Bob Nuse

By: centraljersey.com
Sean Johnson is used to putting up good times at the end of the high school swim season.
But this year, Johnson is a little bit ahead of schedule. In mid-January he is already putting up the kind of times he would normally post at the end of the season.
"This is probably my best season so far," said Johnson, a Hillsborough High senior who broke his own school record with a 58.06 clocking in the breaststroke at the Skyland Conference meet earlier this month.
"This year I have been swimming faster times for the middle of the season than I have in the in other years. This year I am already close to my best times and I am hoping I can take them down before the end of the season."
Johnson led a strong showing by the Raiders at the Skyland meet, where no team scores were kept. On the boys side, Johnson added a second in the 200 IM to his win in the breast. In addition, Matt VanBiervliet was second in the 50 free and third in the 100 back, while David Chung was third in the 50 free and third in the 100 butterfly. Those three joined Brandon Skrobot to finish second in 200 free relay and third in the 200 medley relay.
For the girls, freshman Lindsay Temple won the backstroke in 58.55, setting a school and meet record with her performance. Jacquelynn Parker was third in the 50 free; Rachel Stoddard was fifth in the 100 free; and Heather Good was sixth in the 100 breaststroke. Those four also swam in three relays, finishing second in 200 free relay and third in both the medley relay and 400 free relay.
Johnson expects the Raiders to continue to get better as the season progresses and he can see the team doing some big things in the next month.
"We actually have mostly high school only swimmers on our boys team," said Johnson, who swims for the SVY club team. "A lot of the girls do the Y swim team, but we don’t have many boys who do. But so far I think our team is doing really well.
"We don’t have as much depth as we have had some of the other years. We used to have more Y swimmers. But the high school only kids that we have are dropping time and continue to do well. Coach (Todd) Sudol does a great job of getting the high school only kids to swim fast at the end of the season."
Johnson is one of the club swimmers that comes into the season in good shape and generally gets better. He’s looking forward to finishing this season – his last before he heads to Ohio State University – strong.
"For the high school season, winning the Meet of Champions would be great," said Johnson, who has one of the top breaststroke times in the state. "We’re also doing a lot of good things with the relays and it would be great to get some relays and individual wins in the big meets. We just had the (Skyland) conference meet and we have the (Somerset) county meet coming up. We’d like to have a lot of kids swim fast and place well. We’d also like to place as high as we can at the states.
"For the Y season, I’d like to see us win the state championship again. We’ve done it twice since I have been with SVY and I’d like to see us do it again. I also think with the team we have, our guys have the potential to win nationals."
Once he finishes with that, Johnson will join an Ohio State program that is in the top 10 nationally.
"I am very excited about it," he said. "I went there on my recruiting trip and absolutely loved it. They have a great program and it is a great school academically.
"This us my last year of high school swimming. It’s been a great four years."