Little Tigers work plan to perfection against Nottingham
By: Bob Nuse
NORTH BRUNSWICK — The Princeton High boys’ swim team had a plan and it worked to perfection.
The Little Tigers trained through the Mercer County Championships with their goal being to win a sectional swimming championship. Princeton accomplished that Monday night, winning the Central Jersey B Division title with a 102-68 win over Nottingham, a team it had beaten by just two points earlier this season.
With the win, the Little Tigers advanced to the Division B state semifinals Thursday at The College of New Jersey. Princeton will meet the winner of the North Jersey title, either Scotch Plains-Fanwood or Northern Highlands.
"The way the kids had trained the last week made me real optimistic that we could do this," said Princeton coach Greg Hand, whose team won 10 of the 12 events Monday. "It looked like (the semifinal win over Lawrence last Friday) wasn’t going to be the end of their improvement in time. We were coming off an emotional win against Lawrence, but the guys still had a terrific attitude about this meet."
Princeton finished second in the opening medley relay, falling behind 10-4, but dominated the meet from that point on. Mark Fisher and Andrew Ferguson went 1-2 in the 200 free to help the Little Tigers grab a lead they’d never relinquish. Kirby Sholl and Nate Ristuccia came up with a 1-2 finish in the 200 individual medley, with Micah Halsey and Greg Callahan following that up with a 1-2 finish in the 50 free.
Nottingham went 1-3-4 in the butterfly to make it look like the meet might get interesting again, but Halsey and Callahan came back to go 1-2 in the 100 free. The Little Tigers then put the nail in the coffin when Fisher, Sholl and Ferguson went 1-2-3 in the 500 free to build a commanding 67-43 lead. Princeton would win the final two relays, as well as the backstroke with Ristuccia and the breaststroke with Sam Palmer to complete the route.
"We thought this was going to be a close meet and we all had to swim our best," Ferguson said. "We really did not expect this at all. We were surprised how well we did against Lawrence, and then we came back and did it again today.
"Mr. Hand is great at figuring out just what we need to do to win and we did what we needed to do."
"Everybody stepped up and did their job," added Hand. "We took it one race at a time. We had hoped to win the medley relay, but after we didn’t the guys didn’t get down. We came right back and went 1-2 in the 200 free and that was huge for us. It was really a great meet."
A meet that went just as the Little Tigers had planned.