The Somerset Valley YMCA girls’ Red team remained undefeated after four dual meets, while two other teams suffered their first loss of the season on Dec. 1.
With about 280 swimmers ranging in age from 7 to 18, the swimming club, headquartered in Bridgewater and Hillsborough, has formed three girls’ and two boys’ dual meet teams who compete against other area YMCA squads.
The Red team, the most competitive of the girls’ teams, coached by Oscar Gonzales, won against Summit in a Nov. 17 meet, and followed that up with another win two weeks later, against Montclair on Dec. 1.
Swimmers with qualifying times from all teams will be competing on Dec. 15-16 at the 2007 NJ State Swimming Championship mini-meet at Gloucester County Institute of Technology in Sewell and Dec.14-16 at the Holiday Classic at Rutgers. Judging by past performance, the swimmers are expected to do extremely well.
”The team looks as good as it ever has if not better now than at any time midseason,” said Matthew Donovan, head coach for eight years. “This gives us a great deal of confidence as we get very close to our mid-season shave meet in December at GCIT and Rutgers.”
Some highlights of the previous two meets include wins by the girls and boys White teams on Nov. 17. Without many of their older swimmers due to conflicts with high school swimming as well as the SATs on Dec 1, both teams suffered their first losses, giving them a 3-1 record. The girls’ Blue team is 1-2, while the boys’ Red team is 1-3 in the dual meet season so far. The Red team, on Nov. 17, saw sweeps for the older girls in the 200 medley and breaststroke events by swimmers Kelsey Hurley of Hillsborough, Casey Stahl and Erin Dahl, both of Bridgewater, and Courtney Raw of Montgomery.
There was another sweep by 13-14 year-olds Wendy Liu of Bridgewater, Dana Rzewnicki of Piscataway and Dana Yu of Bridgewater in butterfly. In addition, in the Nov. 17 meet, the 9-10 year-old team was one of three winning relays, with swimmers Deborah Stoddard of Hillsborough, Brianna McKenna of Belle Mead, Holly Christenson of Whitehouse Station, and Kelly Pearce of Bridgewater.
At their next meet on Dec. 1, the team continued it winning streak, sweeping events in the 8-and-under breaststroke with Kristin Wolf and Kiera Carmody of Bridgewater and Alexandra Temple of Hillsborough; in the 8-and-under butterfly with Michelle D’Allegro of Skillman and Yelena Salvador of Bridgewater and Carmody.
Sweeps by the girls’ White team included Alex Enny, Dana Resker and Kasey Thompson, all of Bridgewater, in the 15-18 year old freestyle race on Nov 17, as well as Sara Kucsan, Thompson and Simone McCarron, all of Bridgewater, in the butterfly The team placed first in four of five relays. Despite their loss on Dec. 1, the team took 14 first place finishes, with a sweep by Meghan Doran of Neshanic Station, Sompurna Choudhury of Bridgewater and Shannon Mulreed of Branchburg, in the 8-and-under backstroke.
Some swimmers who came out on top for the girls’ Blue team in their past two meets include: Meredith Trabilsy and Melissa Gibson of Hillsborough; Laura Madzey, Katie Gray, Kirsten Dahl, Cindy Xiong and Michelle Ma all of Bridgewater, Grace E. Singley of Skillman and Kayla A. Schwab of Raritan.
On the boys’ Red team, first-place finishes in recent meets were earned by Ryan Morgan, Matthew Sanders and David Chung of Hillsborough; Dylan Sali, Brian Barr and Anthony Guglin of Bridgewater, Andrew Nesbitt of Somerset; Kyle Jennings of Montgomery; Ryan Waters of Bernards Township and Christopher Meyers of Somerville. The team of Dylan and Sean Sali, Nick Agnello of Bridgewater and Chung also won the 11-12 medley relay in the Nov. 17 meet, which the boys lost to Lakeland Hills by just two points by a score of 105-103 .They also won three of the five relays on Dec. 1.
Highlights from the boys’ White team included sweeps by Brian Yan and Matthew Boucher of Bridgewater and Matthew Temple, of Hillsborough, in the 13-14 year old individual medley race; Kevin Chu of Bridgewater, Edward Leppert of Belle Mead and Kevin Qi of Bridgewater in the 13-14 freestyle; and Qi, Boucher and Will Lathrop of Belle Mead in the 13-14 breaststroke on Nov. 17; as well as Jimmy Hampson, James Sisti and Derek Li, of Hillsborough, in the 8-and-under freestyle, and Tim Kurtz of Somerset, Sisti and Hampson in the 8-and-under backstroke; Michael McKenna and Chrystian Muhleisen, of Belle Mead, and Sisti and Li in the 8-and-under medley relay all on Dec. 1.
For more information on the Somerset Valley YMCA Swim Team, visit www.svynj.org or call (908) 526-0688. At the Somerset Valley YMCA, we’re Partnering for a Healthy Community.
