By: Sean Moylan
The Peddie co-ed varsity swim team is so good that more than a few of the Falcons have already committed to compete for big time college swimming programs.
All-American senior Annie Fittin received a swimming scholarship at the University of Maryland while senior Amywren Miller, who is also an All-American, will swim for Notre Dame next year. And on the boys’ side All-American senior Josh Charnin-Aker has committed to swim at Standford. JiYoung Lee, who is only a sophomore, also is a high school All-American. While seniors Peter Park, Derick Chui and Byrce Hillman are the other All-American swimmers on the boys’ side. But all of Peddie’s swimmers are very good.
"As for team goals, our biggest goal would be to try to be number one in the country for the girls and take a high school (title)," said Greg Wriede, a former standout swimmer for both Peddie and Harvard, who is entering his sixth glorious season as Peddie’s head coach. "On the boys’ side, winning the Easterns would be big for us. It’s one of the longest running tournaments in America."
The Falcons train all year long and Wriede is one of the most knowledgeable swimming instructors in the tri-state area. He was even a member of USA National Team in 1999 and is the year-round manager of the senior Peddie Aquatics Association.
The other talented girls on Peddie’s swim team are as follows: Cecilia Bang (a sophomore), Mary Chapman (a freshman), Angela Chui (a junior), Rachel Flinn (a freshman), Noelle Helmstetter (a senior), Caroline Herman (a junior), Amy Jacobi (a senior), Alicia Lightbourne (a junior), Teisha Lightbourne (a senior), Leandra Lima (a junior), Laura Loughran (a freshman), Rebecca Malone (a sophomore), Sinead O’Dwyer (a senior), Maggie Owens (a sophomore), Kathryn Raplee (a sophomore), Elsie Sowah (a sophomore), Kaley Swider (a junior), Lauren Thomas (a sophomore), Kathrine Warren (a junior), Joanna Wycech (a freshman) and Xiao Y. Zhao (a sophomore).
Pete Fittin (a freshman), Malachi Hindle (a senior), Steven Jacobi (a freshman), Dylan Klein (a junior), Derek Lam (a freshman), Rory Loughran (a sophomore), Mike Louis-Fernand (a junior), Chris Morse (a freshman), Wesley Mullins (a sophomore), Matt O’Brien (a senior), Will O’Connor (a freshman), Se Won Park (a junior), Connor Signorin (a freshman) and Ben Wilde (a sophomore) are the other terrific swimmers on the boys’ side for the Falcons.
Wriede will be assisted by Alyssa Morreale.
Peddie is scheduled to swim in the Holiday Classic today (Friday), tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday. However, the big regular season meets will not get underway until January.
One of Wriede’s other goals is to get his swimmers to perform at the highest level of the sport.
"We’re looking forward to getting started. We’re getting ourselves ready to go," said Wriede, whose team should have yet another sensational season.

