JCC Swim Team Members Place at NJ Jr. Olympics

Katelyn Battagliese, of Hillsborough, was among 15 swimmers representing the JCC Bridgewater Tide this year at the New Jersey Junior Olympics held at Rutgers University on March 8-10.

The Bridgewater Tide is a competitive swim team based at the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum JCC in Bridgewater,  competing in the NJ-JCC “A” Division and USA Swimming. The team also includes Christine Arcoleo, Ross Bernstein, Alexis Brewer, Alan Du, Philippe Hayek, Leah Juechter, Hannah Lesser, John O’Brien, Jacob Pica, Doug Quagliato, Kinsey Rushevics, Carter Weiland, all of Bridgewater; Rayna Klugherz of Basking Ridge and Evan Kott of Piscataway, all of whom qualified for and swam at this state championship meet with outstanding results for the Tide. 

Battagliese, Kott and Weiland each placed in the top 8 in multiple events, with Weiland earning points in all 9 of his events and achieving two AAAA USA Swimming time cuts. 

“This was a very exciting meet for the Tide—we had the highest individual finish (Carter Weiland with a total of 106 points) and highest team finish in club history," Head Coach Mike Yearwood said. "I am so pleased with these results and am very proud of what our swimmers have accomplished. I look forward to achieving national rankings in the very near future.” 

A staggering 28 team records were broken at this meet, which highlights the new level to which Coach Yearwood has taken the swimmers since becoming Bridgewater Tide Head Coach in 2012.  

Next month, the Tide will send a delegation of 21 swimmers to the prestigious Sunkissed Invitational, a national meet held in Charlotte, N.C.