South boys’ swimmers won’t give up crown yet

Pirates tie North boys, WW-PS girls win easily

By: Justin Feil
   The West Windsor-Plainsboro High North boys’ swim team felt like most teams would after a tie — as though it lost. The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys felt exactly the opposite after the teams swam to an 85-85 tie on Tuesday at "The Bubble."
   "We were pretty satisfied from the tie," said South junior Paul Tadej. "I almost consider it a victory. The other team seemed pretty confident and we didn’t really expect a tie. We felt we were the underdogs. There was a lot of hype going around North that this was their year."
   It may have to wait one more season as the Pirates didn’t seem quite ready to reliquinish their six-year dual meet winning streak. WW-P South has not lost to a Colonial Valley Conference foe since losing by a point to Notre Dame in 1995.
   The WW-P South girls also continued their dominance as they handled North, 123-47. Kate Guthrie, Jen Hong, Stephanie Kraml and Katie Welsh all won two individual events. After a scheduled meet against Notre Dame on Thursday, the Pirates are supposed to host South Brunswick 10 a.m. Saturday, but that meet may be rescheduled due to the holiday. North was scheduled to face Ewing on Thursday and won’t compete again until Jan. 3.
   "This was our first meet in a yard pool," said North head coach Cheryl Reca of Tuesday’s meet. "And all the kids wanted to know if they had good times. When I got home and looked at them all, almost all our guys swam personal bests. If we had swam horrible times, you’d be second-guessing ourselves, but we didn’t.
   "I kind of knew the girls weren’t going to win with who they had coming back and some of their freshmen. Our boys were pretty disappointed when they came to school (Wednesday), but I told them that last year we got crushed. For us to tie them was a big deal."
   And it took every point from South’s boys to maintain their stranglehold on the CVC. Tadej was a big scorer and major reason the Pirate boys came out on top.
   He captured individual first-place points in the 50 free with a win by two-hundredths of a second and in the 100 backstroke. He also swam the lead-off backstroke leg of the winning 200 medley relay that began the meet and provided a cushion with his third leg in the 400 free relay that ended the meet and gave the Pirates a tie.
   "We were talking about that in practice (Wednesday)," Tadej said of the importance of every point. "All the touch-outs we had helped. Me in the 50 free, everyone thought I’d lost but the computer showed differently. In the 100 breast, one of the depth guys, Lewei Chen, he touched out a kid for fifth place. That’s one point right there. Everyone stepped up."
   It’s a formula that the Pirates know they’ll need this season after losing 11 swimmers from last year’s CVC championship squad. But by the next day, there was a change in attitude at "The Bubble."
   "We were still feeling the effects," Tadej said. "Yesterday we were so tired we really didn’t do much. Coach said that it’s only one meet and we can’t be too happy about one meet, but the whole team was pretty positive. Most of the guys got pretty good times.
   "That helps because it shows what our hard work does. Maybe we’ll try even harder now in practice. I know that’s what I’m telling myself."
   Tadej’s backstroke time of 1:02.35 was already under his best of a year ago, 1:03. He’s looking to approach the 1-minute mark as he dives full speed into his training. It’s important for South swimmers like Tadej, who doesn’t swim year-round, to get the most out of practice. The junior, who also plays lacrosse and could add football next fall, is gearing up for his best events, and Tuesday gave him plenty of motivation.
   "I was pretty thrilled about it," he said. "The thing I like best was my backstroke time. That’s the thing that our coach is always talking about with me. And then I swam my best free, and I’d lost my goggles."
   Tadej’s goggles came off in his leg of the 400 free relay, when the meet and the streak were on the line.
   "I just opened my eyes," he said. "I was afraid I would go into another lane if I didn’t. I kind of started panicking. I didn’t know who I was swimming against. It was a freshman, and he was the only kid I didn’t know how he swam on their team. When I lost my goggles, I just thought that I couldn’t let down my team."
   Instead, Tadej practically carried the relay squad on his back in his third leg. When he touched, the Pirates had a five-second lead and were guaranteed at least a tie. North took second and third to end the meet, 85-85.
   "Our 400 guys, even though they lost, set a new school record," Reca said. "We just knew with the 11 seniors they lost, the kids felt their best shot at beating them was this year compared to last. South really hadn’t had any meets so we didn’t know what their times were like. But we had some good swims."
   Next season, North hopes, those swims will be enough to knock off its sister school. But as South showed this season, it’s not quite ready to relinquish its CVC crown.
   "It made us believe we have a chance against the other teams from the CVC," Tidej said. "We knew we’d lose to Bridgewater (in the season opener). We were thinking it’s going to be a down year. But now everyone’s more motivated to work harder and see what we can do."