By: Carolyn M. Hartko
NORTH BRUNSWICK South Brunswick junior Amy Wolf medaled in two events at this year’s Greater Middlesex Conference Swimming Championships held at North Brunswick Township High School this past weekend. The Lady Viking earned a silver medal in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:17.36, and a time of 1:10.31 put her third in the 100 breaststroke.
Wolf went on the attack in both of her individual races, getting good starts, and putting a lot of effort into the first laps. In the IM, the third event of the meet, Wolf was part of a three-way tie for first place during the backstroke portion. The field spread out a bit during the breaststroke, with Metuchen’s Catherine Hetzel, the eventual winner, taking a slight lead over Wolf, who remained in second. However, Hetzel pulled away in the freestyle leg. Wolf went with her, but was still a few strokes behind at the end. Hetzel finished in 2:14.79.
In the breaststroke, Wolf took an early lead, but finished behind Kelly Morris of Metuchen, and Bishop Ahr’s Jessie Stavioleski.
"I think Amy was a little disappointed in the breaststroke," Viking head coach John Harding said. "She was touched out (for second place) by a tenth of second. But she went out after the race, which was impressive. She was staying right with Kelly Morris, who is an exceptional swimmer. They were pretty much neck and neck, and I guess Amy just dropped off a little bit at the end. Sometimes that one tenth of a second you need is in your favor, and sometimes it’s against you. But it was an exciting race and I think she really gave it her all."
The Lady Vikings hoped to finish a little higher in the team standings, but wound up coming in sixth overall with 81 points. Metuchen won the event with 268 points on the final relay.
"There was such an amount of great swimming going on," the coach said. "And Metuchen hats off to them. They certainly deserved it. It’s a great accomplishment for them to win when they had never won it before."
Although there weren’t a lot of medals for South Brunswick, the stiff competition pushed the Lady Vikings to post season, and career, high times.
"As a team, we just wanted to do well together," senior co-captain Chrissie Tupe said. "A lot of these kids are really good, and we just wanted to all do our best. I know a lot of people did their best times, and everybody was really positive so I think we did well."
Tupe was close to her personal best times, and earned team points, for her 12th place finishes in the 100 butterfly (1:11.10) and the 500 freestyle (6:24.13). She also swam a leg on the 6th- place medley relay squad, and 8th-place 200 free relay.
South’s other senior co-captain, Jenn Kamm, has been swimming with a nagging injury all season, but she hung in there for two individual events and two relays.
"This season was pretty hard for me, because I have hip tendinitis," Kamm said. "I actually ended up doing really well, considering that my leg wasn’t feeling too well, in my 100 back."
Kamm earned a team point in the backstroke (1:13.94), and points with her relay teams (IM and 400 free).
Vikings who contributed to this year’s total include: Caroline Tiffany (9th, 100 free; 13th, 50 free; 200 medley relay; 200 free relay); Krista Reinfeldt (13th , 100 free; 200 free relay; 400 free relay); Stephanie Haddad (12th, breaststroke; 200 free relay); 200 free relay "B" team (Stefanie Cheuk, Lauren Witrock, Stephanie Lau).
Heat winners featured Lau (200 free); Jamie Farrell (back stroke, pb. of 1:21.97); Megan Stevens (breaststroke, pb of 1:17.61).
