By: Carolyn M. Hartko
A week of intense practice, plus back-to-back victories for both boys and girls, has the South Brunswick High School swim teams revved up and ready to go as the season resumes this week.
"We had a very good winter break session of practice where we worked out five hard days for two hours, trying to get ourselves in good shaped to come through strong in what’s left of the season," Viking head coach John Harding said.
The Vikings were eager to swim against Hightstown on Tuesday of this week in a meet that was added after the schedule came out.
They hosted East Brunswick on Wednesday, and the Lady Vikings have one of their toughest dual meets of the season against Bishop Ahr on Friday.
The boys came into this week with a record of 4-1, on a four-game winning streak after the opening day loss to West Windsor-Plainsboro North. The biggest surprise was that the Vikings were able to pull out an 89-81 victory over Piscataway, in spite of disqualifications in two key races. The meet opened on a sour note as South Brunswick disqualified in the first relay, and an illegal turn was called on their third place finisher in the breast stroke.
"We could have won by more if it weren’t for those DQ’s," Harding said. "But the boys fought right back. Every time the other team won a race, we’d go 2-3-4. We only won three events, but the depth we had was just too much for them."
Sophomore Henry Ma earned two of those firsts (100 breast stroke, 200 individual medley), and the Vikings picked up first and third in the 200 free relay.
The Lady Vikings beat Piscataway 96-73. Double winners were Amy McMahon (200 IM, 100 free) and Liz Samtur (50 free, 100 butterfly).
Both teams were also successful against Plainfield High School. The girls won 117-50, and the boys recorded a 114-54 victory.
"We were a much stronger team, so we got to mix up the lineup a little bit and put some other kids in there on both sides," Harding said. "So, it was very much a total team effort where lots of people contributed to the scoring."
Individual winners for the Lady Vikings were McMahon (IM), Samtur (50 free), Stephanie Bartolotta (200 free), Carmen Chan (100 ‘fly), Lauren Dai (100 backstroke) and Laura Freneaux (breast stroke). Sophomore Caitlin Dempsey earned her first win of the season in the 500 free. The back-to-back wins raised the girls’ record to 3-3, and they now have one more win than they chalked up last winter.
In the boys’ competition, first place points went to Ma, Tyler Wardlow (200 free), Wil Samtur (50 free), Brian Lee (100 fly), Travis Wardlow (500 free) and Casey Eriksen (breast stroke).
With both teams entering the new year on a positive note, Harding was hoping the squads could add another win or two this week. Hightstown is an unknown quantity, but EB is a conference rival.
"On the boys’ side, we’re much stronger than last year," Harding said. "I don’t think any team can roll over us, other than St. Joe’s. But I don’t know if we’re going to have quite enough to hang all the way with East Brunswick. But it should certainly be a good meet with a lot of close races, and it should be relatively close on the scoreboard."
Harding was also hoping that the girls’ squad would be able to keep the score close with the Lady Bears
