Back-to-back sectional championships were on the minds of the Colts Neck High School girls’ swimmers when they squared off against West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Public B championship swim meet on Feb. 13 at the Neptune Aquatics Center.
Colts Neck, which lost to West Windsor-Plainsboro North, in the state sectional final during the 2017-2018 season, had a little bit more motivation in its quest for another state sectional title.
The Cougars got the job done by rolling to an impressive victory over West Windsor-Plainsboro North, defeating the Knights, 107-63, to win their second straight sectional championships.
“I’m very fortunate to coach the student-athletes I have and they swim amazingly,” said Colts Neck coach Dennis Bruck. “The work these girls do on their own with their club team is amazing. The unity and family atmosphere that both our boys’ and girls’ teams have as one is building a great culture for our program.”
The Cougars are perfect 13-0 on the season and are No. 3 seed in the NJSIAA Public B bracket.
Colts Neck will square off against No. 2 seed Moorestown High School in the state semifinals on Feb. 18 at Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne.
Colts Neck came out strong to begin the sectional championship meet and didn’t look, grabbing gold in each of the first events, the 200-yard medley relay, the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard intermediate medley.
The top-three finishes in the 200 intermediate medley went to the Cougars, while Colts Neck’s top two 200 medley relay teams brought home both gold and silver medals in the event.
Colts Neck rolled to a first in the 200-yard freestyle relay and had seven first places out of the 11 events in the meet.
Sophomore Arabella Lee had a strong showing in the pool for the Cougars, coasting to two first places in the 100 fly and the 100 backstroke. Lee was also part of Colts Neck’s first place victory in the 200 medley relay.
Junior Julia Nappi roared to a big victory in the 200 intermediate medley for the Cougars, while classmate Emma Shaughnessy brought home gold in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Freshman Catherine Votta secured the first-place prize in the 200-meter freestyle for Colts Neck.
“This group of girls that we have are phenomenal student-athletes,” Bruck said. “I couldn’t ask for more from this group of amazing young ladies, who are swimming amazingly.”
The next goal for the Cougars will be to make it back to the state final, where they lost to Moorestown, 97.5-72.5.
Coming up short of winning a state championship last year, Colts Neck knows they have some good teams in front of them to win a state title and will be ready to compete to their best to try to claim the program’s ’s first state championship.
“Everyone left swimming in the state tournament right now is phenomenal,” Bruck said. “There are a bunch of great teams still in the tournament and some like WWP North that went down in the sectional finals.”
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