Justin Feil

By: centraljersey.com
Alice Nie will forever remember being a part of a history-making Robbinsville High School swim team.
Things seemed pretty good for the Ravens after a good showing at the Mercer County Championships on Saturday, and only got better with Robbinsville’s first berth in the state tournament Monday. The Ravens are the No. 6 seed out of eight teams in Central Jersey, Division B. They swim at No. 3 Ocean Township.
"I really didn’t even think about states before," said Nie, a Robbinsville senior. "I didn’t even know what they were."
The Ravens will have to shift their focus to Ocean, though they’re still reveling in an eighth-place finish at the county meet with 74 points that included a third-place finish by the 200 freestyle relay.
Nie teamed up with juniors Nicole Wohn and Emily MacCarthy and sophomore Taylor Johnson to win bronze in 1:57.78, a time that qualifies them for the Meet of Champions. The same four capped their meet in the 400 free relay with another MOC qualifier, 4:17.28, to win the consolation final.
"I’m still smiling," said Nie, who swam the third leg of both relays. "I’m really excited. No relay team has every gone to states before. It’s only been individual swimmers. This is the first time that our relay team is going to states. I’m excited. It took all our efforts and it took best times."
Nie also won the consolation final in the 50 freestyle in 29.59 seconds. She has been a part of the Ravens team for all four of her high school years. A former club swimmer, she is happy to exit the program after seeing it climb to new heights.
"I’m definitely proud of how far I’ve come," Nie said. "This is the first time that a Robbinsville relay had gone. I would have missed it if I graduated any sooner. I’m proud I got a chance to be a part of this opportunity. It’s a great way to end my high school swimming career."
Johnson earned a pair of second-place finishes, in the individual medley in 2:25.68, just two-tenths of a second behind Pennington’s Carly Deeter, and in the 400 free in 4:35.72. Johnson has the chance to swim both events at the MOC.
"Taylor got her cuts at counties," said Robbinsville head coach Pam Owens. "I thought they were fantastic swims. I think she was a little disappointed in the IM, she just got out-touched. It was an amazing race. I was very happy with her race. I know she was very pleased with her 400 free swim. They were both her best times."
The Robbinsville boys finished 10th with 14 points. The 400 free relay of Ahmed Baghat, Mark Dawes, Dan Quiroga and Rohan Bajaj finished third in the consolation final, and the medley relay of Quiroga, Michael Sass, Dawes and Baghat were fourth in the consolation final.
"I believe it’s the first time we’ve had a boys relays make it to finals," Owens said. "They were very excited to just have boys make it back."
And there’s even more excitement as they head into the state tournament. It’s a step for which the Ravens weren’t quite prepared. They don’t have any practice time budgeted out because extending their season beyond the county tournament wasn’t considered.
"Sue Cozzone at Peddie Aquatics will allow them to practice at open swim," Owens said. "We’re so thankful for Peddie Aquatics.
"Our team will only get bigger and stronger," she added. "I’m sure we’ll continue to make states."
Nie never anticipated having that chance while she was still in high school. But every season has been better than the previous.
"From freshman year to now, I’m not trying to badmouth my team, but we were not as good," Nie said. "Over the years, you can see our progress. The team has grown. We’re growing as a team in numbers and in victories. I think we won against one team as a freshman, and we won against five this year."
Nie formerly swam for Peddie Aquatics. In fact, it’s where she first swam with the girls in the 200 and 400 free relays.
"As high school went on, we all stopped going to Peddie, but we’ve all known each other from childhood," Nie said. "We’ve had that bond. And now we’re swimming together in high school and we’re going to states. We’ve got that advantage from going as a team and as friends."
The special bond helped as they worked together for a pair of state cuts.
"We were trying to decide which two relays would have the best chance of making states," Owens said. "We went back and forth, but we decided it would be the 2 free and 4 free. We thought 400 free would have the better chance. We were so excited when the 2 free got it."
Said Nie: "We made the 200 and were in shock. Then we made the 400 free. We wanted to get more. It was definitely less pressure because we got in the 200."
To make the 400, though, required an incredible team effort. Robbinsville wasn’t close to a state cut before the finals. They were seeded eighth overall with a preliminaries time of 4:30.98. The state cut is 4:20.
"Between the 200 and 400, I whipped out my phone and asked everyone, what’s your normal time," Nie said. "I realized we each had to drop two seconds. That’s the bare minimum. That was nerve-wracking. But Emily dropped three seconds by herself."
The Ravens produced a 4:17.28 finish.
"We were all smiles," Nie said. "It’s nerve-wracking because we made it by less than a second. We were screaming. We didn’t know if we’d make it. We wanted to make the last month of practice worth it so we didn’t just have to swim two laps each."
Now, the Ravens will each be swimming six laps at the Meet of Champions, the first relay teams from Robbinsville to do so.
"It was an amazing swim," Owens said. "Eighth place was 4:25, so that shows how fast of a swim it was. They were just so pumped. Their hearts were set on it."
Nie is one of the five seniors on the Ravens, happy to graduate after helping the budding team to a historical step in making the state tournament and the Meet of Champions.
Said Nie: "This is all I could ask for."