By: centraljersey.com
Scott Vitabile knew he had it in him.
And he let it out.
The Hightstown High sophomore was the Rams lone individual medal winner at Saturday’s Mercer County Swim Championships in Lawrence, finishing fourth in the 200 freestyle in a school record-setting time of 2:02.39 and fifth in the 100 fly in 1:02.57.
The Rams other medal came from the boys 200 free relay team, which took sixth in a school-record time of 1:46.46. Vitabile anchored that team, which included leadoff man Brian Hubbard, second leg Gideon Van Kampen and third leg Bobby Raymond.
They were the first medals won by Vitabile, who came back on the second day last year but got ribbons rather than hardware.
"Having that experience last year definitely helped me because I knew more what to expect from the environment and the actual pool," he said. "I wasn’t surprised at what I did because it’s what I have been trying to achieve this year, so I knew I had it in me.
"Overall I thought I did a good job but maybe I could have done a few things better. But both my times were PRs and two medals in my events is what I have been working hard this year to achieve."
Vitabile’s previous best time in the 200 free was 2:03 and his best in the fly was 1:03, so he shaved substantial clock ticks off both of them. He missed qualifying for the states in the 100 fly by less than half a second.
"Scott and Steven Vitabile did very well and I was pleased with their outcome and how they finished," coach Tim "Captain Kicker" Kalick said. "Steven finished ninth in the 400 freestyle and did very well for himself."
The Rams had no other finishers in the top 12 for the boys, much to Kalick’s chagrin.
"I was a little disappointed in the way we swam actually," he said. "We had some swimmers who didn’t put the work in last week leading up to the county tournament. We had some guys who I thought would have qualified in at least one of their events, but the lack of work they put in to prepare was minimal.
"Overall, after the week of practice leading into Friday, I wasn’t shocked with the results and who qualified. This is the first time I am really disappointed with the preparation for a big meet. I expected more from the other guys who helped out all season to get us to where we were. To go into Friday not prepared was really disappointing."
For the girls, Aziza Ahmed was the lone swimmer who qualified for Saturday’s races, and she took a 10th-place ribbon.