Applegate sets 50 free record in victory over Nottingham
By: Bob Nuse
NORTH BRUNSWICK – It didn’t come without a fight, but the Princeton High boys’ swim team captured its third straight Central Jersey B Division championship with a 94-76 win over Nottingham on Monday.
The Little Tigers won nine of the meet’s 11 events to improve to 14-0 on the season. With the win, Princeton advances to the Division B state semifinals, where it is awaiting word on whether it will receive a first-round bye, or swim Thursday night at Rider University in the semifinals.
"Nottingham came out and swam a great meet and I thought our guys responded very well," said Princeton coach Greg Hand, whose team beaten Nottingham in the state tournament each of the last three years. "We wanted to make sure we weren’t trying to protect something we owned or had to defend. The idea was to go out and win the championship rather than think we deserved it or were owed something."
After falling behind, 16-14, when Nottingham took first and third place in the 200 freestyle, Princeton slowly took control of the meet by winning the nest five races. It started with a win by Peter Hand in the 200 individual medley and was followed with wins from Jesse Applegate in the 50 free, Yoshi Dilegne in the 100 butterfly, Applegate again in the 100 free and Mark Fisher in the 500 free.
At that points Princeton had built a 63-47 lead. After Nottingham won the 200 free relay to cut the lead to 69-55, the Little Tigers picked up wins from Nate Ristucca in the 100 backstoke, Peter Hand in the 100 breaststroke and the 400 free relay team to capture the title.
Applegate set a new school record in the 50 free with his time of 21.61.
"Nottingham was well prepared physically and mentally," Hand said. "They gave us a great competition. Our guys responded well."
After the meet on Monday, Hand felt like his team was heading for another state B Division semifinal with Scotch Plains, who the Little Tigers beat a year ago.
"They’re a strong program and we had a terrific meet with them last year," Hand said. "We’re looking at it like a three-day meet. We have to perform well enough on Thursday to get the finals on Saturday."
On Monday, the Little Tigers certainly performed well enough to get to Thursday. And they did it against a team that was ready to give them a fight.

