Cranbury’s Carroll and Cassidy also medal at county championship
By: Justin Feil
Cranbury’s Mike Stehn has a way of producing his best 50-meter freestyle times at the Mercer County Championships.
Last year, he dropped a full second in the 200-free relay at Lawrence High. Saturday, in the Princeton High School senior’s final county swim, he went one better and won the open 50 free.
"Winning the 50, that was probably the highlight of my high school career," said Stehn, who clocked a 24.86. "I was so happy. There’s a whole group in the county that know each other from club swimming. Out of nowhere, I got first. I’m not even a club swimmer. All these kids didn’t expect me to come in first.
"Last year, I made it back in the finals in the top six of the 100 free. I didn’t even make it back in the 50. My PR was 23-low (for 25 yards). I knew what I was up against. A lot of the kids went sub-23. I didn’t see it coming. That raised my morale a lot."
Stehn, who had already helped the Little Tigers place third in the 200 medley relay, returned to finish second in the 100 free. He then led off PHS’ winning 400 free relay that set a new meet record of 3:42.95 to help the Little Tigers finish fourth in the team standings, less than 10 points out of first place in the tightest MCC ever.
"Throughout all my years of swimming, that taper works better for us than anyone else," Stehn said. "We’ve lost and lost and lost key swimmers. My freshman and sophomore years were probably when Princeton was at its best. Since then, we’ve been losing more and more swimmers. A lot of our swimmers aren’t even club swimmers. But the taper we do, we see how much more time we can lose.
"It’s a lot of mental and physical work. We do the whole thing, with body shaving and everything. We do the mental preparation. We’re a team built for counties and states. We do well in the regular season, but Mr. (Greg) Hand and Mr. (Craig) Haywood train us so when it comes to counties and states, we’re put in the best possible position."
The Little Tigers enjoyed solid swims all around. Sean MacKenzie was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer after he won the 200 individual medley by 3 hundredths of a second and also won the 500 free going away.
"It was a terrific day," Hand said. "He had a solid first swim in the medley, a terrific IM. He swam a real solid race. The 500, I think, is a case of how much potential Sean has. He looked like a champion swimmer as soon as he dove in. After taking care of that business, he got a chance along with his teammates to swim what turned out to be a race that was essential to the outcome of the meet. Even though most of the eyes on the pool were on the guys competing for second and third, it was great to see that our four guys put together their lifetime best races."
While Lawrence finished second in the race to earn a 1½ point win over Pennington, it was the Little Tigers who put in the best finish in the final event. MacKenzie anchored the record-setting 400 relay that also included Alex Zantal and Cranbury’s Joe Carroll.
"That relay was special twice this weekend," Hand said. "After a grueling prelims on Thursday they had enough left to get a really good seed time for finals. To do as much as they did in the finals was a testament to how hard they worked this season and to the positive attitude they had."
West Windsor-Plainsboro South finished just 19½ points behind the Little Tigers in fifth place while West Windsor-Plainsboro North was sixth. Hun was 10th overall.
"I knew going into it, it could be that close," said Pirates head coach Paul Hamnett. "It’s kind of what I expected. I don’t know if I thought it would be that close. It’s nice to see how close it was. Our guys swam well. They had great swims in prelims and finals. I hoped to get in the top 3, but sometimes it’s not in the cards. Others swam a little better than us."
One of those was Stehn, one of the day’s surprises who came up on the field to win the 50 free. Without a margin for error, he made no mistakes.
"It’s terrific," Hand said. "It’s partially because he’s always had the potential. He’s always improved. He wanted to be able to swim as fast as the rest of the sprinters in the county by the time he’s a senior. And he wanted to work with the other guys to see if they could challenge for the school record. He got himself to that point.
"Part of it was this year he took seriously he had to improve his starts and turns. He’s been very conscientious about that. In the 50, he had the best all-around race in his career."
It was a pretty good day overall for Stehn. He also swam a solid leg of the fly after Hand made a late change. It helped the Little Tigers to a bronze in the medley relay. He also had a silver showing in the 100 free while riding the momentum of his 50 win.
"I was extremely happy," Stehn said. "I thought right before, what if I get first in this? I was seeded third in the prelims so I moved up. I was really, really happy with second."
Stehn capped his day, and his county career, with his teammates. It was an ideal way to finish.
"We set the county record," Stehn said. "By setting the county record, we set the Princeton and pool record. It’s a great way to see everything winding down with that record. It was just perfect."
Topping that day will be difficult as the Little Tigers resume training for the upcoming state tournament. They will do so with the good vibes still resonating from the Mercer County Championships.
"It’s so much better than I could have expected or hoped it to be," Stehn said. "The whole entire team did well. I was proud of everyone."
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The Princeton girls finished third overall in the team standings, just 15 points behind Notre Dame. Jordan Shapiro won the 50 free and was second in the 100 back, Kathleen Morrison was fourth in the 200 free and sixth in the 500 free. Cranbury’s Victoria Cassidy was third in the 200 IM, Kristina Kalibat was fifth in the 200 IM and 500 free and Martha Ferguson was fourth in the 100 breast. PHS was second in the 400 free, and third in the medley and 200 free relays.
"I thought the girls had a good weekend overall," said PHS head coach Greg Hand. "They had a good, but not terrific, start, came back and swam particularly well on Saturday. The racing mentality was good on Saturday. They had a lot of support. We got good performances from a number of kids. It’s great to have so many finals races.
"It was a really good showing. Certainly, Jordan showed what she’s made of in both the 50 and the 100. She seemed quite happy to be involved in very close competition. It’s pretty clear now that when she needs to give her best, she’s going to find it."

