By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Pirate Invitational is always a good test for the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South swim teams to see where they stand in regard to some of the elite teams in the state., After coming away with a first-place finish in the girls meet and a second-place finish in the boys meet, the Pirates appear to be in a pretty good place right now., “It was a great day,” said WW-P South coach Jessica Turner, whose teams are both unbeaten in dual meets this season. “Some of the boys were not thrilled with second place. But from a coaching standpoint they went in the pool and gave it all they had. Pennsbury is a hard team to beat. For the girls it was nice to win. And it is great for the kids to swim against teams they do not normally swim against. You always want a win, but second place is nothing to be ashamed of.”, The South girls finished first with 262 points, while second place Hunterdon Central finished with 229. South picked up a pair of individual wins as Isabel Williams was first in the 500 freestyle and Emily Huang was first in the breaststroke. The 200 free relay team of Emily Huang, Julie Birkland, Eugenia Ma and Lehna Ding also finished first., The South boys finished second with 241 points, which trailed only Pennsbury, which finished with 288.5. The Pirates won the 200 medley relay with Joshua Huang, Michael Krigeris, Kurt von Autenreid and Manish Rachamallu., “Our girls did a good job last year, but a lot of the chatter was about the boys,” Turner said. “The girls only lost two dual meets. They had a great season. It’s nice to have both programs challenging each other. It makes for great energy at practice., “Obviously, you always want top finishes. The goal is always to get as many swimmers into the finals as you can. We had some events where girls snuck into a final and that helps with points.”, The Pirates had several other top-three finishes. Ding was second in the 200 free, Emily Huang third in 200 IM, Claire Huang was second in butterfly and Dana Jung was third in the breaststroke., “Two of our older girls, Julie Birkland and Izzy Wilson, had outstanding races in the 100 free and got into the A final,” Turner said. “It was nice to see their hard work pay off. They were excited to be in the A final. They have working hard in practice and they see that it pays off. Isabel in the 500 looked like she was on cruise control and just goes and makes it look so easy. She swam a really good race,, “It is a positive environment the girls have set up. They have come together as a team.”, The WW-P North girls finished sixth and Stuart Country Day was seventh. Christina Kim was second in the 50 free for the Knights. Hana Kato was fourth in the butterfly. Alexandra Bullen-Smith finished fourth in the 500 free and sixth in the 200 IM for the Tartans., On the boys side, the Pirates’ Huang was second in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke, von Autenreid was second in the 50 free and 100 butterfly, Rachamallu was second in the 100 breaststroke, and Krigeris was third in 500 free, WW-P North finished sixth. Alex Yu was second in the 100 free and fourth in the 50 free., The girls meet was close throughout and the Pirates as a team didn’t know they had won until they heard the announcement at the end of the meet., “Being a coach I had known when meet ended that the girls had won,” Turner said. “One of our senior captains also knew we had won but I told her don’t tell the other girls you know. Let them hear it when it it is announced. It takes on a whole different feeling when they are all huddled together and hear it at the same time. It’s hard not tell anyone, but to let them hear the South team called for winning when they are gathered together is exciting.”
