Raw contributes in return to pool
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Courtney Raw wasn’t so concerned with the Montgomery High School girls’ swimming team’s results last season.
After sitting out her sophomore year due to a heart condition, she was just happy to be swimming again. This year, however, it was different for the MHS senior.
”Last year for me was the excitement of being back in the water,” Raw said. “This year, the goal was to win.”
Raw and her senior teammates came into MHS as conference champions and leave as the same after posting a narrow victory at the Skyland Conference Championships on Friday.
”It was really nice. It was our freshman year hurrah and then our senior year hurrah,” said Raw, who won the 100 backstroke and was second in the 100 butterfly. “We all had to hold Kara Dubiel down. When we were freshmen, she broke her foot jumping up and down after we won. It’s a really nice way to finish high school.”
Montgomery won by six points over Bridgewater-Raritan and was 30 points ahead of Mount St. Mary. Both teams had finished ahead of them at the Somerset County Championships.
”We knew that the placing would be a lot different because there are different teams at conferences,” Raw said. “Pingry was not swimming. And we kept talking about it’s our pool, it’s our attitude.
”The swimmers really all came together and everyone really wanted to win,” she added. “I feel like everyone was trying 10 times harder than they tried at the county meet.”
Megan Lydzinski won the 50 and 100 free, Dubiel won the 200 and the 500 free and the Cougars won the 200 medley and 200 free relays. Gwen Comollo, Raw and Lydzinski were on both winning relays. Anna Marshall was on the winning medley and Dubiel was on the winning 200 free relay. MHS won seven events Friday.
”It’s different because it’s not the first time,” said MHS girls’ coach Claire Scarpa. “It’s a sweet victory in our home pool. And I don’t think anyone expected us to win, that makes it that much better.
”We were happy with the county meet,” she added, “but it’s still frustrating to win six of the 11 events and come in third.”
The MHS boys finished third at their conference meet on Thursday. Hillsborough won and Bridgewater was second. Scott Heil was second in the 500 free and third in the 200 free. They were third in the 200 and 400 free relays, and swam the meet without Kyle Jennings, one of their top competitors that was sick.
Even when MHS didn’t win events in the conference meet, it picked up valuable points. Raw achieved her pre-race goal by breaking up Mount St. Mary’s 1-2 punch in the 100 fly. Emily Koyen’s sixth-place finish in the fly also helped as the Cougars got some important support.
”I think this team has a lot more talent and a lot more depth than I’ve seen before,” Raw said. “And we’re tighter knit which is helping us achieve the one goal we have together.”
With one goal down, there is another on the horizon as the Cougars begin to prepare for a return to the North Jersey Section 2, Group III state tournament. It puts them in the same sectional at Bridgewater and perennial powerhouse Westfield.
”We’ll have to be the underdog to go and win it all,” said Scarpa, who is expecting the No. 3 seed. “It doesn’t look great, but we’ve beaten Bridgewater-Raritan head-to-head, and I think we can beat Westfield.”
Added Raw: “I think it’s boosted everybody’s confidence that we can do it by winning the conference title. I think that’s all we needed — that we can do it.”
Raw, who will either swim at the University of Delaware next year or return to her native England with her family, is hoping to exit MHS with a pair of championships. The first was the conference title. States is next.
”That,” Raw said, “would be the cherry on the top.”

