Lady Mounts win Section

As the Ephrata Rec Center began to clear out following Thursday’s Lancaster- Lebanon League swim meet, the Ephrata girls lined up on the pool deck one last time.

By the count of the three, the Mountaineers and head coach Mickey Molchany were in the water, splashing away in a celebration six years in the making.

Besting visiting Lampeter-Strasburg 95-75 in its final meet of the season, Ephrata clinched the Section Two title — the team’s first since the 2010-11 season.

“It means a lot to us. The last time they won, it was the people that I swam with,” said Molchany, who graduated from Ephrata in 2010, “so I knew about how long it’s been and we’ve been talking about this since last year. They really wanted it. It’s really exciting.”

That excitement carried over to the boys’ meet, which was decided in the final event.

After trailing the entire night, Lampeter-Strasburg swept the 100 breaststroke to take the lead and then claimed second and third in the 400 freestyle relay to hold on for an 87-82 victory.

On Thursday, posters lined the walls of the Ephrata Rec Center in honor of Ephrata’s senior night. There was one, however, that was missing — the Mounts’ preseason “goal poster,” which was headlined by the squad’s now-realized aspiration, section champions.

“It feels awesome,” senior Sydney Dundon said. “It’s one thing to win races yourself, but this was an entire team effort and it’s been coming so long so just to be able to share this, I don’t think any of us will ever forget.”

Dundon helped lead the Mounts to a perfect 6-0 finish in Section Two (6-3 overall) with a pair of individual wins against L-S.

After clocking in at 1:05.49 in the 100 butterfly, the senior cruised to a nearly 10-second win in the 100 backstroke, touching in 1:04.89. She also anchored the first-place 200 medley (2:01.71) and 400 freestyle (4:06.40) relays.

Leading off that 400 freestyle relay was Sydney Morgan, who finished second in two events, including the 200 freestyle.

The junior’s time of 2:13.85 put her just behind teammate Kailee Freeman (2:13.67), while both times marked personal bests.

Lampeter-Strasburg (2-4, 3-6) took first in five events, four of which were won by either Hailey Welchans or Catherine Horner.

Welchans posted top times in the 50 (27.30) and 100 (1:00.93) freestyles, while Horner swam the 200 IM (2:29.04) and bested the field in the 500 freestyle (6:00.79) by more than 21 seconds.

Late comeback for L-S boys

Ephrata (2-4, 2-7) held control for most of the meet led by double winners Darren Schlemm and Dawsen Miller.

After anchoring the winning 200 medley relay (1:51.02), Miller sprinted to a 24.77 finish in the 50 freestyle and took the 100 backstroke in 1:02.54. Schlemm touched first in the 100 freestyle (51.93) after winning the 200 freestyle (1:52.69) by 13.65 seconds. Everything changed in the 100 breaststroke, however, an event Molchany agreed “killed us.” Colin Anderson (1:07.59), Dylan Grau (1:14.74) and Steven Hollern (1:15.98) swept the event, giving L-S (2-4, 2-7) an 81-74 lead.

Although Ephrata’s team of Schlemm, Kyle Emmerling, Miller and Luke Emmerling won the 400 freestyle relay (3:36.48), Anderson cut about five seconds off the deficit for Lampeter-Strasburg’s A relay (3:39.00) while the Pioneers’ B relay took third (4:08.16) to seal the win.

Anderson also won the 500 freestyle for L-S, clocking in at 5:05.63, nearly 15 seconds ahead of the competition.

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