By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Maddie Petty can’t help but feel a little bit like a protective mother each day at Hun School swim practice., “I think part of it is that even though I am a junior, I had to step into a role of being more of the big sister because we have so many freshmen,” said Petty, who is in her third year with the swim team and one of only eight non-freshmen on the 23 swimmer Raiders’ roster., “At the races, I feel like I am almost responsible for them. And when they don’t want to swim the butterfly or the breaststroke or the 500, I’ll say you’ll do a good job. For a lot of them it is the first time swimming one of those events so for them it is having to step into another role.”, Despite the youth of the Raiders, the team is having its best season in years. Hun finished the dual meet portion of its co-ed season with a 5-2 record. At last weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Prep League Invitational, a pair of the freshmen posted top-four finishes against a very talented field. And just this week, the boys scored 52 points and the girls finished sixth with 128 points at the state prep meet, which was held at Lawrenceville., “The first day of practice I thought, ‘Oh no, I have to figure out all these names,’ ” Petty said. “But they are all super outgoing themselves. We just all talk to each other. That helped us all get to know each other.”, At the MAPL meet, freshman Grace Davis was second in the 200 freestyle (2:01.65) and third in the 100 free (55.93). Abbie Danko, another freshman, was third in the 500 free (5:25.54) and fourth in the 200 individual medley (2:19.65)., With the freshmen joining a solid returning group that includes co-captains Petty, Henry Claisse, Emily Ryan and Jin Mun, Hun has not only improved this season, but has high hopes for the future. The roster includes just one senior, Mike Wang. Having 15 freshmen join the team in the same season has made for a much more competitive team., “The swim team is going to grow,” said Josh Nguyen, one of the 15 freshmen. “At the meeting before the season, Sean (Pazdera) and Jin were there and they were already swimmers on the team. They talked about how the team wasn’t that big and I only knew one other person that was coming, so I thought it would be a small team., “But then we started and the whole room was full of people who wanted to try it. One reason we have so many freshmen is most of us have prior experience swimming. Some people also want to try it because it is something new and they stay and want to better themselves. We have good coaches who tell us how to improve and make us better and faster.”, Nguyen is part of a group of freshmen boys that also includes Brendan Pearson, Jake DiAndrea, Andrew Petty, Cameron Gray and Leon Xie. In addition to Danko and Davis, the other freshmen girls are Emma Caforio, Zoe Wallace, Mariel Egan, Grace Lin, Nicole Kiczek, Sanjana Kowshik and Lily Henry., At the state prep meet, Danko finished fourth in the 500 free and ninth in the 200 free, while Ryan was fourth in the 100 breaststroke and 16th in the 200 IM. Davis finished 10th in the 200 free and 15th in the 100 free., “There are not usually this many freshmen coming in,” said Caforio, a Princeton resident. “I think the team can only get better because everyone is already so much better than they were at the beginning of the season., “We’ve all gotten to know each other and are all friends. The bus rides help a lot. It’s 20 minutes (to Mercer County Community College for practice), so you can get to know people a lot. When you’re swimming you don’t really talk so the bus rides are a good chance to get to know the other people. I’d seen most people because it was partially through the year, but only about half of the people I had actually talked to before.”, Nguyen is a boarder at the school who is from Vietnam. The team includes a mix of boarders and day students, as well as club swimmers and non-club swimmers., “When I saw the sports, after soccer I saw swimming for the winter and I wanted to go there because I had prior experience at swimming before from when I was in Vietnam,” said Nguyen, who was 21st in the 50 free and 22nd in the 100 free at the state meet. “I was on a swim team in Vietnam for seven years., “I knew a lot of the people and it was comfortable. Even though I didn’t know most of the sophomores, juniors and seniors, I still knew a lot of the freshmen. Some of them I board with. They make me feel more comfortable here. I know all of the older swimmers now. We’re all pretty good friends now.”, Sophomores Alex He and Izzy Martinez round out a roster that, in theory, could see just about everyone return next year as the Raiders look to build the program., “The older kids have really helped the kids that are new to swimming,” said Caforio, who also plays field hockey and lacrosse. “I have become really good friends with two girls so that brought us closer together. And I was able to get back in the water after not having swum for a while.”, In all, it’s made for an exciting season for the Raiders., “I think a lot of these kids were friends to start with maybe that is why they all joined,” Petty said. “I don’t know where they all came from. But it is nice that we’ll all still be together., “At one of our meets we had one relay of all girls and there were two freshmen, a sophomore and me. And the other team was so surprised that we beat them. They had three boys and a girl and they all were all pretty old looking. We beat them at the last second and that was really fun.”, For Petty, the connection to the freshmen is even tighter than most, as her younger brother, Andrew, is one of that group. Andrew was 14th in the 500 free at the state meet., “I am always proud of him when I watch him swim because he has gotten so much better over these years,” she said. “We had a relay the other day and I swam second and he swam third and that was so much fun. Most teams are not co-ed, so you don’t get to swim with your brother. And we also won, which made it even better.”, The Raiders have been doing a lot more winning than in the past, which has everyone excited. The five wins are an improvement on the four they had a year ago with a more veteran roster., “I can’t believe that,” Petty said. “The craziest part is more than half of the team is freshmen. The fact we were able to get that many wins is insane. They all came in and started off getting fourth, fifth and sixth and now we see them getting first, second and third. I never thought they would they all blossom into these great swimmers.”
