The 2004-’05 swimming season has been one of predictable glory for the High School South girls’ swimming team as it won its fifth consecutive Mercer County Tournament title.##M:[more]## South’s girls also have won every CVC meet they have competed in during the last five years.
The South boys have had peaks and valleys. They narrowly lost the MCT, but got off to a good start in the state tournament on February 15. And with some of the area’s top swimmers coming back, things look good for next year for both teams.
“A lot of our success is the hard work that the kids put in,” says South coach Paul Hamnett, now in his fifth year. “As a program, we tend to do more work and we have some swimmers who do year-round swimming. Success leads to success.”
With a perfect 11-0 regular season record, the South girl swimmers are ranked as the top team in the area. In the regular season the Pirates bested its top competition — Princeton, 89-81 on January 17 and Lawrence, 93-77 on January 27 — as well as rolling past High School North, 113-57, on December 16; Ewing, 129-40, on December 21; and opening the season on December 9 against South Brunswick with a 125-45 win.
Junior Evelyn Yuen has the season’s fastest time in the breaststroke with 1:07.45 (over one second faster the county’s next best time). Junior distance swimmer Gabi Feibel ranks fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:58.47), fourth in the 100 freestyle (55.46), and second in the 500 freestyle (5:15.88). Sophomore Milagros Simon has the county’s third best time in the 100 backstroke (1:02.42) and fourth best time in the 50 freestyle (25.40. The Pirate girl relay swimmers are best in the county in the 200 medley relay (1:54.78) and 200 freestyle relay (1:44.13).
Other Pirate standouts include senior distance swimmer Liron Noiman, senior Jessica Solloway (sprints), sophomore Victoria Herbert, senior breaststroke swimmer Erika Tomei, seniors Sarah Lee and Talia Markowitz, and sophomore Kate Winters (who has the area’s fifth best time in the 100 backstroke at 1:03.37).
Although he has been at the helm to what has become something of a dynasty, Hamnett says his swimmers get most of the credit. “Some of them come to us with an interest in the sport,” he says. “We bring them to a point and they go even beyond that by getting better training at a year-round facility.”
For the South girls, the MCT was the stuff dreams are made of. Yuen won the 100 breaststroke and finished fourth in the 100 butterfly as well as swimming in both of the Pirates’ winning relays. Tomei came in fourth.
South started the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay when Feibel roared back in the last leg of the race. The Pirates also won the 200 free relay. South captured the overall victory when Simon, Winters, and Ali Lichtenstein finished third through fifth and Sarah Lee finished ninth overall in the backstroke. Yuen then won the breaststroke with Tomei coming in fourth. The Pirates finished with 224 points, with Princeton in second place with 191, and Lawrence in third with 185 points.
The Pirate boys swimmers earned an 11-1 regular season record, despite finishing second in the MCT. “It’s been a great season. Unfortunately Lawrence and Hillsborough both have really strong boys teams this year,” says Hamnett. “I think our boys are under-rated. They are doing a good job and have worked hard all season.”
The Pirates boy have been led by sophomore Jay Park, who has the CVC’s top times in the 200 freestyle (1:45.31), the 50 freestyle (21.35), 100 butterfly (52.58), and the 100 freestyle (47.13). Junior distance swimmer Brian Honore has the county’s best time in the 500 freestyle (4:50.67) and sophomore Mike Carmen is second fastest in the breaststroke (1:03.21).
For the boys though, it all came down to the MCT at the end of the regular season. South battled against a strong-as-usual Princeton team and an undefeated Lawrence. Despite finishing in first place in 6 of the 11 events — compared to one for Princeton and four for Lawrence — South finished in second place overall with 227 points. Lawrence won with 273.
After a spotty performance in the qualifying races on February 3, South finished with a number of its best times on February 5. Honore won the 200 free and 500 free (by three-tenths of a second). Park won the sprint events, winning the 50 and 100 free and combining with Honore, John Chiu and Hugh Le to anchor the winning 400 free relay. In addition, Chiu and Le had their season’s top times.
South boys and girls are competing in the state tournament. On February 16, the South girls’ team defeated Middletown North, 121-49. Winters, Simon, Yuen, and Feibel started out with a win in the 200 medley relay, winning in 1:57.28. Feibel, Woodhull, and Solloway also took the top three finishes in the 100-yard freestyle. Their next opponent was not yet determined as the WW-P News went to press.
