Giambagno, South girls team encouraged by start
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Brianne Giambagno was young when she started going to her oldest sister Gabby’s swimming meets and older sister Nicole’s diving meets.
”I tried both and I fell in love with swimming at a very young age,” Giambagno said. “I went to both of them. I would have to sit at their swim and dive meets. I didn’t want to sit there anymore. I wanted to get involved more.”
Giambagno started swimming with the West Windsor Whalers when she was 5, and by fifth grade she was on the Hamilton Aquatics Club team and doing year-round swimming. She remains a member of HAC, and this year she is a senior captain for the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls team, following in the footsteps of Gabby, a senior swimming at Catholic University.
”I think being a captain is going to be awesome,” Giambagno said. “I’ve always loved being a leader and cheering on the team and bringing us together. It’s the perfect title for what I’ll try to do all season.”
Giambagno also provides critical depth for a Pirates team that opened the season in promising fashion with a 98-72 win over talented rival West Windsor-Plainsboro North on Tuesday.
”I really enjoyed how we got to swim them so early,” said Giambagno, who was on two third-place relays, fourth in the 200 individual medley and fifth in the 100 butterfly. “We got to use one of our best lineups. We were playing around with it. We weren’t sure what we have. It was exciting to see how good this team can be.”
Sarah Lattime, Annie Menninger, Sydney Bornstein and Jen Birkland opened the meeting by winning the 200 medley relay for the Pirates. Bornstein won the 200 free and 100 fly. Rabia Syed won the 200 IM and 500 free. Lattime took the 50 free and Menninger won the 100 free. Bornstein, Lattime, Syed and Menninger won the 400 free relay to close the meet.
”They always start it off with North,” said Pirates head coach Anthony Bartolone. “I think both of us would rather swim each other in the end when we’re in our prime, but it was a good start.”
The South boys also won, 111-59, over the Knights, who graduated plenty from last year’s team. Adam Druckman, David Yin, Aly Sayed and Richard Deng won the 200 medley for the Pirates. Michael Zhong won the 200 and 500 free, Sayed won the 200 IM and led a sweep of the 100 fly with Kurt Von Autenried and Allan Wang. Yin won the 100 free and 100 breast. Deng wono the 100 back. Saagar Chitale, Brian Li, Deng and Wang won the 200 free relay, while Sayed, Druckman, Von Autenried and Yin closed the meet with a win in the 400 free relay.
”It was definitely a good sign that our boys are off to a strong start,” Bartolone said. “We have a lot of new boys. We’re balanced out between what we lost and what we gained. We have a lot of club swimmers and swimmers working hard at practice.
”I think the boys are going to do much better than last year. We have more depth. I think the girls are going to be better than last year. We have a few new additions who are doing an awesome job. I see our girls going farther than last year.”
Abdullah Gendia picked up a win for the North boys. He took the 50 free for the lone victory for the Knight boys.
The North girls finished their meet strong. Faith Rogers, Francesca Dong, Elaine Wang and Marissa Kirdendall won the 200 free relay. Emily Hung won the 100 backstroke in a close race with Lattime, and Melina Cohnbley won the 100 breaststroke.
”I’m really proud of the girls,” North head coach Todd Robinson said. “I thought they did well. We did lose, 98-72, but for the most part, we hung right in there with them. South is really strong obviously this year. We had some really good swims.
”Becca Adlai-Gail had a personal best in the 400. Our relays were clean. We didn’t have any disqualifications. It’d be nice to get a meet with South later in the season. I’d love to have a district rival like that be the last meet of the season and roll into the states. I thought the energy was good and the team had a lot of spirit.”
Cohnbley is just a freshman who looks strong from the start, as are Kirkendall and Rogers. Hung is a sophomore who is new to the team. The additions should help with the returning veterans to give the Knights a good foundation.
”We have a lot of girls contributing,” Robinson said. “We have a nice core. We have a couple months to pull things together and hopefully we have a good season. I think we will.
”Like I told the kids, the measure of success isn’t always counted in wins and losses. I saw a lot of evidence that they’re trying to do the right things in the pool. I like how we look right now.”
Giambagno is encouraged by the start and what she has seen in the early going. The Pirates saw their incredible Mercer County Championship streak snapped last year.
”I think it was more of a transitional year than a bad year,” Giambagno said. “We had to adjust from losing some of our best swimmers and adjust to a new lineup and play around with what we could do and see who could swim fastest.”
Giambagno is determined to see the county crown return to South in her final season.
”I’m really hoping to go out with a bang this year and reclaim our county title,” she said. “That’d mean so much to bring the South swim spirit back.”
The Pirates had a rough idea of their talent from their Green and Gold intrasquad scrimmage, but Tuesday’s opener was a chance to see their team compete against a strong opponent. It gave them a better idea of the pieces in place to compete for the county championship and advance far in the state tournament.
”I feel like we’re going to have a great season with all our new swimmers and returning swimmers,” she said. “I feel like we’re going to be a really strong team this year.
”Our returning swimmers have gotten much stronger over the summer and will be more powerful. We’ve also gained some strong freshmen who will help us out a lot.”
The Pirates are an even split between returning swimmers and new swimmers. More of them are club swimmers than in the past as well. They are combining to become a force.
”The new girls we got are going to add to our depth,” Bartolone said. “Most events last year we could get 1-4. This year, we’ll be more at that 1-2 or 1-3 level. The girls have better depth than they did last year.”
Giambagno can help out in any number of races. She expects to swim a lot of 200 IM, 100 fly and 500 free, and she is happy to contribute wherever she can.
”Every year, I seem to do a different event,” Giambagno said. “I’m the one that gets thrown in wherever we need it. I swam almost every single event last year. It’s fun to go to a meet and swim something new every meet.”
The Pirates were scheduled to be back in the pool for a co-ed meet Thursday against Trenton. They have stiff challenges ahead with non-conference foe Bridgewater-Raritan on the horizon, and challenges in the Colonial Valley Conference from the likes of Steinert and Princeton High as well as prep teams Pennington and Peddie, which will be a combined meet with WW-P North. The sister schools will team up after facing off against each other in the opener.
”This is definitely the start we were looking for,” Giambagno said. “We needed that win to show we can win and can beat a good team. We just needed to see we could do it. Beating North was definitely the encouragement we needed.”