Dramatic 1-2 finish ends Pirate season in state A semifinal
By: Justin Feil
EWING — The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ swimming team finally ran into a deeper team than it as Westfield ended the Pirates’ season with a dramatic 86-84 win in the state public A semifinal Thursday.
The Pirates seemed in control when Monique Jozwiak won the 100 backstroke for her second individual win of the meet and Megan Nieckoski took third to give WW-PS a 75-65 lead with two events left.
"Once I saw the score, and saw Megan did awesome, I was like, ‘We have it,’" said Jozwiak, who earlier won the 200 individual medley. "You can’t blame anyone. It’s so hard to do three or four events in 45 minutes. You’re not used to that, and when you swim that fourth lap, your legs are just dead."
Westfield pulled within eight points in the 100 breast as they took second, third and fourth behind the Pirates’ Evelyn Yuen. Then, Westfield did exactly what it needed in going 1-2 in the 400 free relay for a 12-2 advantage and the dramatic two-point meet victory. It was their only lead of the meet.
"It hurts," Jozwiak said, "but we did our best. We lost it swimming hard. It would have got us down more if we swam like crap. It’s definitely motivation for next year."
Jozwiak is one of nine juniors expected to return next season. She was a freshman when Westfield also ended the WW-PS season in the state semifinals. The Pirates end this season 15-1 after winning the Central Jersey A championship over Lawrence on Tuesday.
"The goal for the girls was a Central Jersey championship," said WW-PS head coach Paul Hamnett. "Anything on top of that was icing. We wanted this meet very badly though."
Hamnett could hardly look as the last race unfolded perfectly for Westfield. Otherwise, the meet was just what he expected.
"All today, I had scored this meet, 86-84," he said. "It was exactly how I thought it would be with the exception of the last relay. I’ll be questioning a lot of things I could have done differently for the next nine months.
"It was easily our best meet of the year. The girls stepped up when they needed to and really came through, all of them."
WW-PS had the winner in nine of the 11 events. The Pirates just weren’t quite as deep as Westfield.
Jozwiak, Erika Tomei, Evelyn Yuen and Kate Guthrie captured the medley relay to open the meet. Katie Welsh and Kristen Yarrington went 2-3 in the 200 free to maintain South’s two-point advantage. Jozwiak was first in the 200 IM, Tomei third and Ayala Colella was fifth as they opened a six-point advantage before Westfield narrowed the gap.
Guthrie won the 50 free, but Westfield took the next three places. Yuen won the 100 fly, but Westfield finished 2-3-5. Guthrie also captured the 100 free with Westfield going 2-3-4.
Welsh opened the Pirates’ advantage to 58-52 by winning the 500 free, Liron Noiman was third and Talia Markowitz came in fifth. Jozwiak, Yarrington, Yuen and Guthrie won the 200 free relay for a 66-58 edge before the backstroke seemed to seal a Pirate win. Two events later, it was stolen out from under them.
"We lose a great senior class," Hamnett said of the five seniors. "We have a lot of real good superstars coming back. But we’ve lost a lot of our depth."
And depth, more than the superstars, is how Westfield put an end to another fantastic WW-P South girls’ swimming season.

