By: Justin Feil
In the first meet of the season between the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North and Princeton High girls’ swim teams, North won a close one, 86-84, despite a strong 400 free relay finish by PHS.
The teams met again Wednesday at DeNunzio Pool in a Central Jersey ‘B’ quarterfinal, and the Little Tigers prevailed, this time in an even closer meet, 85½-84½, on the strength of capturing first and third place in the final event, the 400 free relay.
"I was just thinking, ‘I’ve got to keep it up, I’ve got to keep it up, I’ve got to keep it up,’ " said PHS’ Erin McKinley, who anchored the winning 400 free relay squad. "And I was hoping that our lane two was keeping it up too."
The win helped the Little Tigers come back from a five-point deficit going into the final event. McKinley also won the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. Cranbury’s Kristin Gray was the only other Little Tiger swimmer to capture an event, the 100 butterfly. PHS needed every point possible to come back after losing the first two events of the meet.
"I was concerned at first, when we were down a little," said PHS head coach Greg Hand, whose squad swims at top-seeded Rumson Fair-Haven 3 p.m. today (Friday). "But it makes sense that both the teams would be similar to the first since there’s not a lot we can do to change things."
Hand stuck very closely to the lineup that brought him within two points of the Knights the first time around, while WW-PN head coach Cheryl Reca tried to set up her 400 free relays for a win.
"I split my relays," Reca said. "I knew we couldn’t beat their 400 free relay," she said. "To win, I knew we had to take second and third. I split my relays, but it didn’t work.
"Princeton’s a great team. They’ve been improving all year long. It was a great meet. Our kids swam fast times. We tried to change some people around to get a different point total. We just came up a little short."
The tough loss left fifth-seeded WW-PN 9-6 overall, the same amount of wins they had in their initial varsity season last year. With the win, PHS improved to 6-5, already three wins ahead of last year’s record.
"We all knew we could win," McKinley said. "We just had to do it. It will be interesting (today against Rumson). They’re very, very fast."
But for the 17-year-old senior, winning Wednesday is already something to take away from her swim team experience. Now the fourth-seeded Little Tigers will look for an upset of the top seed.
"It’s going to be tough," Hand said. "They have 3,800 power points, so they have 1,400 on us. It’s a huge challenge. Can we swim (personal records) when we’re up against the highest level competition? I’m interested in that. How do we swim? Do we have enough confidence to swim our best against people who are maybe stronger?"
Hand will find the answers today, though he has already seen how well his team responds to very equal competition. The Little Tigers didn’t win any more events than they did the first time, but their improving depth picked up a point here or there that ended up being the difference. Cranbury’s Caroline Sholl, for instance, swam to a tie for third place in the 100 butterfly. Had she lost, the meet could have ended in a tie.
"After the first relay, we were kind of bummed," said McKinley, whose 200 medley relay team finished behind WW-PN. "After the 50, we had a speaker, Kristin Gray. She gave us a talk and we brought it together. After that, no one was sitting down, everyone was cheering. We were just kind of dead before that.
"I knew it would be tough. We just didn’t want to lose by two points again. We were more psyched up this time. We knew what we had to do to win the events. The first meet, we got psyched up a little late."
PHS couldn’t afford to start late Wednesday, though it’s shown a strong finishing kick to the season.
"The thing that pleases me," Hand said, "is that the whole county has been improving and we’ve been improving as well. The kids can be proud of having swum better at the end than at the beginning."
And in the state tournament, they were just a point and a half better than the first time they faced WW-PN.
"When you have a difference of two points at a dual meet, that’s essentially a tie," Hand said. "This is too. They were sharp. They’ve had a really good season. We were fortunate to get 1½ more points than last time."
