Swimmers building numbers
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Consider the Robbinsville High School swim teams’ performances at the Hornet Relays a warning to opponents.
The Ravens will be back, and they will be better next season.
Robbinsville, which saw significant growth from last year to this year in its number of swimmers, got off to a fast start at the Hornet Relays. The girls won the medley relay with Emily MacCarthy, Nicole Joseph, Taylor Johnson and Alice Nie.
”It definitely turned some heads and made some teams nervous,” said Ravens head coach Pam Owens.
The boys medley relay of Austin Roberts, Michael Sass, Dan Quiroga and Mark Dawes placed third. The Raven boys, even without some of their front-line swimmers, went on to finish fourth overall in the meet with 38 points.
”The boys did a fantastic job,” Owens said. “We were missing three of our top males. We were not in the Hornet Relays until the beginning of December, so some of them already had plans.”
Now they’ll have bigger plans for next year when the Ravens hope to see continued growth.
”On both days, we only had nine swimmers for the girls and guys,” Owens said. “We couldn’t even fill all the events, which was unfortunate. If we had filled the events for the girls, we could have placed higher.”
The girls tied Hightstown for third place overall with 54 points, and they didn’t have an entry in two events. Robbinsville also won the crescendo relay with Nie swimming the 50 free, Maggie O’Toole swimming the 100 free, Nicole Wohn doing the 200 leg and Johnson finishing the 400 leg.
”Definitely it boosted their morale,” Owens said. “It showed them what their potential is and their hopes for next year splitting into two teams. They’re looking forward to it, both the boys and girls. We were on the fence this year. With only 12 male swimmers this year, it wasn’t feasible. The girls also excited about counties and their potential.”
The Ravens girls were second in the 200 butterfly relay. McCarthy, Johnson, Nina Nayak and Alana Hopkins won the silver. Robbinsville also took second in the 200 breaststroke with O’Toole, McCarthy, Wohn and Nie. O’Toole, Caleigh McKeown, Hopkins and Emily Caputo were fifth in the 200 free relay, while MacCarthy, Hopkins, Nayak and McKeown took sixth in the 200 back.
The boys picked up a bronze in the 200 backstroke with Quiroga, Paul Cheung, Niraj Nayak and Rohan Bajaj. The Ravens earned three fourth-place finishes. Nayak, Roberts, Dawes and Bajaj were fourth in the crescendo relay; Roberts, Bajaj, Dawes and Christian Marsala took fourth in the 800 free; and, Quiroga, Marsala, Sass and Brian Conley were fourth in the 200 breast. Nayak, Cheung, Marsala and Conley were fifth in the 200 free.
”I think just again having the opportunity to swim over winter break was big,” Owens said. “With the budget, we don’t get an opportunity to do that. Giving the girls and boys a chance to swim separately, them having a day to swim by themselves and having a meet as different teams was wonderful. It gave them a chance to see what they can do as separate teams.”
The Ravens swim their dual meets as a co-ed team. Facing the toughest schedule possible, they lost their first five meets to the likes of established Colonial Valley Conference contenders West Windsor-Plainsboro North and WW-P South, Princeton, Notre Dame and Steinert.
”It was tough for the team,” Owens said. “In the same respect, it gave us an opportunity to mix our lineup around and know where are strengths and weaknesses are. We go into our second half and teams that are an equal match or we have potential with, we know what our strong lineup is. We feel good about going in.”
The Ravens got a jolt of confidence with a 113-57 win over Nottingham to go into their winter break. Getting the late chance to swim in the Hornet Relays only helped. Without the opportunity to compete in it, the Ravens could have stepped back.
”We would have had dry land,” Owens said, “and only our year-round swimmers would have gotten in the pool.”
Robbinsville only had one girl and four boy year-round swimmers. Instead, the Ravens gained some confidence from their strong showings at the Hornet Relays. That helped going into Tuesday’s scheduled meet against Hightstown. They will face Lawrence today.
Confidence is high, not just for the remainder of this season, but for the future. The Ravens made the most of their chance to show what they can do as separate boys and girls teams at the Hornet Relays, and they’re hoping to have the numbers to compete as separate teams in dual meets by next year.
”We had 28 this year,” Owens said. “We had 21 last year. If we can gain another six or seven next year, we’re good to go.
”With the team dynamics, just being here for my second year, I can see the dynamics building, the depth of the team increasing. I think other teams are noticing that too.”

