PDS’ Hirniak sets records at county meet
By: Justin Feil
Stefan Hirniak came into the Mercer County Boys’ Swimming Championships already holding the 200 and 500-meter freestyle records.
The Princeton Day School senior set them last year in his first healthy try at counties, and he had only one question about setting some new standards at this year’s county meet.
"It was just a matter of by how much," Hirniak said. "I was hoping the finals were going to be Saturday because I wanted to go to practice and have a long warm-up."
After breaking both records in the preliminaries Thursday, Feb. 6, snow forced the finals to be held the next Monday, but it didn’t slow Hirniak much.
The Highland Park resident won the 200 free in 1:53.50, well ahead of his 1:55.05 preliminary mark, and more than two seconds ahead of last year’s record. In the 500 free, he established a mark of 5:07.50, smashing his preliminary record of 5:10.34, and annulling the 5:14.76 of a year ago. For his records, he was name the meet’s Most Valuable Swimmer for the second straight year.
Stefan Hirniak is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
"I was real happy with my 200," he said. "I wish I had gone a little faster in the 500."
Converted to short-course (yard) times, Hirniak has gone faster about a second and a half in the 200 and 10 to 15 seconds faster in the 500 as a Scarlet Aquatics Club swimmer. Hirniak is eyeing bigger prizes than the county titles and records he captured. He has sectionals in two weeks, and nationals two weeks after that meet. In between, he’ll sneak in a few events at the Junior Olympics, but his real goal is the sectionals and nationals.
"I’ll be trying to go real fast in them," said Hirniak, who celebrated his 18th birthday two days after setting two county records. "With the counties, I like to see where I am. I don’t rest and I see what I can do. I need racing experience."
And Hirniak was pleased with the returns he got from his racing experience last Monday. It’s the payoff for increasing his weekly mileage to as much as 80,000 yards per week, well above what he did last year.
"I knew I was going to break the records," he said. "I’ve been training a lot harder and faster."
And where Hirniak found the payoff was in his conditioning and speed at last Monday’s county finals.
"The thing about my 200, I took it out in the same split as I did at the Holiday Classic," said Hirniak, who swam the first 50 in 26.85, which would have been good for sixth in the 50 free race. At counties, I lost my legs and died, but I didn’t taper for it. I did a double that morning and that means at sectionals I can take it out real fast.
"I want to go 1:37 low to 1:36 low. I want to be one or two behind (Maryland’s Michael) Phelps in the country. And I should be in the top three or four in the 500."
Hirniak committed early to the University of Virginia this year, where he’ll join the third-best collegiate distance team in the county behind Michigan and Southern California. There, he’s expected to swim the 100, 200, 500 and 1000. He’s also working on developing his 200 individual medley and butterfly, which he’ll swim at sectionals.
"My best event is the 500 (short course) and 400 long course," he said. "But my favorite is the 200."
Hirniak loves the 200 for its combination of speed and endurance. It’s short enough to be a sprint, but just long enough to test the lungs and legs. At the county meet, he wasn’t tested at all in the 200 after opening so quickly. He finished more than eight seconds ahead of Nottingham’s Kristopher Farreny.
In the 500, Princeton High’s Mark Fisher battled Hirniak for almost half the race before the PDS racer pulled away.
"I didn’t know how fast Mark was going to go," Hirniak said. "He was keeping up for a while in the 500. He’s a good swimmer and a good kid. We had a good race last year and some people were hoping we could do it again. I heard he was a little sick, which is too bad. After the midpoint, I was basically by myself. I was definitely more pushed than in the 200."
And, in a situation like that without someone right there to push, it can be difficult to produce top times. But being alone is a position Hirniak has learned to swim through this season.
"Last year, I had one of the best training groups in the country," Hirniak said of his Scarlet club. "We were the second fastest 800 freestyle group in the nation. Every day they pushed me. They were all faster than me. This year, I’m the fastest by a lot. The next kid is a freshman and he can stay with me for a little, but when I go, I’m alone. So I’ve gotten used to pushing myself and racing the clock."
It wasn’t just in the pool that Hirniak was alone. He was nearly alone out of the pool at counties as well. He and Brad Rand, who came in seventh in the 100 fly, made up the entire PDS "team." But that didn’t take away from Hirniak’s experience.
"I loved it," he said. "It’s great to see the high school teams and their spirit. It’s not like that with the club swimming. It’s kind of like that at summer club, but normally I don’t see it. It’s good to see. I don’t do high school sports because I’d feel obligated to be there all the time and I can’t with training, but I kind of wish I had a team. It’s nice to see."
And while Hirniak is largely an unknown to most Mercer County swimmers because he’s not on a team that they see often, he’s made quite a name for himself in his past two appearances at the MCC. And though it’s not the sectionals or nationals, Hirniak didn’t take it lightly.
"It’s a competition," he said. "I like to do my best whenever I get up on the block to race."
For Stefan Hirniak, it meant another two records and the MVS at the Mercer County Championships.

