LANCASTER -- The Easterns Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championship hardware is heading back to Fort Washington, as the Germantown Academy girls’ team won the premier prep school swimming and diving title for the fourth consecutive year on Saturday. The boys’ team finished seventh, helping GA place fourth overall with 1,019 points.

“Pressure is a privilege, and trying to defend a title is a lot different than hunting a title,” head coach Jeff Thompson said. “We had a lot of great swims, diving was amazing, and I’m super proud of those kids.”

The final day of action came with eight medals for the Patriots—one for the boys’ team and seven for the girls’. Those medals brought the red, black and blue to 18 total over the two days of competition—13 for the girls and five for the boys. They finished with four gold, seven silver and two bronze.

The day started in Fort Washington with girls’ diving, an event that GA dominated by finishing 1-4. Libby Brewer ’25 took first, becoming the first GA female diver to win two Easterns diving titles. Brewer, who already owns the school record for five dives, was just 7.05 points away from the 11-dive school record of 484.20, held by Alana Schumann ’17. Ana Navarro ’28 finished second, while Laurel DePolo ’25, the 2024 Easterns champion, took third. Maddie Evers ’26 finished fourth. The 113 points scored by the foursome are the most in school history and the most possible that a team could score.

“It was a lot of fun,” diving coach Tom Henninger ’07 said. “Any one of the girls could win on any given day. I thought they came out focused, and we literally couldn’t have done any better.”

The girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay team of Sarah Freeman ’25, Amelia Gipson ’27, Karly Boles ’25 and Emily Hamill ’25 set the school record with a time of 3 minutes, 20.23 seconds. They finished second and qualified for All-American consideration.

“Ending the meet by breaking that record that they’ve been chasing for three years, it was special,” Thompson said. “I’d rather them break the record and take second than win and not break the record.”

Brandon Fleck ’25 earned the first gold of the night for GA, winning the boys’ 100-yard freestyle in 43.73 seconds. Hamill and Freeman finished second and third in the girls’ 100-yard freestyle in 50.32 and 50.39 seconds, respectively. Arden Keitel ’27 took seventh in 51.83 seconds.

Boles (4:48.40) and Gipson (4:49.75) went 1-2 in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle, with Camryn Jones ’26 finishing fourth in 4:55.96. Boles dropped more than two full seconds from her prelim time, while Gipson dropped almost three and a half seconds.

For Thompson, the conclusion of the meet marks the end of his 11-year tenure as the Patriots’ head coach. Following the competition, he had time to reflect on the season.

“It was a heck of a year,” Thompson said. “I’m proud of the kids and the coaches. I’m grateful to have been able to make this run—the senior girls haven’t lost a dual meet or Easterns—and I’m grateful to GA for giving me a chance.”