Howell’s Tucker Waldron and Manalapan’s relay teams made impressive debuts at the NJSIAA Swimming Championships held at the Gloucester Institute of Technology Aquatic Center.
Waldron helped put the Howell swim program on the map this winter in its first varsity season by winning both the Monmouth County and Shore Conference championships in the 200-yard freestyle. As if those historic championships weren’t enough, the junior also qualified the state championships, March 5-6.
The state meet is held over two days (Saturday and Sunday) with the first day consisting of qualifying races that will determine the finalists (16 for individuals and 24 for relay teams) for next day’s championship races
Waldron got through Saturday’s qualifying and went on to confirmed that he is one of the best freestyle swimmers in the state by finishing 12th (1:47.07) in the next day’s finals.
When Manalapan’s girls qualified for the states for the first time, coach Dave Milboer said the goal wasn’t to just be there, not just one day, but the whole weekend. The 400-yard freestyle team did exactly that.
A 3:51.25 on Saturday was good enough to send them back for the finals, where the quartet of Jaclyn Quiles, Lauren Uckar, Danielle Burgio and Gina Agro lowered their school record to 3:48.18. They won their heat and finished 17th overall.
The team of Quiles, Burgio, Agro and Kaitlin Kilgannon qualified for the states in the 200 medley relay.
The good news for the Braves is youth of the teams that went to Gloucester. Only Agro is a senior.
– Tim Morris