PHS swimmer sweeps sprints
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
It only took one meet for Tim Perkins to see a big change in his role with the Princeton High School boys’ swim team this year.
”It was the first day ever where I got first place in all the events,” said the senior co-captain. “In all the other years, I’ve always been in someone else’s shadow.”
It’s hard to imagine Perkins in anyone’s shadow. At 6-foot-5, he is quite a figure on the starting blocks for the Little Tigers. He cast a sizeable shadow over the rest of the field in winning the 50 and 100 freestyles as well as swimming the free leg of the winning 200 medley and a leg of the winning 200 free relay in the Little Tigers’ 100-69 win over Hightstown on Tuesday. The PHS girls also won, 118-52.
”I’m going to try to get as fast as I can for the team,” Perkins said. “My role is to be a strong influence, to inspire everyone else and make it a good team. If that involves being the fastest or attempting to, I’ll do it.”
The Little Tigers face significant graduation losses. Three of their seniors from last year — James Beslity, Joe Carroll and Mike Stehn — are competing in college this year. Sean MacKenzie, last year’s Most Outstanding Swimmer at the Mercer County Championships, elected not to swim for the Little Tigers this year. PHS hopes to continue the success set forth by such swimmers, and the win over Hightstown was a good start.
”Every year we’ve lost seniors who are amazing,” Perkins said. “We’ve lost people who are very good. There are always people that come in and fill the spots. At this point in the year, it’s early, it’s hard to tell how we’ll do. You can say anything is possible.”
PHS will learn more with a tougher test Monday against Notre Dame after Thursday’s scheduled co-ed meet against Trenton. As promising as the results of Tuesday’s meet were, the way the Little Tigers went about winning their first meet of the year was even more uplifting.
”The spirit of the team, the senior leadership was excellent today,” Hand said. “We liked it during preseason. It was great to see them step up and take command today and create the right environment on deck. It was good racing for the first meet. It was terrific seeing kids who were getting their first swims for Princeton High and I was pretty satisfied to see the veteran kids clearly are working hard even though they’re only three weeks into it.”
With many non-club swimmers, the PHS lineup figures to see considerable improvements over the course of the season as they build up their muscle memory and fitness levels. The younger Little Tigers can look to the veterans for encouragement.
”Personally, I’ve improved a lot each season,” said Perkins, a former club swimmer. “I’ve seen a lot of people who were just learning to swim come in and improve so much. There’s a guy, he’s just started to swim club and he’s amazing now. I’ve seen vast amounts of improvement from people who have come to the pool and never swam competitively before. Every year, there’s plenty of improvement. There will be a lot of people that will step up.”
Perkins is hoping to be a leader for the Little Tigers as they grow. Helping to cultivate the culture of continued improvement and togetherness is a focus that comes with being a captain.
”It’s nice, but I feel good more because it’s a role of responsibility,” Perkins said. “It’s almost like when get to drive a car. It’s nice, but you also have responsibility with it.
”I’ve noticed a lot of club teams, it’s not as much for a team as for individual athletes. I want this to be a team where everyone can relate to each other and get along so psychologically we’re in a better position. Everyone influences one another by working hard. There’s like a social aspect to high school swimming.”
The Little Tigers are a tight-knit bunch. There aren’t many of them, but everyone on the team plays a significant role.
”With our numbers, almost everybody on our team will have multiple swims every meet,” Hand said. “It’s good that everybody can expect to be called on to contribute a lot. That’s really one of the advantages of having a small team. Everybody has a big part to play. It may not be so much in terms of scoring, but we want to have three serious swimmers in every event and three good relays and so on. The downside of low numbers, is the kids are going to get tired. Any veteran in high school swimming, always one of the great satisfactions is swimming four events well in a short amount of time.”
It is what Perkins is striving for this season as he tries to lead the Little Tigers. Higher expectations bring another new feeling for someone thrust to the forefront of a team. Perkins looks to be PHS’ top sprinter now.
”There’s pressure,” he said, “but after swimming for a while, some of the pressure goes away and you get more excited about swimming in meets than being afraid to. I feel more competitive now that I’m pressured to do all these things. I feel more inclined to try hard since more is expected of me.”
Added Hand: “Tim is a very dedicated athlete who’s got completely positive attitude toward training and competition and team. He’s just a great terrific pleasure to have on deck. He really lights things up in training and at meets. He’s always working on his own swimming and encouraging others. I see him as a complete athlete in a mental and physical sense. He’s become a real solid sprinter.”
Perkins knows his role is increased. What impressed him Tuesday was the attitude of his teammates. It will go a long way toward helping them reach their goals.
”Everyone was eager and excited to do what they were doing,” Perkins said. “The worst thing I see is when people complain or don’t want to do a certain event. I didn’t see any of that. That’s pretty good team morale.”
Perkins is helping to boost their morale. He serves as a perfect example to up-and-coming swimmers of what they accomplish in the future.
”It’s funny. He’s got what appears to be slow turnover, but he moves a huge amount of water,” Hand said. “He’s a very efficient swimmer and a hard worker. He trains as hard as anyone we’ve had in recent years.”
It paid off handsomely in the Little Tigers’ first win of the season. It was a good start for PHS and for Tim Perkins as he stepped out of the shadows and into a little limelight.

