Summary of the SHP Swim Season. By Joe Alexander, Assistant Coach

Transcription

1 Summary of the SHP Swim Season By Joe Alexander, Assistant Coach Seniors Jeff Cueva, Ben Amoreno, Colby Dixon, Mike Dellanno and Ryan Ross Receive the Trophy as SHP wins the Essex County/Super Essex Conference Championship Meet The season turned out in many ways to be like the season, only a little bit better! With this year s senior class having only 5 swimmers, many slots were open for underclassmen to compete for. By chance the early season schedule featured opponents that would end up at the bottom of the conference standings, which gave many guys chances to get in the meets and see if they could earn their way into the starting lineup. This year s team would also be on the large side with 37 swimmers,

2 including several who had never been on a swim team before; it would be very interesting as the season went on to see how these swimmers would progress. In the first four meets of the year West Essex, West Orange, Columbia, and Glen Ridge our depth was greatly highlighted, as 17 different Prep swimmers won races 4 seniors (Ryan Ross, Colby Dixon, Ben Amoreno, Jeff Cueva), 8 juniors (Lenny Brown, Saverio Kaufman, Ryan Martynowicz, Alex Wang, Matt Michaels, Brendan Flood, Dom Palumbo, Joe Gigantino), 2 sophomores (Luke Shea, Roo Fenton) and 3 freshmen (Matt Prior, Joe Labrador, Gage Derr); 5 freshmen (Prior, Labrador, Derr, Liam Fuchs and Will Clarkin) and 1 sophomore (Jack McGovern) would earn their first varsity cuts during this stretch. This set us up for the beginning of January and the Morristown meet, a match between teams that would become Essex County and Morris County champions. Expectations were high as the previous season s meet was one of the most exciting in school history, with our winning it on the last relay. This year s meet proved to be just as tense, with an even closer final score this time around, another gutwrenching nail biter, with SHP winning it Like last year, it was our depth that would prevail, last year we only won 3 first places out of 11 races; this year we would only win two! Our first winner was Matt Michaels in 100 Butterfly, backed up by Luke Shea and Jeff Cueva finishing 3 rd and 4 th to give us our first lead of the meet, a lead that we would never give up. The next event, the 100 freestyle, would see our second win, senior captain Colby Dixon in the 100 Freestyle, in what was perhaps his finest moment of the season. With the next event, the 400 Freestyle, our Distance trio of Matt Prior, Ben Amoreno and Lenny Brown did what they would often do win the event, in this case going 2 nd 3 rd and 4 th to take the event 9-7, putting us up by six. Morristown was able to trim the lead to 2 after the next two events, but our breaststroke trio of Dom Palumbo, Saverio Kaufman and Joe Gigantino was able to get a couple of points back by doing what the distance guys did, win their event by going This meant we only had to go 2-3 in the last event, the 400 free relay, to win. This we did, securing the final score. We swim most of our competitions in a 25 yard pool, but Morristown has a 25 meter pool, and as we have swum many meter meets in the past, we keep school records in both yard and meter distances. In the Morristown meet, freshman Matt Prior stepped onto the scene as a major factor by setting the new school record in the 400 meter freestyle in a time of 4:16.43! Early January would see us defeat MKA and Livingston to go to 7-0; sophomore Ryan Gurney would make a varsity cut during the Livingston meet. Next up was the County/Conference championship on January 17. One of the most fun things about the County meet this year was that so many of our swimmers made the meet for the first time. This included 3 freshmen Matt Prior, Liam Fuchs and Joe Labrador but also a sophomore, Mike Ippolito; 3 juniors, Brendan Flood, Joe Gigantino and Ryan Martynowicz; and 2 seniors, Mike Dellanno and Ryan Ross. This meant that half of the guys that we brought to the meet were new to the meet. All but one of them scored points, contributing to a victory where SHP would win by over 200 points. This would also be the 20 th consecutive season that Seton Hall Prep we have

3 won the Essex County Championship. We have now also won all 8 of the Super Essex Conference Championships since the conference was established in the season. Sophomore Roo Fenton would lead the team that day, with four gold medals in the 50 Freestyle, 100 Freestyle, 200 Freestyle Relay, and 400 Freestyle Relay. Roo would be recognized for this performance by being presented with the Cullen Jones Award as the meet s Most Outstanding Swimmer. The following swimmers were awarded medals for top 6 finishes in their events: First Place 200 Medley Relay (Colby Dixon, Dom Palumbo, Matt Michaels, Luke Shea), 1: IM, Alex Wang, 1: Freestyle, Roo Fenton, Freestyle, Roo Fenton, Freestyle Relay (Liam Fuchs, Matt Michaels, Luke Shea, Roo Fenton), 1: Backstroke, Colby Dixon, Freestyle Relay (Matt Prior, Alex Wang, Colby Dixon, Roo Fenton), 3:18.84 Second Place 100 Butterfly, Matt Michaels, Freestyle, Matt Prior, 4: Backstroke, Alex Wang, Third Place 200 Freestyle, Matt Prior, 1: Freestyle Luke Shea, Freestyle Colby Dixon, Breaststroke, Dom Palumbo, 1:02.98 Fourth Place 200 Freestyle Ben Amoreno, 1: IM Tied, Saverio Kaufman and Dominic Palumbo, 2: Breaststroke, Saverio Kaufman, Fifth Place 200 Freestyle Lenny Brown, 1: Butterfly, Luke Shea, Freestyle, Ben Amoreno, 4: Backstroke, Ryan Martynowicz, Sixth Place 200 IM, Matt Michaels, 2: Breaststroke, Joe Gigantino, A win over Newark Academy on January 19 brought us to 8-0. This was followed by an event known as the U and ME B meet. Schools from Union, Morris and Essex Counties are invited, with the meet called a B meet as swimmers who were in the school s County Championship lineup are excluded. This meet

