Justin Feil

By: centraljersey.com
Though her role has grown, Marisa Giglio is a lot more comfortable in her second year with the Princeton High School girls swim team.
"I love not being the youngest," said the PHS sophomore from Cranbury. "I feel more like a role model that can help all the freshmen through their nerves and everything. It gives you a lot more confidence and you’re more ready to race. You know what to do."
Giglio did just what was asked of her in winning the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, and shared a part in two winning relays, as the Little Tigers swam away from West Windsor-Plainsboro North, 102-68, Tuesday.
"It was very big for us," Giglio said. "We both had the same record. We had both lost to (WW-P) South. We were looking at how they were doing, and they seemed pretty evenly matched. It was a really big victory. We’re really happy about it.
"I think everyone did the best they could. The outside lanes really helped us by getting really high placing. Everyone worked hard this week and got best times and did really well." Giglio and Serena Deardorff each won two events apiece to give PHS a good starting point, but the outside lane swimmers had some of their best swims in a critical meet. WW-P North had proven that its depth was good as it held off Notre Dame at the beginning of the month despite the Irish having the winner in six individual events.
"We were getting great times in our outside lanes," said PHS head coach Greg Hand after his team improved to 6-1 going into Thursday’s scheduled meet against Notre Dame. "The box score looks really good in that sense. In addition, we just had some terrific competitive swims where kids got out and clearly felt good about the efforts they just made."
Jen Enos was the only other individual winner for the Little Tigers. Cynthia Liu won the 200 free, Alex Lager took the 100 butterfly and Ann Lee won the 100 free for the Knights, who fell to 6-2 overall.
"The important factor in all the meets is just swimming hard, being a real competitor," Hand said. "I don’t think there’s ever going to be a magic lineup, but there might be a set of real magical performances in the water which is what really matters. We got great swims across the whole pool today."
Giglio, a club swimmer for X-Cel Swimming, put together a season-best 1:15.68 to capture the breaststroke. She’s been giving the Little Tigers strong breaststroke legs for the medley relay, as she did Tuesday, and in the individual event for two years now.
"I am pretty happy with that time," Giglio said. "I’m hoping I can get it down for the Notre Dame meet. They have really good breaststroker. I’m really excited to race that one."
After WW-P North’s Liu won the 200 free in the first individual event of the meet, Giglio pulled out a close win in the 200 individual medley.
"That was a really good race," she said. "It was pretty close and I feel like I raced it throughout.
"I love a challenging race," she added of her preference. "It really makes you race it and do the best you can. Then again, it’s always nice to win."
Giglio has been adjusting to swimming the IM this season. Last year, she and the Little Tigers gave it little thought as Victoria Cassidy was a consistent winner. But Cassidy is now a freshman at the University of Maryland.
"I’m not a big IMer with my club," Giglio said. "It’s nice to do it in high school.
"I’ve always loved to do the breaststroke. It’s always been my favorite stroke to do." Giglio was 10th in the breaststroke and fifth in the 100 freestyle at last year’s Mercer County Championships.
"I might change to the IM," Giglio said. "I’ve been doing it so much in high school, it’s become one of my favorite events.
"I came back with a lot of goals," she added. "I’m hoping to place higher in counties in all of my events. And I’ve gotten more competitive. I’ll do the best I can to place higher in counties and place higher in states. It’ll be tougher without Victoria. She was a big loss."
The Little Tigers have growing confidence in Giglio, who has proven to be quite an asset to their team.
"One of her strengths is she’s real versatile," Hand said. "She built that off a strong breaststroke, which is so important to swimming IM. In club over the last year, she’s been working a lot on her other strokes and in the last couple weeks, started to focus on breaststroke. She had a real nice race (Tuesday) and a season best in the breaststroke and a good race in the 200 IM."
While the butterfly remains a harder stroke for her, Giglio has been working to become a better all-around swimmer in her first year with X-Cel.
"Just recently, coach has been pushing my freestyle and backstroke," she said. "I feel like that’s helped me get stronger with my IM."
The Little Tigers have seen her return a more polished swimmer in her second year, and more comfortable in her elevated role.
"In most of our events, she was the strongest entrant that we had last year," Hand said. "What’s great to see is after another year of club swimming, she’s bigger and stronger and she’s also developed technically. She has a terrific mindset for competition. She always is going to swim four events for us and just moves from one event to the next, focusing on the next thing that she has to do to contribute to the overall meet.
"She’s a very optimistic person, really positive toward her teammates, and obviously concerned about how well she does, but in a really unselfish way and not overly concerned about times. She always gives a great effort."
Tuesday, she was just one example for a Little Tigers team that put together terrific efforts across the board to get by WW-P North. The win keeps them moving upward toward the championship portion of the season.
"I feel very good," Giglio said. "If we keep improving at this rate, we’ll have a great ending to the season and hopefully do well at states."