Hopewell Valley swimming
By: Jim Green
The Hopewell Valley Central High School swimming team knew that, once the schedule started to lighten up, the results would improve. That’s exactly what happened Tuesday night, when the Bulldogs hosted Steinert at Pennington.
The Hopewell girls grabbed a much-needed 98-72 win snapping a three-meet losing streak while the boys team earned a hard-fought 85-85 tie. Following meets against Colonial Valley Conference powers Notre Dame, Lawrence and West Windsor-Plainsboro South, these results could not have come at a better time.
"There’s definitely a renewed sense of excitement on the girls team and the guys team," Hopewell girls coach Bill DeHaven said. "We had some of our fastest times of the year. I was looking at our times from our meets this time last year, and we’re so much better off with our times than last year."
The victorious Lady Bulldogs (2-3) received wins from Mary Pat DeHaven in the 200-yard freestyle, Kristin Cuprzinski in the 100 butterfly, Anjana Sinha in the 100 backstroke and Catherine Brookes in the 100 breaststroke. Hopewell also took the 200 medley relay with Sinha, Brookes, Cuprzinski and Emily Alexander and the 200 freestyle relay with the same four.
The boys team (0-4-1) got wins from Greg Stolowski in the 200 and 500 freestyle, Will Armington in the 100 butterfly and Billy Dunne in the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. The Bulldogs also won both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
"I think the hard schedule helped drop their times down," DeHaven said. "They were really excited."
Hopewell was coming off a sweep at the hands of WW-P South, possibly the best team in the CVC.
The boys squad lost 128-42, while the girls dropped a 110-60 decision. The boys team could not notch any individual wins against the deep Pirates, although it did win the 400 freestyle relay. The girls team also won the 400, in addition to Cuprzinski’s first-place finish in the 200 individual medley.
Knowing they would have a tough time pulling out a win, the Bulldogs went into the meet looking to have fun and they did just that.
"They all swam something different," DeHaven said. "It gave them a chance to try something new, to work on their strokes and to take a break from what they’re used to swimming. I think it helped with their times."
Next up for Hopewell is a big meet on the road against rival West Windsor-Plainsboro North at 4 p.m. today (Thursday).
"We beat them last year, but not by much," DeHaven said. "They have a very strong team. We’re going to have to go in strong."

