The Freedom High School Swim Team destroyed the Wharton Wildcats on Tuesday, September 20. The boy’s team won easily with 105 points to Wharton’s 67 points. The girl’s team had a narrow victory, winning 86-74. The away team’s pool didn’t have diving blocks, but the patriots still had some amazing races. Even though this meet was Wharton’s senior night, they were met with a disappointing defeat. The Freedom team went in stacked.

“Going in, we knew that this was a meet that we couldn’t lose,” said Senior Jarrod Rodriguez.

Swimmers swam their best events at the meet. Unfortunately, not everyone got the events they wanted. For instance, Aidan Boggs, 12, swam the 200 freestyle, the 500 freestyle, as well as swam legs on both freestyle relays. The back-to-back events gave him no rest in between his swims.

“Tired does not even begin to describe how I feel, it wasn’t regular tired, it was…advanced tired,” said Boggs.

The 500 freestyle was an especially interesting event for Junior Cobyn Panarelli. He paced with a Wharton swimmer for the entire 20 laps of the pool. When they touched at almost the exact same time, it came down to the timer’s watches to tell who won. According to the clock, the student timers had the Wharton swimmer coming in less than a second ahead of the first year freedom swimmer.

“I’ve been feeling sick recently and taking this race out at a comfortable pace gives me some idea of what I can do to get to States,” said Panarelli.

The girl’s team was satisfied with their swims overall. Genevieve Clark was excited to win her 500-yard freestyle, despite being a sprinter. The team looks forward to their conference meet on September 26 against eight other local schools.