Looking back to 2005, the High School North girls’ swim team was 6-5 in the regular season — nothing to merit major headlines in the sports pages. But roaming the halls of the school, though not competing on the team, was a girl who may prove to be the school’s best swimmer of all time.##M:[more]##
Residents can watch North alumna Rebecca Soni on television this summer as she competes with the United States Olympic swim team in Beijing. Soni, formerly a Plainsboro resident and a 2005 graduate of North, won the 200 breaststroke at the Olympic trials with a time of 2:22.60, coming close to setting a new American record, missing it by 16-hundredths of a second.
In doing so, Soni secured her first spot ever on the team, defeating runner up Amanda Beard, on July 4. The feat comes days after she missed out of qualifying in the 100 breaststroke. Soni had finished first in the semifinals for the 100 breaststroke, with a time of 1:06.87, but finished fourth in the finals. Only the two top finishers in each event move on. The trials were held in Omaha, Nebraska, in the first week of July.
While at High School North, Soni competed for the Scarlet Aquatics swimming club — none of the swimming coaches from that time were immediately available to explain why she did not compete for the Northern Knights. After high school the family moved to Arizona, according to school officials, and Soni matriculated at the University of Southern California, where she has continued her success. A member of the U.S. National Team, Soni holds USC records in the 100 and 200-yard breast, as well as the 200 and 400-yard medley relays. She is also the two-time defending NCAA champion in the 200 breaststroke.
This is not the first time Soni — whose parents, Peter and Kinga, came to the U.S. from Hungary and Romania before she and her sister were born, she said in other reports — has tried out for the Olympic team. In 2004 she was a semifinalist in the 200 meter breaststroke.
Soni has proved to be a fighter. She underwent minor heart surgery over the summer of 2006, prior to her sophomore season at USC, according to the school’s website. Despite this, she was able to defend her NCAA championships crown in the 200-yard breast that year, and she still raced at the 2006 U.S. Summer Nationals, where she placed 10th in both the 100 meter and 200 meter breaststroke.
Soni and the other members of the United States team will train at Stanford, then head to Singapore for a week of training. Olympic swimming begins on Saturday, August 9, in Beijing.
