South hits second goal of perfect season
By: Justin Feil
LAWRENCE As the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ swimming team heads into the postseason, it does so with two of its four goals already accomplished and a third seemingly just a formality.
WW-P South, which earlier this season captured its first Pirate Invitational since 1996, won its fourth straight Mercer County Championship on Saturday. The Pirates carry that momentum into its next step the sectional state tournament with the eventual goal of a state tournament title down the road.
WW-P South, even without an entry in the potential 32-point 400 free relay after a disqualification in Thursday’s preliminaries, easily dispatched of second-place Lawrence, 284-182. Princeton High was fourth.
"Our girls really swam superb in the finals," said Pirate head coach Paul Hamnett. "I was happy to see how they reacted. We had a pretty good day on Thursday. I think they swam the best of the year on Saturday.
"It was one of our goals. It was another obstacle. It really prepared us to see how fast we can do. We set three or four school records."
The 200 medley relay shattered its existing record to win. The 200 free relay an important relay with the 400 disqualification also set a school record to win. Kate Guthrie won the 100 free in school record time and also won the 50 free in what may be a converted school record as well. Monique Jozwiak won the 100 back in a new meet record 1:07.48. Brittany Iacouzze won the 200 free and Gabi Feibel took the 500 free in the first county appearance for both.
"I love our team," said Feibel, a sophomore in her first year of high school swimming. "I love everyone on our team. Pretty much everyone’s a great swimmer. I think it would be better if we didn’t have as many U.S.S. swimmers. I like being the underdog."
It might not be until the end of the season that the Pirates faced that prospect. They might never. Feibel’s addition is just one reason. A former swimmer for Eastern Express, which until this year did not allow its swimmers to compete during the high school season, she’s now on X-Cel’s club team and gives WW-PS another strong distance swimmer.
In addition to winning the 500, she was third to Iacouzze in the 200 free, and pulled the Pirates into the lead in the third leg of the 200 free relay, a far shorter 50-meter sprint than she’s used to in her best events, the distance ones.
"It’s get in, and just swim as hard as you can and get out," Feibel said. "It’s just a sprint. I’m happy for our relay because we won. We knew we had to do well because we didn’t have a 400 relay today. It was great to win."
Feibel’s now been a big part of both of the Pirates’ first two goals as she was a major points winner at the Pirate Invitational. But the win in the Pirate Invitational was a surprise for the host South, while the county crown was expected.
"I think the Pirate Invitational was a lot bigger for us because it wasn’t expected," Feibel said. "We were just so pumped. We wanted to win so badly."
Next up is the sectionals, and the Pirates hope, the state final and a potential state title."It would definitely be really big," Feibel said. "We’re all really excited for it. The whole team is psyched."
The Pirates expect some tougher competition once they get out of the sectionals and take aim at winning the finals.
"The biggest thing we want to do is contend for it," Hamnett said. "I don’t want to say win it because we don’t know what we’re up against. But we want to get there. We have a great team and we have a chance to do that."
It isn’t just the middle-lane swimmers like Feibel who are making the Pirates one of the state favorites and a runaway county winner. At Saturday’s final, they picked up plenty of points in nearly every event.
Jozwiak was second in the 200 IM while Erika Tomei was fifth. While Guthrie was first in the 50 free, freshman Milagros Simon was third. Iacouzze, a freshman, was sixth in the 100 fly and Evelyn Yuen was fifth. Feibel won the 500 free and teammate Liron Noiman was fifth. Simon was third and Katherine Winters was sixth behind Jozwiak’s back win. Yuen was second in the 100 breast. Even more Pirates reached consolation finals.
"My biggest goal was to get a lot of high school-only swimmer good swims," Hamnett said. "It’s a bigger meet for them. They’ve been working hard all year and get to see all their work pay off."
Even the top Pirate swimmers were looking for good swims at the county meet, which pushed them as a unit more than any dual meet this season.
"In the 200, I knew I really needed to step it up," Feibel said. "I wanted to get third or even second. I knew it would be a close race. I’m happy Britt did really well. I was happy with third. I was scared I would get fourth.
"I was kind of worried in the 500. I know the other girls, and they’re really good. I know wanted first. I worried about my own race and not about everyone else."
The win helped continue what’s been a great first year of swimming with the Pirates after four years with the Eastern Express team.
"Swimming high school is so much more fun," Feibel said. "You get so pumped up to swim. It’s so much more fun. You’re more psyched and I love how everyone cheers and I love cheering for them."
There was no shortage of Pirates to cheer for on Saturday, and there were plenty of other outstanding swims outside of the South team. Nina Rossi led PHS to fourth by winning the 200 individual medley in a meet record 2:22.02, a hundredth of a second better than she had as a freshman last year for the Little Tigers.
"I didn’t think I’d get it at all," said Rossi, who also won the 100 fly. "I thought I’d have to swim a lot better. I was happy to get down to my regular time. I’d been hovering around 2:25 to 2:26 for a long time.
"I saw Monique was swimming next to me on the backstroke. I tried to stay with her. The breaststroke was the biggest key."
By the end, the PHS sophomore had an 8-second gap over Jozwiak and the rest of the field to defend her IM crown. If anything, that made it tougher to break a record she saw as difficult to break to begin with.
"I saw it and said, ‘That’s so fast,’" she said. "I had Jenny Steiner (of Lawrence) last year and she motivated me so much.
"When I was in the lead, it just gave me the incentive to just go and try for the record and see how well I could do."
It was good enough for a record to start her day, and her day ended in dramatic fashion as well as she anchored and came from behind to help the Little Tigers win the 400 free relay.
"In addition to Nina’s fantastic day, I thought the relays were the highlights for us," said PHS head coach Greg Hand. "Perhaps the single most exciting moment in the meet, in my opinion, was that (400) relay. Nina’s split was just incredible. I converted it to 52.17. She just chews up a lead and gives it everything she can. She swam the same way in the 200 relay. She had to literally fight all the way throughout, even the last five meters."
Megan Kalinowski led WW-P North with a fourth place in the 100 breast and the Knights’ 200 medley relay was sixth as they finished sixth as a team. Stuart, which got two top-six finishes by Ava Kiss, was 11th. Hun, led by Christina Keaney’s fourth place in the 100 back, was 12th as it looks to compete in the prep meet today and Wednesday at Lawrenceville.
"Lawrenceville is a quicker pool," said Hun head coach Madeline Jones. "They’ve swum their before. Now they’ve seen what they can do here. And they’ve set their goals for that meet based on what they did at counties."
For the West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ swim team, winning counties was just the accomplishment of its latest goal, and winning their fourth straight MCC title puts them halfway to a perfect season.