PRINCETON: Little Tiger girls win sectional

Deardorff helps PHS swim by Manasquan

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
   NORTH BRUNSWICK — The Princeton High girls swim team turned in its best performance of the season on its biggest stage.
   With swimmers in all three lanes playing big roles, the Little Tigers got past Manasquan, 106-64, on Friday to win their second straight Central Jersey B Division championship. In a meet that was expected to be very close, Princeton made sure it wasn’t.
   ”This meet was so intense every race and it never stopped,” said Princeton sophomore Serena Deardorff, who won the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke to help the Little Tigers to their sixth sectional title since 2005. “We had to give all we had every race and make sure everyone did their best and went all out.”
   Princeton won the opening relay, got a second from Jen Enos in the 200 free, a win from Marisa Giglio in the 200 IM, and a tie for first from Meryl Stone in the 50 free to open up a 36-26 lead. Princeton got wins from Deardorff (fly), Stone (100 free), Enos (500 free), and then Deardorff again in the back before a win from Giglio in the breast to get the win.
   ”From a competitive standpoint it was definitely our best meet of the year,” said Princeton coach Greg Hand, whose team will face Chatham today at 4 p.m. at Lawrence High in the state B semifinals. “Everybody was responsible tonight. We had a lot of best times. You never know if that is going to happen in one of the single gender meets with the short rest. We had not only some real solid swims, but unexpectedly strong swims.”
   Princeton used its depth to gain the win and hopes to ride the momentum into a tough meet against Chatham.
   ”Now that we have won sectionals we have to keep going and continue to do our best,” Deardorff said. “This was definitely the best meet we’ve had this year, especially personally for me with my times with a 58 in the 100 butterfly which was my best overall. And the whole feeling was so much different than every other meet. Having every swimmer on the side cheering everyone on. Even if it wasn’t that close we just kept going. It was a great attitude.”
   While it was projected to be a close meet for the Little Tigers, Deardorff was confident in her teammates to get the job done.
   ”I went into this meet and was really confident,” she said. “I didn’t go in letting predicted scores make me think otherwise. I thought we would win and I didn’t think otherwise.
   ”The freshmen that have come in have helped us a lot. We had some freshmen in the center lanes. But even if they were on the sides we needed them there getting second and thirds. And we didn’t get a lot of sixths here which was really good.”
   The sophomore trio of Deardorff, Enos and Giglio did their part, but so did the rest of the Little Tigers.
   ”Meryl had a career night,” Hand said. “She’ll probably have a couple more career nights in the rest of her high school career but on this night she was a force in terms of how she competed. Marisa bringing home the medley tonight and then coming right back in the IM, we had that kind of thing all night.
   ”I thought our girls really overachieved in this meet. The amount of heart the girls showed in the pool tonight was very impressive to me as a coach.”