There’s no other way to say it. Michael Wojtenko loves living life in the fast lane.
Calm down. He’s not out driving recklessly; hanging on street corners with his buddies causing trouble; or taking chances in all he does.
The High School North senior has merely gone from a distance swimmer to a sprinter this year. A very successful sprinter.
“Over time,” he said, “my sprinting has gotten a lot better and they have become my main events.”
It’s easy to see why. On Dec. 9, Wojtenko set the school record of 24.36 in the 50 meters against Ewing. One meet later, he broke the WWPN 100 meter mark in a time of 53.55 despite finishing second to a Princeton swimmer.
He broke the marks of the graduated Ethan Yuen, who set them both in 2019 with a 24.69 and a 53.8. Yuen was happy to pass the torch.
“We were friends, he congratulated me,” Wojtenko said, adding with a laugh “He’s still got a few records on the board.”
The Grovers Mill resident mainly swims the 100 and 200 but was hoping to take a shot at the 50 mark. Coach Todd Robinson put him in against Ewing “and he told me ‘This might be one of your only shots to get it, so make it count.’ I knew I could get it, but that was just a little more motivation in the pool.”
Wojtenko is enjoying a banner year, having won all but two of his events in dual meets. He was hoping for a high place at the Mercer County Championships, which took place Jan. 27-29. He has already achieved state cuts in the 100 and 200 and feels he and the team both have a chance to do well in the NJSIAA championships.
The Northern Knights were 5-1 as of Jan. 24 behind the efforts of Wojtenko, Jonathan Hu (50 free, 100 fly), Paul Rizzo (backstroke), Derek Liu (backstroke), Steven Kim (IM, butterfly) and Alex Ho (breaststroke).
“I think we have a good shot at the county championship, and even beyond that with the state championships,” Wojtenko said a week before the MCTs. “We have a really good team this year and can really take a shot at the state championship. We won our section (two years ago) and I think we can make it back there.”
Wojtekno’s introduction to swimming came from watching his sisters Larissa and Juliana – both former Northern Knight swimmers – compete in club swimming. He started in PASDA with the West Windsor Whalers at age 6, moved on to club swimming with Peddie at age 9, and switched to Hamilton Aquatics Club at 14.
“We spent a lot of time at the pool when I was younger,” Wojtenko said. “I would go to the lap pool and watch the competitions. I enjoyed it right away. I definitely wasn’t scared of the water. Ever since I was younger my mom would bring me to the pool and have me kick and things like that.”
When he began swimming with Peddie, his coaches tried him in the 500 and from the start he seemed better at that than sprints.
“I feel like I had a better mindset toward distance events,” Wojtenko said. “Especially when I first started. My stop speed wasn’t the best and I didn’t know how to get the most out of my strokes. In a short period of time, I was able to pace myself and do better in distance.”
Once he moved to HAC, Michael’s mindset began to change to the point where he learned to just put his head down and swim as fast as he could go.
“I guess the simplicity of it really helped me,” he said. “I would get a block in distance swimming where I couldn’t get my times any lower. When I would reflect back on races and practices, the game plan that I formulated for sprinting events seemed to really start working.”
Wojtenko remained in distances during his freshman and sophomore years, and actually placed fifth in the 200 and second in the 400 at the county meet. He was also a key swimmer in WWPN’s march to the sectional title.
Then came last year, when every meet was virtual and each team just swam alone in their pool and compared their times to their opponent’s to decide a winner.
“In my opinion, they were really bizarre,” Wojtenko said. “Usually every single high school meet we’re all going crazy and screaming. In the virtual meet it was so quiet. It made me want to come back this year a lot more and I was anticipating it a lot more because of that environment.”
Over the past several years, Wojtenko did a few sprints but they were not his main focus, and he would game plan for distance events.
But. . .
“Over time I realized I was closer to sprinting state times so I began focusing on them more in club,” he said. “I think I first enjoyed distance because I was good at it. But now I just feel a bit more comfortable when it comes to sprinting events as opposed to distance events.”
He’s also pretty comfortable in the classroom. Owner of a 3.92 unweighted grade point average, Wojtenko has already been accepted to Rutgers, Purdue and Villanova, and is waiting to hear back from Georgia Tech, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon. His top choices are Princeton or Georgia Tech. He also plays the double bass in the school orchestra.
Michael is looking to major in chemical engineering with an eye on going into that field as a profession. As for swimming, he said ‘it depends on where I go. If I have a chance, I might walk on.”
Either way, he will continue to enjoy the pool, if only for the enjoyment.
“I just think it’s relaxing,” Wojtenko said. “I feel like I’m within myself, in my own thoughts. There’s just a calmness about it.”
Although there’s an excitement to setting those school records.
High School North senior Michael Wojtenko has broken two school records this season,
