Robbinsville High seniors Ariel Bernard and Emily Volchansky are good friends who are both 4.0 students, volunteers at Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Hospital and headed for Division I swim programs in college, where they will both be pre-med students.
And to think they started out so differently when it came to swimming.
“I first started when I was four, and since then I’ve never stopped,” Bernard said. “My sister was in swimming, my parents said ‘We’ll just put you in too,’ so we swam together. I loved it and never stopped.”
Then there is Volchansky, who didn’t want to start.
“I didn’t know how to swim until I was 11,” she said. “I was always just around the shallow end. One of my fears was deep water. Even at my first tryouts I was crying. I didn’t want to get in because it was deep water, but I definitely overcame that.”
She sure did. Volchansky joined the Princeton Tiger Aquatics Club at age 12 when her parents thought she was too tall to be a gymnast and thought swimming might be a good sport. Despite her trepidation, “I tried out and loved it the instant I got in the pool. I saw myself improving constantly, decided to stick with it and it’s been great.”
She has been with PTAC ever since and has become one of Mercer County’s top swimmers in the breaststroke and 50 free. Her talents have landed her with Rutgers.
“There were a lot of choices but in the end Rutgers was the most affordable, my brother goes there, it’s not far from home,” Volchansky said. “It has a good program for the (psychology) major I’m going in; and I love the team. The team is super supportive, it was a great environment to be in, super competitive. In the end it was the right choice.”
As one of Mercer’s top freestyler and butterfly swimmers, Bernard is headed for Division I Stony Brook to major in chemistry. Her love of water meant a much earlier start to her club career, as she started with Peddie, moved to the former XCel and is now with Whitewater.
“Swimming is all about the people,” Bernard said. “It’s such a mental sport, and even though it’s all about the individual, it’s so important to be surrounded by a good environment, and that’s what made it fun all these years at Whitewater.”
It is also one of the reasons she chose Stony Brook. Like Volchansky, Bernard was looking for the right school more so than the right swim program. She found both on Long Island.
“It’s an all-girls team, which I’m not used to,” she said. “In club I mostly swim with boys but the team is kind of like high school swimming, they’re all super supportive. I watched some of their practices and it’s similar training to what I’m doing now, so it seems like it will help me a lot.
“And the coaches were really close with the swimmers. They were telling me they felt like they could go to the coaches for personal advice if they were dealing with something outside of swimming. They could talk to them about it and they would hear them. That’s what I’d been looking for in club and I found it. I knew I was looking for that in college too.”
Both swimmers made their choices last year, which is why they took the high school season off as juniors. The focus was on classroom work and club swimming in an effort to get into college. They had enjoyed high school success as freshmen and sophomores, placing in the Mercer County Meet and qualifying for the state Meet of Champions.
Ravens coach Annnie Meninger is happy to have them back as seniors.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “Since freshman year they’ve only gotten stronger and they’re really focused on swimming. Ariel’s a sprint freestyler and flyer. Emily can hang with whatever I put her in, mostly breaststroke, and IM and freestyle as well. Ariel is an asset in the 50, 100 and 100 fly, also for relays in sprints. Emily is very much a leader, she always has been since freshman year. Outside of swimming and holding her own in the water she pumps the team up as well and has good sportsmanship.”
Prior to the Jan. 25 Colonial Valley Conference Championships, both girls were enjoying dual meet success in helping Robbinsville to a 4-3-1 record.
Bernard had 18 first-place finishes either individually or in the relays, and had five other top-three places. Volchansky had 18 firsts and four other top-three finishes. Both are looking to threaten the Ravens 50 freestyle record.
“Since they’ve come back they’ve improved,” Meninger said. “It’s a good refocus year for them to come out and be part of the team. We have practice requirements and they meet those. At the meets I see both of them shuffling around and interacting with the kids.
“Emily came to a lot of our meets last year though she wasn’t swimming. She still kept in touch with everyone and helped time some of the meets and cheer everyone on. They took time last year for themselves but they’re both team players and contribute to our team in many ways.”
Both girls missed the camaraderie that comes with high school swimming. While club is necessary for recruiting purposes, competing with school mates just makes it fun.
“High school swimming creates a really supportive environment,” Bernard said. “Everyone is always cheering at meets, everyone is really loud. Club meets aren’t like that.”
Volchansky added that, “I did miss it last year, but I definitely knew it would be way too hard to manage, school, club and swimming at school. It was a good break, I’m happy I took it but I definitely did miss it. I’m glad I’m back this year.”
Meninger noted that high school swimming can often be the place to sharpen things up for club swimming.
“The high school meets are less pressure in terms of the times; where in club meets you always want to drop time and make cuts,” the coach said. “It’s more relaxed here and they can try different things in high school meets. They can make a change that they might not want to risk at a club meet trying to go for a cut.
“I also think since they’re both committed to D-1, the high school meets are a good window into what college swimming is like with the team aspect. It’s a good place for them to finish off high school; swimming with a team and getting that preparation for college.”
The two girls first met while swimming club, but their relationship began to grow when they became teammates.
“We’re really good friends,” said Bernard, who is a member of Robbinsville’s Black Culture Club. “We actually got a lot closer the last couple of years because our club teams both swim at Princeton University so we’re with each other there and through high school swimming.
“Emily’s a super supportive person and she gives the best advice. She has a really good positive mindset about swimming. In high school, a lot of girls around our age start to plateau a little bit so she really keeps everyone motivated and keeps everyone positive. That’s why we’ve become such close friends.”
Volchansky had equally kind words for her teammate.
“We weren’t really friends until high school, that’s when we got closer and we’ve been pretty close ever since,” she said. “We encourage each other, cheer for each other at meets whether it’s school or club meets. It’s a good relationship between us. She does a great job of being a good role model and I love looking up to her in certain aspects of things and learning from her.”
The best part about the duo is that unlike some high-level swimmers, they immerse themselves into the total Ravens team concept.
“Sometimes with club swimmers they kind of stick to themselves as club swimmers,” Meninger said. “But that’s not the case with these two, which is good to see. They make it unified. We’re really fortunate to have them.”
Robbinsville High School swimmers Ariel Bernard (left) and Emily Volchansky at practice at the Mercer County Community College pool facility. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
