By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys swim team has been building something special over the last few years and Jason Wang is happy to be a part of it.
Wang, a junior, has watched as the Knights have gotten better in each of his three years with the program. And this year they will be making their second straight trip to the Central Jersey A Division finals where they will face Hunterdon Central at the Neptune Aquatic Center at 3:30 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s final.
”It is a great experience,” said Wang, who was third in the backstroke on Tuesday as the Knights advanced to the finals with a 96-74 win over Cherokee. “We’re excited to go back to the finals. We went against HC last year and lost to them. We’re hopeful we can race against them again this year. We went into this meet a little nervous. We thought it was going to be a really close meet.”
Stanford Zhou and Greg Cino were both double winners for the Knights, who swept all four freestyle events. Zhou won the 50 free and 100 free, while Cino captured the 200 free and 400 free. North also picked up wins from the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.
The second-seeded Knights will face top-seeded Hunterdon Central, which defeated Lenape, 102-68, in the other semifinal.
The Princeton boys and girls both advanced to the CJ B championship meets, which were scheduled for Thursday. The top-seeded Princeton boys topped Ocean, 104-65, to advance to face second-seeded Lawrence. The Little Tigers picked up wins from Peter Kalibat in the 200 free, Matt Purdy in the 50 free, Daniel Andronov in the 100 free, John Bond in the 500 free, Alden Reyes in the 100 back and Alex Bank in the 100 breast
The second-seeded Princeton girls topped Lawrence, 101-69, to advance to face top-seeded Chatham. The Little Tigers picked up wins from Briana Romaine in the 200 free, Serena Deardorff in the 50 free and 100 fly, Hannah Ash in the 500 free, Marisa Giglio in the 200 IM and Madeleine Deardorff in the 100 breast.
The North boys will be making a second straight trip to the finals.
”It is really exciting for the boys,” said WW-P North coach Todd Robinson, whose team improved to 12-2 on the season. “I don’t think we’ve ever been to the finals for two consecutive years with either the guys or the girls. It is really exciting to have an opportunity to swim in that championship meet again.
”I think it is important that our guys swim their races and focus on their races as opposed to who is swimming in the lane next to them. It was nice to get this win. Cherokee is a talented team. We were able to pull away when we went 1-2 in the 50.”
The Knights held a slim 26-20 edge before Zhou, Matt Tan and Alex Liu went 1-2-4 in the 50 free to build the lead to 38-24. And while Cherokee would wind up winning four of the final seven events, the Knights’ depth proved to be too much for the visitors to overcome.
Swimmers like Wang gave the Knights the second and thirds they needed even when Cherokee would win the event.
”I got my best time by a second again so I was really happy about that,” Wang said. “We have a good team again this year. We have seven seniors and they are some of our top swimmers. So we’re trying to make this last season for them a good one.”
The swimmers from North are hoping that the return trip to the Neptune Aquatic Center ends with a different result than last year.
”The experience definitely helps,” Robinson said. “We have some younger kids on the team. Even though we have some talented younger guys they don’t have the experience in this situation. I think the juniors and seniors we have returning, the younger swimmers really look up to them.”
Wang has made enough progress this season to be one of the swimmers the younger ones can look up to.
”Jason has done a really nice job,” Robinson said. “He is the kind of kid that I can put in just about any event. He swam some butterfly for us. He’s done some IM here and there and some freestyle. But it is his backstroke that I have been most pleased with. He had a great swim today.”
