By Rich Fisher, Sports Editor
From the very first event, it looked like a special day for the South Brunswick High swim program at Saturday’s Greater Middlesex Conference Championships.
In this case, looks were not deceiving. No sooner had the girls 200 medley relay team set a school record and qualified for the NJSIAA Meet of Champions than the boys team destroyed the SBHS mark to also reach the MOC.
Before the evening was over at Princeton University’s DeNunzio Pool, South Brunswick had won 30 medals, broken nine school marks, qualified a school-record 10 individuals for the MOC and done lots of other neat stuff as well.
That resulted in the best combined team finish ever for the program, as both squads finished second. It was the third consecutive runner-up spot for the boys team behind 31-time champion St. Joe’s, and the girls highest finish ever.
Major highlights included:
— Sophomore Gessica Charniga became the first Viking female to win a gold medal.
— Freshman Tyler Blackburn broke two records and became the first SBHS swimmer to go under 5:00 in the 500 freestyle
— Senior Tyler Wardlow joined Mike Socienski as the second Viking boy to ever qualify for the MOC in four events (Socienski did it last year).
”It was great,” coach John Harding said. “We pretty much exceeded expectations off the charts.
”By the end of the day I was pumped for both teams. Since St. Joe’s always wins the guys meet, coming in second for the third straight year is a pretty big deal, and we distanced ourselves pretty far from the third-place team.
”And we’ve only had one girls team finish as high as third, and that was back around 2000.”
The boys finished with 396 points, which was 114 higher than third-place North Brunswick. The girls amassed 388 points to finish 20 ahead of East Brunswick and 83 behind favored North Brunswick.
Individually, four girls and six boys qualified for the MOC.
For the first time, a girls relay will advance as the girls 200 medley of Liz Samtur (backstroke), Charniga (breast), Abby Weingarten (fly) and Lauren Socienski (free) broke the school record (see times at bottom of story).
Charniga and Weingarten both qualified in the 100 breast by finishing one-two, with Gess breaking the school record. And Charniga took third in the 200 IM with another school mark.
Although not qualifying for the MOC, the 400 free relay team of Charniga, Samtur, Socienski and Danielle Bartolotta crushed its school record by over six seconds in the 400 free relay.
Other girls to help provide points were Sara Malinske, Sam Sterner, Courtney Hartshorn, Katrina Low-Beer and Vania Wu.
On the boys side, the 200 medley relay team of Calvin Chiu (back), Wardlow (breast), Ben Woller (fly) and James Kugel (free) set a school record in the 200 medley relay with a second-place time of 1:41.63.
”I thought they would do good, but I didn’t think they’d even come close to the 1:44 cutoff (for Meet of Champs),” Harding said. “Their time was incredible. When they did that, I thought ‘If that’s a sign of things to come, we’re going to be flying today.’”
And the Vikings “B” team took sixth in the same event with a 1:42.75. The school record was 147.08 and South’s seeding time was 1:47.80.
The “B” team consisted of Ryan Finch, Mike Ungano, Chris Hochman and Andrew Kudwitt. Those four, along with Andrew Gong, helped in the team scoring.
”The top 16 score points,” Harding said. “I think in all but two events we scored all four guys in each event.”
Blackburn did not qualify for MOC in the 200 free but did set a school standard, and his record-setting performance in the 500 free sent him to the big meet. Wardlow qualified in the 200 IM and 100 back, while Chiu finished second and set a school record in the 100 back.
Also qualifying was the 400 free relay team of Kugel, Wardlow, Chiu and Will Samtur.
It was, in a nutshell, an outstanding day for both teams.
”When you taper them, it’s kind of hit or miss,” Harding said. “It seems we hit it right on the money. Ninety percent of our team did personal bests, maybe even higher. I can’t think of one swim where someone didn’t at least do around their best time.”
The coach felt the record-setting efforts by both medley relay teams to start the meet helped set the tone.
”I certainly think it does,” he said. “The girls were first and broke the record by a few seconds, then the guys, in the very next event, broke the record by a ridiculous amount. They were right on St. Joe’s heels and they were supposed to crush everyone.
”I was telling the kids, they tapered and worked hard. The guys should be excited. And from there it builds. People start to see how everyone swims so fast. You get the adrenaline of a big meet, the pool is set up for fast times the way the water disperses.
”The kids were ready for it. They really stepped up. We were racking up points everywhere you looked.”
And anywhere you looked, the positive results were anything but deceiving.
* * * The following is a list of SBHS medal winners at Saturday’s GMC Championships. Asterisks signify school record.
BOYS
200 Medley Relay: 2nd (Calvin Chiu, Tyler Wardlow, Ben Woller, James Kugel), 1:42.75*; 6th (Ryan Finch, Mike Ungano, Chris Hochman, Andrew Kudwitt), 1:49.04
200 Freestyle: 3rd, Tyler Blackburn, 1:51.23*
200 IM: 2nd, Wardlow, 2:01.47*
50 Freestyle: 4th, Kugel, 22.62
100 Freestyle: 3rd, Kugel, 50.77
500 Freestyle: 3rd, Tyler Blackburn*
100 Backstroke: 2nd, Chiu, 56.39*; 3rd, Wardlow, 56.53
400 Freestyle Relay (Kugel, Wardlow, Chiu, Will Samtur), 3:24.
GIRLS
200 Medley Relay: 3rd (Liz Samtur, Gessica Charniga, Abby Weingarten, Lauren Socienski), 1:56.40*
200 IM: 3rd, Charniga, 2:16.55*
50 Freestyle: 6th, Socienski, 27.18
100 Butterfly: 3rd, Samtur, 1:01.63; 4th, Weingarten, 1:02.45
100 Freestyle: 3rd, Danielle Bartolotta, 58.47
100 Backstroke: 5th, Samtur, 1:07.02
100 Breaststroke: 1st, Charniga, 1:07.23*; 2nd, Weingarten, 1:10.06
400 Freestyle Relay: 2nd (Charniga, Samtur, Socienski, Bartolotta), 3:52.61*