4 gives a good sense of the depth of a team. The meet is not scored, but ribbons are awarded to the top 6 finishers in each event. The following swimmers were awarded ribbons at the B meet: 200 Medley Relay 2 nd place, Jack McGovern, Gage Derr, Mike McGoldrick, Sebastian Bonardi 6 th place Elias Getahoun, Billy Ge, Mario Luzuriaga, John O Brien 200 Freestyle 1st place, Will Clarkin; 4 th place, Colin Schweitzer 100 IM 5 th place Jack McGovern 50 freestyle 5th place Mike McGoldrick 100 butterfly 1st place Will Clarkin; 4 th place Gage Derr; 5 th place Mike McGoldrick. 100 freestyle 3rd place Ryan Gurney. 400 freestyle 1st place Colin Schweitzer; 2nd place Mario Luzuriaga 200 Freestyle relay 2nd place Sebastian Bonardi, Mike McGoldrick, Ryan Gurney, Will Clarkin 100 Backstroke 1st place Gage Derr; 4th place Jack McGovern; 5th place Elias Getahoun. Sophomore Elias Getahoun s swim in the 100 Backstroke was noteworthy as he dropped over 7.5 seconds to earn his first varsity cut. Late January featured wins against Montclair, Caldwell and Millburn, Millburn and Montclair being the 2 nd and 3 rd place teams in the conference. The Caldwell meet would feature two more youngsters earning their first varsity cuts, with freshmen Michael McGoldrick and Colin Schweitzer making the cut on their legs in the 400 Free Relay. The power points earned in the Morristown and Montclair meets earned us the #2 seed in the NJSIAA Non-Public A state tournament. As the #2 seed in Non-Public A we received what is called a double bye directly into the semifinals, where we would meet senior dominated #3 seed St. Augustine s Prep, who we had defeated in the semis the previous year. This time St. Augustine would turn the tables on us in a magnificent performance, winning Our performance was also excellent as we swam our fastest meet of the year, with our power point total of 4365 being our best of the season and 4 th fastest meet in school history. We would win 3 events; our Medley relay would be our best of the year, and the second fastest foursome in school history, with Colby Dixon, Dom Palumbo, Matt Michaels and Roo Fenton going 1:38.18; Matt Michaels would win another big 100 Butterfly race in 52.48, and Colby Dixon won the 100

5 backstroke. Other big swims included best times from Luke Shea in the 100 Butterfly, Ryan Martynowicz in the 100 Freestyle, and Dom Palumbo in the 100 breast. Although we would have fewer 6 th (last) place finishes than St. Augustine, we could not grab enough places to hold them off. Seven of our swimmers qualified for the NJSIAA individual event championships, also known as the Meet of Champions. Roo Fenton would be our best finisher at 13 th place in the 100 Freestyle in Also recognized with awards were the 400 Freestyle Relay Team of Fenton, Alex Wang, Matt Prior and Colby Dixon in 15 th place; Matt Prior, 16 th in the 500 Freestyle; the 200 Freestyle Relay Team of Matt Michaels, Wang, Luke Shea and Fenton, 17 th in 1:30.01, and the 200 Medley Relay Team of Dixon, Dom Palumbo, Michaels and Shea, 23rd in 1: Seven individuals and all three relays would be honored for All-Super Essex Conference recognition. Named to the first team were: 200 Medley Relay Colby Dixon, Dom Palumbo, Matt Michaels and Luke Shea 200 IM Alex Wang 50 Freestyle Roo Fenton 100 Butterfly Matt Michaels 200 Freestyle Relay Liam Fuchs, Matt Michaels, Luke Shea, Roo Fenton 100 Backstroke Colby Dixon 400 Freestyle Relay Matt Prior, Alex Wang, Colby Dixon, Roo Fenton Second Team Honors went to: 200 Freestyle Matthew Prior 50 Freestyle Luke Shea 500 Freestyle Ben Amoreno The team would end up ranked #9 in the state in the nj.com final top 20.