Le helps Pirates finish third
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
LAWRENCE — Saturday gave proof that senioritis is still far away for a trio of boys’ team captains who made their final Mercer County Championships their best.
Hugh Le swam to a pair of second-place finishes in his individual events and was a part of the winning medley relay to help West Windsor-Plainsboro South move up two spots from last year for third place overall with 178 points. Notre Dame won the meet with 216 and Pennington was second with 200.
”I think we all swam well,” said Le, the Pirates senior who took silver medals in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke. “A lot of people stepped up. I think we knew we were a little behind. We just wanted to be positive and try to swim our best and maybe we’d get first place.
”I knew I wanted to swim my best because this is my last counties. They were good times. I was pretty happy.”
WW-P South also won the 200 freestyle relay with Joey Grant swimming an inspired anchor leg to overtake Princeton High. Grant was second in the 50 free and third in the 100 free. Alp Yurter was fourth in the 100 breaststroke, Dan Druckman was fifth in the 100 backstroke and Mike Prewett was sixth in the 100 free. Steve Park, Alex Lee and Prewett joined Grant on the winning 200 free relay.
”We did really well,” said Pirates head coach Paul Hamnett. “I thought some guys stepped up and did a good job and made it a fun meet. It was unfortunate our last relay wasn’t too brilliant. But otherwise, we swam well. I was really happy with a lot of the guys. They really swam well. Hopefully it will lead into some really good meets in states.
”It was nice that Hugh got a win and two seconds,” he added. “He had a great meet. I’m happy for him. He’s a very quiet leader. He goes about his business very quietly and I hope I get guys to be like him in the future — not talk about it, just go out and do it. He’s a great role model for our younger guys. I hope they know that.”
Princeton came in as sharp as the new mohawk sported by senior co-captain Brad Dewey. Dewey placed in the 50 free two spots behind fourth-place PHS co-captain Tim Perkins and swam on the second-place 200 freestyle relay as the Little Tigers finished fifth with 119 points.
”We’re definitely improving,” Dewey said. “Our performance today was really, really good. Everyone in the 200 free relay swam well. We beat the 200 free relay school record. We basically didn’t pay attention to any other team and tried to swim for ourselves. We’re definitely very happy about the second place.
”I wasn’t even in the finals last year,” he added. “I think overall, my fitness level is better. I’ve been spending a lot of time doing dry land at home and practicing and working on my technique at the pool.”
West Windsor-Plainsboro North was just behind with 112 points. The Knights’ medley relay and 400 free relay were each fifth, while Evan Hundley was fourth in the 400 free and Nick Covey was sixth in the 200 IM. Senior tri-captain Adam Schuit was the surprise for the Knights with a sixth-place finish in the 100 back and a consolation finals appearance in the 100 free.
”Definitely it’s my best counties,” said Schuit, who lowered his personal bests in the back and 100 free by four seconds apiece in Friday’s preliminaries and Saturday’s finals. “In years past, I haven’t come back for finals at all. My times are kind of unexpected. I’ve been practicing hard for this and I guess it all paid off.
”Today was really good. We all had a lot of time drops. We got good coaching and we did well in counties. It’s really competitive and I think everyone is happy with our performance.”
Schuit is hoping that Saturday’s finals appearances is just a start to a big ending for him and the Knights. The county’s top teams find out Wednesday where they are seeded for the state tournament.
”This will get us pumped up to do well in states,” Schuit said. “Since we had a lot of time drops, we’ll be able to compete better in the first and second round of states and hopefully this year we’ll go even further.
”Last year, we had a shot, but this year we added a lot of great incoming freshmen like Jung-Mao (Hsieh) and Nathan Hirshbein. I think we have a good shot of getting past the second round in states. We’ll see what happens.”
For seniors like Schuit, the state tournament is the chance to go out memorably.
”It would be a nice ending to finally make it past the second round,” he said. “I’m happy with my performance today and the team’s performance in general. We’re going into states strong.”
The buildup from the regular season to the counties has the teams looking forward to a strong finish in states. For WW-P South, it’s been a year of surprising success. The MCC was just the latest jump for the boys.
”I was surprised,” Le said. “Coming into the season, I really didn’t know what to expect. But a lot of our younger swimmers stepped up. As a team, I think everyone improved. It’s just hard work.
”We all had counties on our calendars,” he added. “This is the time to swim our best. I think we can go pretty far (in states). I know there are a lot of other good teams out there. We have to swim our best. I think we have to go back to work.”
All three area boys’ teams seem to be coming on at the right time. PHS is hoping it continues to peak to challenge one of the high seeds in the state tournament.
”We’re definitely focusing on states more than counties,” Dewey said. “We’re tapering for the states mainly.
”It’s basically hard work. The underclassmen really stepped up this year. We only have three seniors.”
Presumably after seeing how hard all the seniors worked in Saturday’s Mercer County Championships, no one is ready to end the season anytime soon.