Ridge Swimmers Narrowly Beat Hillsborough In Thrilling Match-Up

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Ridge girls’ and boys’ teams narrowly beat Hillsborough on Tuesday, January 24 in a close, thrilling meet. There were plenty of tight races and lots of team spirit on display, as both teams cheered loudly on deck. Both Ridge teams won by 94 to 76.

In the boys’ meet, it all came down to the final events, the 100 Breast and the 400 Free relay, both of which Ridge won.

Other notable moments included Garrett Gould’s victory in the 50 Free, which broke the Ridge school record and Mitch Ferraioli’s two come-from-behind touch-out wins in the 100 and 200 Free. In the 500 Free, Orion Wang and Jack Thompson raced each other to the wall, Wang narrowly snatching the win.

Other boys’ victories included Gould in the 100 Fly, Anson Chen in the 100 Back and Kevin Cao in the 100 Breast. Additionally, the boys won two relay events. The team of Gould, Cao, Ferraioli and Gabe Beverini won the 200 Medley Relay with Ferraioli, Chen, Cao and Gould winning the 400 Free relay to close out the meet.

The girls’ meet was also a close and exciting match-up. Ridge won the first six individual events with strong performances from Emily Wang, who won the 200 and 500 Free, Emily Thompson who was victorious in the 200 IM and the 100 Fly, Giulia Beverini who won the 50 Free and Eszter Kiss who won the 100 Free, with Beverini in second. Hillsborough, however, took many second, third and fourth places, keeping the scores close.

In the relays, Ridge won the 200 Medley relay with the quartet of Wang, Thompson, Kiss and Beverini and sealed the win with the final event, the 400 Free relay featuring Wang, Sammie Oei, Kiss and Thompson.

The team will swim the final dual meet of the season on Thursday, Feb. 2 at the much-anticipated Senior Night against neighbors Bernardsville at Somerset Hills YMCA.

— Submitted by Ailsa Ferguson