Raiders face Rancocas Valley in semifinals
by John E. Powers, Sports Writer
In the middle of the Hillsborough High School boys’ swimming team’s victory over South Brunswick Monday in the Central Jersey A Tournament quarterfinal, Raider head coach Todd Sudol smiled.
”It’s not as an emotional pool as you’ll see in the later rounds,” Sudol said. “Our team is just kind of wearing their hard hats and grinding it out. That’s what we’re like. We put our hard hats on and go to work.”
There would be no real concerns on this day at the Hillsborough YMCA.
The third-seeded HHS boys scored a 97-73 victory that propelled them into the sectional semifinals at second-ranked Rancocas Thursday at 5 p.m.
”Last year we swam Rancocas in first round and we didn’t take them seriously enough and it wound up being a very close meet,” said Rob Parker, who won the 200 free, 100 free and anchored the first-place 200 free relay. “Everybody is really pumped. We’re going for five straight. Everybody will be shaved and tapered. We think we have a really good chance to beat (top seed) Montgomery.”
Hillsborough (5-4) put together leads of 39-23, 56-38 and sealed the win when freshman Sean Johnson won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.33 to give the Raiders a 95-61 lead with the 400 freestyle relay left. Sudol was able to rest his No. 1 team of Kyle Smith, Matt VanBiervliet, Tanner Horst and Parker.
Hillsborough is after its fifth straight sectional title and planning is critical at this point.
”Coming in today, talking to the guys, and my speech to them was simple we start our run for our fifth Central Jersey title,” Sudol said. “We knew South Brunswick had some good swimmers. We weren’t going to let down until we hit that 85 points. We can’t look past any team.
”We touched them out in a lot of races that if they had won, it would have been a much tighter meet,” he added. “I’m just glad my guys won the close meets. We did enough to win a meet. That’s what it was about today.”
The newcomers and the veterans contributed. Parker won the 200 freestyle (1:52.01) and 100 freestyle (50.31) and anchored the 200 freestyle relay team, which won in 1:35.08. Johnson won the 200 IM (2:05.11) and 100 breast (1:04.32). He also swam the second leg on the 200 medley relay team. David Wilson won the 100 fly (56.88) and 50 free (22.86) and Smith won the 500 free (5:14.62).
”I was a little disappointed because I thought we were pretty quiet emotionally,” Sudol said. “But I guess you can expect that until the later rounds. It didn’t change the way we swam. We had fast times and guys did what they were supposed to do. The guys had roles and they did them. It was a typical first round meet.
”This is where all of my guys who have been training just with me my high school only swimmers where they peak and perform,” Sudol added. “They are ready to race fast, want to swim fast. We’ll come down to a nice and comfortable level the next two days. I just tone back the training the last week. We do the fraction of the amount we do the rest of the year. We’re trying to get the mind and body ready to race and perform. We’re going to be well prepared, well rested for Rancocas Thursday. The guys have done it the past four years. The juniors and seniors know what to expect.”
Even Johnson, the freshman star, has learned to follow the coach’s words
”We take every meet seriously because if you don’t even in the big meets it’s going to be harder to re-focus,” Johnson said. “Focusing on meets like this will help you when you get to the bigger meets.”
Johnson has also heard it from his older teammates.
”The other guys are telling the younger guys, ‘just wait until the states.’” Sudol said. “You don’t get upset if you lose to St. Joseph or of you lose to Westfield. It has been a mantra for us to perform at the end of the season and states and I have to constantly remind them and prepare them.”