Leddy’s first season is one for the ages
By: Justin Feil
Meghan Leddy had a lot of fun in her first season with the Montgomery High School girls’ swim team, but she is facing a dilemma shared by few at the high school level.
In 2008, she will be trying to make another team the United States National Team.
"Next year is an Olympic year," Leddy said. "I’ll be training for the Olympic Trials and I have to talk to my coach about it. I’m definitely going to try to."
Leddy did not swim for the Cougars as a freshman or sophomore due to commitments to her United States Swimming schedule. If Leddy’s experience with the Cougars is limited to just one season, it will not have been wasted.
"Absolutely," said MHS head coach Claire Scarpa. "And I hope for her it was worth it to. It was worth it for me because I got to see her have fun. You have to swim for your school and have fun. It was great for her and great for the team."
Scarpa has known Leddy since she taught her in sixth grade. Through the years, Leddy blossomed into a national caliber swimmer but it wasn’t until this season that MHS had a chance to see first-hand how good she was. It didn’t take much time to realize her talent.
"When she’s crushing everybody, even these top girls," Scarpa said. "Mount St. Mary, they dominate everybody. The only races we were able to win were the ones she was in. It shows how good she is."
Leddy never lost a race in her first season of high school swimming. The junior was a part of four individual and two team relay Montgomery records. She set school marks of 2:06.10 in the 200 individual medley, 1:00.06 in the 100 butterfly, 4:57.31 in the 500 freestyle and 58.12 in the 100 backstroke. She also anchored the top 200 and 400 free relays, splitting 24.84 in the 50 in the 200 free and 53.39 for her 100 in the 400 free.
Leddy captured two individual gold medals apiece at the Somerset County and Skyland Conference Championship meets. At the Skyland Conference meet, she won the 500 free by almost 10 seconds. Her time would have placed second in the Skyland boys’ 500. She won the 200 IM by nearly five ticks. She helped the Cougars go 10-3 overall, losing only to non-public state champion MSM and to public state finalist West Windsor-Plainsboro South twice, the second time in MHS’ first appearance in the state public ‘A’ Division final.
Meghan Leddy is the Princeton Packet Girls’ Swimmer of the Year.
"I’m a pretty competitive person," said Leddy, who was the highest scoring swimmer at the Eastern Zone Northern Sectional Meet this past weekend with her Eastern Express club team. "I would get into it. The whole points and coming down to the last race, it was exciting. That was all basically new to me. I’ve done summer swimming, but this, it’s more intense. Everyone knows each other more."
Leddy got to be a familiar name quickly among opponents. More importantly to Scarpa, Leddy was a good teammate. Having their top swimmer adopt so quickly to all the aspects of being a part of the Cougar team helped bring it closer.
"She loved being a part of the team," Scarpa said. "She came to all the pasta parties. Everything we did, she was there. She was a team player.
"It made them open. They always do whatever I ask them to swim, but it made them realize how important it is to be a team."
It took an effort for her to do so. Leddy had to balance her commitments to the high school schedule with the Cougars and practices for Eastern Express.
"It was nice but hectic," Leddy said. "Sometimes I was running from the high school meets to swim practice. Otherwise I was able to manage it pretty well. It was definitely a hectic lifestyle. I’m definitely exhausted from it."
Leddy found an added bonus in joining the MHS team. She found some new friends that enjoyed having swimming as a common interest. It made her first high school experience that much more enjoyable.
"I made a lot of friends on the team," Leddy said. "I got close with a bunch of the girls. I met a lot of people I wouldn’t normally have if it wasn’t for high school swimming."
Her new friends were among the Cougar teammates pulling hard for her every time she jumped in the pool. Despite Leddy’s talent and experience, she never considered her races a foregone conclusion.
"I would definitely get nervous before my swims," Leddy said. "You never know what’s out there. I swam every race as fast as I could. It was a lot more sprinting events which I typically don’t do. There were a lot of fast girls. It definitely gets your nerves up.
"You never know what the other team has. You can look at how the swimmers have done before, but I still got more nervous, probably more nervous than some USS meets. It’s so much different."
Leddy was never more nervous than during the final two relays. As anchor, and with a solid reputation, she felt the pressure to deliver.
"It was always exciting to see the person coming in and knowing how close it would be with the other person," Leddy said. "The best feeling is touching out the other team and seeing your other teammates jumping up and down. We had a couple close ones."
Maybe too close for Scarpa’s comfort, even with Leddy to bring home the win.
"A couple times, I was nervous," Scarpa said. "I was confident having Meghan as the anchor, but you wonder, is she going to have enough, is it going to be close enough that she can catch them?
"Our 200 free and 400 free relays were significantly faster. They both broke records. All the swimmers on the team were significantly faster. They made records that I think won’t fall for years."
Leddy was part of a Cougar team that set new standards. Its only losses came to two of the very best teams in the entire state. Leddy just added to the talent pool for MHS.
"This is by far the best team I’ve had," Scarpa said. "We power pointed the highest we ever have. The depth and strength, it was absolutely the best team. We would have definitely beat out the (MHS) team that won states."
Leddy is happy to have come away with such a positive experience in her first year of swimming. If she does return, it will be difficult to top all the success and closeness she felt this winter. It was a winter unlike any she had seen before.
"I think the thing I would take away was how much people supported each other," said Leddy, who has qualified for the Spring National Championships that will be held Mar. 27-31 in East Meadow, N.Y. "It really was the team. It came down to everybody. It really was about the fifth and sixth places and everyone would cheer so loud for them. I liked the support and cheering on you got from teammates.
"I had a lot of fun on the team," she added. "It was definitely a lot more exciting than I had anticipated. I was excited to meet all the people and see how many swimmers were in our school."
And the MHS swimmers were excited to see first-hand what Leddy could do at the high school level on their team. It can be a difficult thing, but the potential Olympian lived up to the hype of anticipation in her first high school season.
"She’s amazing," Scarpa said. "I love watching her swim. Everybody that came to the pool said, we want to see her swim. She has such a beautiful stroke. It’s so nice to see."
Even if Meghan Leddy swims just one season at Montgomery High, it was worth it.

