Even now, weeks after the swimming season has concluded, Helen Hsu isn't sure how it all happened.

The Freedom High School junior set or tied 13 individual school or pool records this season and compiled one of the most impressive runs in recent years, male or female.

"Honestly, I have to say I don't know how I did it," Hsu said. "The first week we did time trails and I realized I was pretty close to my best times from at the end of last season and I realized I was in good condition."

Hsu was the area's best all-around swimmer proving that fact meet after meet and for that she earns the 2014 Express-Times Girls Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Year award.

She is the fourth Freedom female to receive the honor and first since Christy Longacre did it as a freshman in 2006.

The junior's dominance began in the first meet of the season in her first individual race. At home versus Emmaus, Hsu went 24.38 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle to set a pool record, though neither she nor her coach, Jon Larson, realized it at the time. A few events later, she tied the pool record in the 100 free (52.71). Leading off the 400 free relay, Hsu went 52.58 to break the 100 free pool record.

"I wasn't going for anything that first run until I got out and they told me I tied it," she said. "Then, afterwards, I thought, 'well, since I tied it, leading off the relay I can go for it.'"

Hsu did not think she had it in her to even break records.

"I didn't know I could do it until it was that close and then I was like, I guess I could," she said. "Then, with each one after that it became a goal. I wanted to see how fast I could go. It became a motivating thing."

Hsu continued her assault on the record boards at the Allen and Nazareth meets, but it was one she set against Parkland that made an impression on her.

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Freedom's Helen Hsu is The 2014 Express-Times Girls Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Year