A win in the 400 free relay highlighted the action at the Greater Middlesex Conference Championships for the South Brunswick High School girls swimming team.
South Brunswick finished fourth as a team with 271.5 points in the GMC championships, held at Rutgers University on Feb. 5. Bishop Ahr won (344 points), followed by North Brunswick (296.5 points) and East Brunswick (290 points). A total of 12 teams scored at least a point in the event.
"They had a disappointing finish as far as the team score, but there were many positives during the meet," South Brunswick Coach John Harding said. "They won the four hundred free relay. We had many girls earn medals. We had four second-place finishes and three new school records."
Find out what's happening in South Brunswickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Besides, the disappointing part was only because of South Brunswick's recent amazing success. The team won the GMC in 2010 and was 10-0 in the regular season this year.
Lauren Socienski, Cindy Shi, Emily Charniga and Gessica Charniga combined to win the 400 free relay in a time of 3:48.77. It was a new school record.
Find out what's happening in South Brunswickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In addition to the win as a team, the members of the victorious relay all managed to win individual medals.
Cindy Shi, just a sophomore, placed second in the 200 free (2:00.32) and second in the 500 free (5:23.95). Both of those times were new South Brunswick High School records.
Gess Charniga, a senior, was second in the 100 free (54.94) and third in the 100 breastroke (1:09.46). Charniga was the defending GMC champion in both events.
Emily Charniga, a sophomore, was fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:09.70.
Lauren Socienski, a senior, placed fourth in the 50 free with a time of 26.26.
"I am very proud of the girls team," Harding said.
South Brunswick will take part in the state tournament on Feb. 11. The Meet of Champions will be held on March 5-6 at Gloucester County Institute of Technology.
"The team had a great season overall," Harding noted. "They were 10-0 in regular meets. Many new school records. The team is looking forward to the state team tournament."
