Boys Swimming Team Looks to Stay Atop State Rankings

The boys swimming team advanced to the Public A State Finals when the team defeated Bayonne 123-47 Tuesday in Plainsboro.

The win brings the Panthers to the championship match for the second year in a row, and the fourth time in the last seven years.

Head coach Sean Foley, who is no stranger to success in swimming, remained modest after yet another victory was added to his coaching resume.

“We did a great job today,” Foley said. “We had a really emotional win against Westfield a few days ago and I was impressed with the way we were able to bounce back and keep our composure. We know that it’s one and done right now. We wanted to swim on Sunday, and we went out and proved it today.”

Bridgewater jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. After Thomas Rinaldi and Victor Luo placed first in the 200 medley relay, senior captain Brian Barr took home the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:01.54.

After the match, Barr could not be any happier with the way he and his teammates performed to get back to the state final.

“We’re all very happy with how we did,” Barr said.  “We came out and did better than we expected. We came out hoping for a win. Our goal was to obviously get to the next round, and we accomplished that.”

The Panthers would go on to dominate the rest of the match. Notable wins came in the 200 individual medley when Luo recorded a time of 2:15.39. 

Then, in the 50 freestyle, Jesse Novak won with a time of 25.41 seconds.

The dominant performance in every event is something that the Panthers have become accustomed to. With one more win, Foley believes that this group of seniors can be “the best to ever come through Bridgewater.”

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Barr said of his coach’s praise. “There are so many guys that have come through here such as Kevin Gallagher and John Benigno. It’s nice to be looked at on the same level as them.”

 “Our senior class is a great bunch of leaders,” he added. “We know how to pump the other guys up and get behind everyone on the team. We want to represent the team and our senior class knows how to do that.”

Even though the swimmers deserve much of the praise for the program’s success, Foley’s coaching cannot be overlooked. Going into Tuesday’s meet, Bridgewater was the only public school ranked in the top five in the state (the Panthers were ranked no. 2 only behind Christian Brothers Academy). 

Foley could have boasted at what he and his team have accomplished, but instead stayed humble in victory.

“Since I’ve had the opportunity to take over for the boys and girls teams, Bridgewater has been consistently a top program in the state,” Foley said. “These kids have worked their tails off and they are really focused. I’ve been telling them all year that when the opportunity comes, we need to seize that moment and right now we are really doing that.”

“We want to have the same success we had last year,” he added. “I think we can do it and we plan to do that Sunday.”

Barr shared his coach’s enthusiasm about Sunday’s meet.

“To be known as back-to-back state champions would be fantastic,” Barr said. “It means a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to the guys on the team.”

Bridgewater next swims on Sunday when the team takes on the winner of the Cherry Hill East and Mainland semifinal. The meet will begin at 2 p.m. at The College of New Jersey in Ewing.