The South boys took out their MCT frustrations in the first round of the state playoffs by rolling over Jackson, 115-55. Honore, Carmen, Park, Damn Le, Tony Qian turned in dominant performances. South boys were set to face Hillsborough on Thursday, February 17, after the WW-P News went to press.
High School North
Unlike its neighbor to the south, High School North doesn’t have a solid tradition of swimming dominance. In only their fifth year of existence, the North boys and girls swimming teams are looking for improvement rather than notching up the victories.
“Both teams have improved drastically,” says Tiffany Brennan, in her first year coaching North. “At the Mercer County Tournament alone we had 34 best season times and five school records. We’ve set six school records this year.” Sophomores Jason Raziano, Josh Chen, Kiki Rosa, and Raquel Riestra set the individual records while the other three record times were in relay races.
Improvement is the reason why Brennan calls the season a success despite the fact that the Knights boys finished the regular season, 7-5 (compared to 11-4 last year) and the girls finished 6-5 (compared to 9-5 last year). “We have gotten a lot faster, compared to last year, but so have all the other teams we faced,” says Brennan.
Although the boys’ eighth place finish (with 81 points) in the MCT doesn’t reflect this improvement Chen’s third place finish in the 100 and fifth place finish in the 200 IM were the school record setters. The Knights were fourth in the 200 free and 400 free relays, also setting new school records. Sophomore Jason Raziano’s school record in the 50 free came with a 10th-place finish.
For Brennan, it is all about gaining experience during the season. “We don’t have a lot of year round swimmers,” she says. “We have maybe six or seven who swim 11 months a year and a handful of kids who swim in the fall warmup at one of the other schools a couple days during the week to get ready for the season. But for most of them the bulk of the training is in the high school season.”
But swimming is a growing sport nationally, now out-drawing soccer as the country’s top youth participation sport. “There are kids starting when they are little,” she says. “It’s a different mind set than playing lacrosse or soccer because it appeals to the more individually minded kid. If you are a great player on a not-so-good team you really don’t reap the benefits of that so much as you would in swimming.”
Sophomore Riestra set the 100 free record at the MCT while the Knights’ girl swimmers finished in seventh place overall, finishing fifth in the 200 free relay, sixth in the 400 free relay and winning the consolation final of the 200 medley relay. Rosa was sixth in the 200 IM and 11th in the 100 fly while breaking the school record.
Riestra is a Plainsboro resident. Her father is an architect and her mother is studying to become a teacher. She also has one younger sister at Community Middle School. She has been swimming competitively since she was five years old. “I used to be a year-round swimming but my shoulders are really bad,” she says. “This year I decided just to compete in high school swimming.”
Although she has two full years of high school competition ahead of her, Riestra already has a savvy method of racing. When she races she likes to compete against the best in the pool. “If I go against someone who I know has a better time than I do, then I try to race against them,” she says. “But if I know I have faster times than the others then I just race against myself to get points for the school.”
Aside from working as a math teacher at High School North, Brennan has also been a professional marathon swimmer, last swimming in the “Atlantic City Around the Island swim” that was held in July, covering the 22 1/2 miles in 7 hours, 32 minutes, 18 seconds and finishing as the sixth female overall.
Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Brennan graduated with the Rutgers Alumni Swimming Award in 1999. She has also been an assistant coach at Villanova University before moving to San Diego in 2002 with her husband and former coach, Sean, in training to make the 2004 Olympics U.S. kayak team.
North girls were eliminated from the NJSIAA Tournament on February 16, losing to Hopewell, 90-80. Rosa won the 200-yard freestyle and Riestra won the 100 freestyle.
The Northern Knights boys team defeated Nottingham, 95-75, on February 15 in the first round of the state playoffs. Chen, Raziano, Jimmy Qin and David Yu won for the Knights. The Knights boys faced Princeton on February 17, after the News went to press.
Sports Registration
The Magic Baseball U-12 team is seeking players for the upcoming spring season. For more information, call Steve Doyle 609-978-8798 or 201-774-9534 or E-mail at malibu0525@aol.com.
New Jersey Bandits spring football team needs players, 17 years and older, to play in various flag football leagues and tournaments. All interested football players are welcome to call 732-382-8894 or E-mail at nj_bandits@yahoo.com.
