By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
As extremes go, the Cherry Valley Country Club swim team will take this summer over any.
One year after they did not win a meet, the CVCC did not lose a meet. They posted a 5-0 record in the Princeton Area Swimming and Diving Association Division 3 regular season.
”It means a lot,” said CVCC head coach Claire Scarpa. “The kids were so excited to win every meet. We had two very close meets, between Ben Franklin and Twin Rivers. I have no 10 and under boys and no 12 and under girls so I had to swim kids up. Sometimes we had empty relays, and it’s giving the points away. I think it means a lot that we were able to win all the meets with that.”
CVCC beat Ben Franklin, Twin Rivers, Bedens Brook, Hopewell Valley Tennis and HealthQuest in their perfect regular season. They took that momentum into the PASDA Championships that were scheduled to conclude Tuesday at West Windsor’s Community Park pool.
”We look very good coming into them,” Scarpa said. “The only problem is the lack of bodies. I have 30 bodies going, and Ben Franklin makes it mandatory that their kids go, so they have 68 kids going. We’ll have some empty relays that’ll be tough to make up, so we might get second.
”Hailey Roberti has a good chance of winning her events. She’ll win her events in our division. Overall, she may win her events, which would be exciting.”
Roberti is one of the young swimmers that had to move up an age division to help CVCC. She did so effectively. Every point was vital this summer for CVCC, which had a tough meet against Twin Rivers, and then edged Ben Franklin by just four points.
”We were all calculating it out,” Scarpa said of the Ben Franklin meet progress. “We had better younger kids, they had a lot more older kids. Luckily Sophia Noisten came to the meet, but she’s not a butterflier so she got third in that event. She’s a distance freestyler, and she went for a run right before her events.
”They kept it close. Once we got to the end of the individuals, we knew if we could win a number of relays, we’d be good. I told the 12-and-under boys, if you win, we’ll win the meet. Once we got to them, we were good.”
Every move seemed to work for CVCC in their summer run. They found ways to plug holes in the lineup, and came up with big swims when they needed them.
”Fortunately, I have a huge 10-and-under girls group,” said Scarpa, who is also the varsity swim coach at Montgomery High School. “I was able to swim some of them up. Hailey Roberti, I would put her in the 12-and-under. She won all but one race this summer. I was moving a lot of girls up and they stepped up and did really well.
”My 6-and-under boys are very good. Stephen Donohue is a good swim scorer for the 6-and-under boys. In 8-and-under, we have a ton of good boys — Owen Anderson, Chris Roberti, Cooper Sugden. In 6-and-under girls, we have Madison Sugden.”
The CVCC team had reliable points winners in plenty of age groups. Scarpa knew they would keep her team in contention with anyone in the division.
”In the 8-and-under girls,” Scarpa said, “we have Michele Granozio, Lauren Oberman, Grace McCorry. Caroline Johnson. In 10-and-under girls, we have Hailey, Grace Seitter, Maeve Anderson, Audry Lee and Kelsey McAlister.
”In 12-and-under boys, we have Evan O’Mara, Jake Seitter, Raffi Balian, Alec Wilson and Alexander Kurowski. In 14-and-under girls, it’s Megan and Caroline McDonald. In 14-and-under boys, we had Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chris Chick. In 17-and-under boys, we have Sean O’Mara, Andrew Gamache and Josh Gelbard. In 17-and-under girls, we have Emily Fitzpatrick.”
They were the regulars that were there most every meet. They helped CVCC to an unbeaten regular season, the likes of which normally earn a team a promotion to the next division. But Scarpa is proposing that instead of three divisions, PASDA go to four divisions to stop the yo-yoing of teams too small to compete in the next level above them every year, but too good to compete every year in the level below them.
”We would stay Division 3,” Scarpa said of her proposal, which would keep them in with teams like Ben Franklin and Twin Rivers. “We change every year, but they were good meets this year. Twin Rivers we didn’t beat by that much. Ben Franklin was only four points. There’d be some juggling, and I don’t know if PASDA would go for it, but I think it would be more fair.”
Without it, and not knowing if she will have as talented and deep a team as this season, Scarpa’s CVCC team risks moving up to a division that could overwhelm it, as it did last year. Those swimmers that returned for CVCC, however, had the chance this year to experience the complete opposite, something far more enjoyable.
”It was a great summer,” Scarpa said. “The kids did well, and they were glad to have this success.”
