By: centraljersey.com
Jacques Bazile returned to year-round swimming in the fall.
It was his way of making sure that the Princeton High School boys swim team would reach its potential this season.
"I see that our team is starting to move up," said the PHS junior. "It’s our personal responsibility to keep up and push ourselves to be the best we can be."
Bazile opened the Little Tigers’ biggest meet to date by swimming the breaststroke leg of the school record-setting 200 medley relay, finished third in the 100 breaststroke and fourth in the 50 freestyle as PHS topped West Windsor-Plainsboro South, 117-53, Tuesday.
"We have a lot of depth this year and we have a lot of new fast freshman," Bazile said. "And last year we didn’t graduate that many fast swimmers. We just gained strength this year.
"I think we gained a lot of confidence. South is one of the better teams in our division. I think this meet means we’ll have a much better chance against one of our rivals, Notre Dame, who South also beat."
The Little Tigers’ Bazile, Victor Honore, Matt Kuhlik and Will Stange opened the meet by winning the medley relay in 1:41.43.
"We expected it," Bazile said of the school record. "We’ve already broken the record this season. It was pretty much what we expected.
"It just psyched us up. It got us pumped to swim fast the rest of the meet."
In each event, PHS had two of the top three finishers to quickly pull away from the Pirates, who had lost only one other meet this year, to Public A power Bridgewater-Raritan. Peter Deardorff and Stange went 1-2 in the 200 free. Peter Kalibat and Harun Filipovic went 1-3 in the 200 IM. Derek Colaizzo and Kuhlik finished 1-2 in the 50 free. The Pirates’ Patrick Park won the 100 butterfly, but Honore and Colaizzo were 2-3 for PHS. Kuhlik and Deardorff swam to 1-2 in the 100 free. Kalibat and Colburn Yu went 1-3 in the 500 free. Honore and Stange were 1-3 in the 100 backstroke. Park won his second event, the 100 breast, but Yu and Bazile went 2-3. The Little Tigers also won the 200 and 400 free relays.
"I felt like my swims were pretty good," Bazile said. "The pressure of racing South makes us all go faster. South is one of the faster teams. Racing them helped us go faster.
"And also right now we’re just focusing on getting as many power points as possible so we can be seeded more highly in the state tournament. Our goal is to make it to the state finals. The last two years, we just made it to the semifinals."
To help get there, Bazile has gotten more dedicated. A former club swimmer before high school, he upped with Tigers Aquatics in September.
"From training with Tigers, they got me ready," Bazile said. "I was in shape already in the beginning of the season. I didn’t have that period where I was struggling to finish a race because I wasn’t in shape."
The Little Tigers have noticed the improvement. It’s made them stronger and deeper than last year.
Said PHS head coach Greg Hand: "Throughout last year, he was working very hard on his breaststroke, which is his best stroke as well. By the end of last season, he made a big contribution in states. He’s already faster this season than he was tapered at the end of last season. He says he’s working on technique and he’s more fit than he’s been. In addition, he’s becoming a good sprint freestyler. Fourth place is a great result."
Bazile feels he is far from his best. He’s hoping by the end of the year to show a significant drop in times.
"My goal for this season time-wise, I’m hoping to drop two more seconds," he said of the breaststroke. "That’ll be a decent time. Also for club, I want a sectional cut. Having two really fast breaststrokers on our team – we also have Colburn, who’s faster than me – that would help increase our depth and help our team score.
"We definitely will be able to go faster," he added. "We have been training hard for a while. We don’t have any big meets coming up for club. When we start tapering, I’m pretty sure all the club swimmers will shave seconds off their times."
As Bazile puts more time into his swimming, he is seeing the benefits. And with another year to go before graduation, he is showing a lot of potential.
"Jacques is a really big kid," Hand said. "He’s getting stronger. He’s improving his technique. He’s on his own trajectory. In the long run, we’ll see how fast this guy can become. He’s made a huge amount of improvement."
Bazile had one of his better breaststroke swims on Tuesday, an important part of the day, not just for the win, but for state seedings.
"It’s a meet we wanted to swim really well," Hand said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Neither side holds back. We both go after it. It’s always good competition."