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 swam against Scotch Plains Thursday night. For details of that meet log onto www.cranburypress.com.
"Nottingham came out and swam a great meet and I thought our guys responded very well," said Princeton coach Greg Hand, whose team has 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 Deligne in the 100 butterfly, Applegate again in the 100 free and Cranbury’s Mark Fisher in the 500 free.
At that point 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 Ristuccia in the 100 backstroke, 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.
"I was happy with my races," said Applegate, who was also part of one winning relay. "We’re a small team and we just try to keep doing what we’ve been doing. This is our third straight championship, which is awesome. Today Nottingham gave us everything they had, which we expected. They’re a real good team and we’ve had a lot of good meets against them."
Facing Nottingham in the states has become somewhat of a tradition for the Little Tigers, who always expect to get a battle from the Northstars.
"Nottingham was well prepared physically and mentally," said Hand, whose team improved to 14-0 with the win. "They gave us a great competition. Our guys responded well."
With the win Monday, Princeton advanced to the state B Division semifinal against Scotch Plains, who the Little Tigers beat a year ago. The meet was scheduled for Thursday night at Rider, with the winner advancing to face Mainland in the state B final at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at The College of New Jersey.
"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."
Having already won the Colonial Valley Conference Valley Division, Mercer County and Central Jersey B championships, the Little Tigers are looking to take it one step further than a year ago, when they lost in the state B final to Cherry Hill East.
"We’re looking forward to getting another chance on Saturday," Applegate said. "Mainland looks like they’ll be a tough team and we’re looking forward to the challenge. We go into every meet ready to race and these meets are no different. We know we had a challenge (against Nottingham) and we know we still have challenges ahead of us."
So far this season Princeton has risen to every one of those challenges.
"I’m certainly not the master of the taper," Hand said. "What’s important is how the kids feel about how they are doing. If they develop a mindset of going fast and racing the way they can, then it will be a successful few days for us."

