she had the record for sure until she saw the scoreboard.

“Honestly, I don’t really feel like I am swimming any different until I get my hand on the wall,” Elliott said. “I swim hard until I feel my legs are going to fall off.”

It takes a league

Though the swimmers across the league were competitive against the clock and their own personal times, the nature of that competitiveness between the athletes was quickly muted after they got out of the pool.

Take, for instance, Warwick’s Tenra Adams. She took two silvers on Friday as part of the 200 medley relay team and in the 50 freestyle. In Saturday’s opening event, she won her second straight gold medal in the 100 freestyle in 53.56.

After the 100 freestyle, which was her last swim of the weekend, she only took a few minutes before engaging in friendly conversation in the cool-down pool with swimmers from Manheim Township, Hempfield and other schools who had been rivals just moments before.

In some ways, the league is one big team.

“We are all either on the same club team or high school team,” Adams said. “We know each other, we are at the same meets and practices with each other.”