This weekend Pope John hosted its Seventeenth Annual Invitational at Sussex Tech, which was attended by many SCIL squads. Vernon was conspicuous by its absence due to a conflicting event. "We have already swum against Jefferson and Newton but this is really our first big meet and it prepares us for the season which basically starts in earnest after Christmas," said Ed Winne, who has been the head swim coach at Pope John for 20 years. "The season is really only six weeks long and I expect all of our swimmers will do well but individuals like Amanda Desantis who swims the freestyle and the butterfly and John Adams who swims the freestyle and the backstroke will definitely be ones to watch," he added. Pope John was impressive swept the boys and girls team titles. Frank Kane excelled for the Lions, winning the 100-meter butterfly (1:04.15) and 100-meter breaststroke (1:14.10) and swimming legs on Pope John's victorious 200-meter medley relay and 200-meter freestyle relay foursomes. Rebecca Sior posted the only gold medal effort by the Lions in the girls' competition, winning the 100-meter backstroke (1:19.05). Lenape Valley's Matt Wozniak dominated the shorter freestyle races. He sprinted to a first place finish in the 50-meter freestyle (24.88) and was fastest to the finish wall in the 100-meter freestyle, touching in 55.39 seconds. Click on njswimming com for complete results of the 17th Annual Pope John Invitational.