Emma Frumiento surprised a lot of people this season, including her coach.

The Hebron Academy freshman swam fast all season, and has been chose as the Sun Journal All-Region Girls Swimmer of the Year.

“She had not been on my radar screen,” said Scott Morrison, who coaches Edward Little/Leavitt along with swimmers from Hebron and five other schools. “I had been aware of her older sister, who swam with us and graduated at Hebron. I was well aware of Ethan (Emma’s older brother) swimming in a variety of events: short, medium, and long, 50-yard free, other stroke events and the 500-yard freestyle. But Emma, in that first meet in the 50 freestyle, she went 27-low, and I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, holy crap.’ I just couldn’t believe how fast she was.”

Frumiento said she’s close with her siblings and that Ethan, a senior this season, helped her adapt to high school swimming.

“I think Ethan was there mostly in the transition, and we are pretty good friends — we get along with each other,” Frumiento said. “I hang out with some of the people he hangs out with. It hasn’t been hard to transition.”

Emma Frumiento swims with the Twin City club team, and through that she had competed with and against many of the same swimmers as the high school level.

Frumiento’s 50-yard freestyle times continued to drop throughout the season. Since Hebron doesn’t have enough swimmers for a team, her times didn’t officially score in the regular season or the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meets.

She thrived while swimming for herself this season.

“I just like to see what I can do by myself because normally your points are all added up,” Frumiento said. “It was cool how far I could go by myself without a relay team.”

At the KVAC championships, her times in the 50 (26.36 seconds) and 100 freestyle (59.60) races would have placed second.

A week later, at the annual Lesley Martin and Chris Campbell Memorial Swim Meet hosted by Lewiston and Edward Little/Leavitt, her time of 26.84 in the 50 freestyle was just behind winner Mya Vincent of Edward Little/Leavitt, who won the event. Frumiento’s time of 1:22.34 in the 100-yard breaststroke was the fastest of the meet.

Frumiento capped her season at the Class A state championships — where her times officially counted individually and as a team score — with strong finishes in the 50 and 100 freestyle races. She finished fifth in the 50 with a time of 26.22 and 11th in the 100 with a 1:00.53.

She recorded 20 points for Hebron, which placed the Lumberjacks 18th of 23 teams.

“When I was able to see the points I had gotten for Hebron, that was cool,” Frumiento said. “It was really fun, and to be with all my friends (from other swim teams), even though some are graduating, but it was a good experience at states this year.”

Morrison said after the first meet of the season, he talked with Frumiento about goals for the season, and one of them was to finish in the top 10 in the state.

“In my wildest dreams, I never thought she could do that, but she did that,” Morrison said. “Pretty amazing.”

Morrison said Frumiento still has untapped potential and can get even better with some refinement.

“She has some stroke areas that we can work on,” Morrison said. “We will start with her starts and turns. She’s really strong, and I expect she will get stronger. Her starts and turns definitely need some more work. I know that Vanessa Williamson with the (Twin Cities Swim Team) has been working with her on that stuff. Those are things we will be working on and fine tune.”

Frumiento has set her sights on continuing to improve.

“I am probably going to work harder at high school practice,” Frumiento said. “I know it was hard for me (this season) because I would come from club swimming before, and I was tired. To have another practice after was sometimes hard. If I put in more work in practice, I can do better.”

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