Scotch Plains-Fanwood's Bondarowicz is the CN Boys Swimmer of the Year
What happens after you become an Eagle Scout?
It’s the highest honor for Boy Scouts, something that roughly only five percent of members have earned since 1912, according to the National Eagle Scout Association. It takes years of work and mastery in a range of subjects. Successful people from Steven Spielberg to Neil Armstrong have achieved it.
Often, it’s the pinnacle. If you’re Chris Bondarowicz, you keep going.
READ: ST. JOSEPH'S THOMPSON IS THE HNT BOYS SWIMMER OF THE YEAR
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood senior has continued to earn merit badges, reaching two more levels that are even rarer, a Bronze Palm and a Gold Palm.
“It was kind of like the same thing that I have in swimming now,” Bondarowicz said. “I want to get to the highest level that I can possibly get to.”
That mentality has helped Bondarowicz succeed in the water. He is the 2016-17 Courier News boys Swimmer of the Year after capturing the Meet of Champions’ 100 breaststroke title. Bondarowicz, who will attend and swim at the U.S. Naval Academy, also took first in that event and in the 200 IM at the Union County Championships.
“He’s just very driven,” Raiders coach Jess Hulnik said. “He works extremely hard. He sets very high goals for himself and then he usually achieves them. He’s just a very driven young man.”
While Bondarowicz swam in youth summer meets, it wasn’t until his freshman year that he began to take swimming serious. He trained with the Fanwood-Scotch Plains YMCA club team and got faster and faster. As a sophomore, he placed eighth at the MOC in the 100 breaststroke. As a junior, that improved to second.
He attracted national attention at the YMCA National Long Course Championship last July in Indianapolis. Bondarowicz placed second in both the 100 breaststroke and the 200 breaststroke, while taking fifth in the 50 breaststroke. He was also part of the sixth-place 400-medley relay team along with his high school teammates Eric Chang, Alan Shao and Josh Cohen.
Colleges, including Ivy League schools, recruited Bondarowicz. The choice came down to Navy and Army.
“For me, l’ve always looked up to policemen and firefighters and military,” he said. “All those people, just because everything they do and sacrifice, I’ve always been grateful for that and I always thought maybe that’s something I’d like to do.”
When he visited Annapolis, he just felt comfortable talking to the students and the coaches.
“It was kind of something where Navy was kind of pretty much like love at first sight,” he said. “A big part of it was I walked on campus during Commissioning Week. So we walk on the campus after going through security and Blue Angels fly over. You look right down the path, you see a helicopter landing. You go, that’s not something you see every day on campus. That’s something unique. Maybe even if it doesn’t happen every day, it just kind of made you fall in love with it and realize you know what, this is going to be home.”
A couple months ago, he was looking at Navy majors and noticed oceanography. Shortly after, he came across an oceanography merit badge — right up his alley. He completed the requirements for the badge, explaining terms like salinity and drawing a cross-section of underwater topography.
“It wasn’t necessary to do or anything,” he said. “It was just me wanting to go above and beyond.”
But that’s an aspect that he enjoys about the scouts, learning new things and gaining life-long skills. One of his favorite ones was the electricity badge he earned in elementary school that his grandfather helped him with.
Soon after joining in elementary school, he made a goal of becoming an Eagle Scout. The requirements include earning 21 merit badges — including 13 required badges — by the time you’re 18. Bondarowicz achieved it last July. Since he doesn’t turn 18 until June, he figured he’d keep going.
He earned the Bronze Palm when he attained five additional merit badges and stayed active in his troop for three months. He earned his Gold Palm on March 6 by racking up five more merit badges. He hopes to get to the next level, the Silver Palm, before his birthday.
“For a lot of kids, they only get the Bronze Palm just because they graduate afterwards,” he said. “They turn 18, or they just don’t feel like putting in anymore work. But for me, it’s kind of just like with swimming, I want to hit the highest level and be the best that I can be just because I don’t want to look back years later, somebody asks me, ‘Oh, why didn’t you go for your Silver Palm.’ Or, ‘Why didn’t you go for this?’ I don’t want to look back and say, ‘You know, I got lazy.’ I’d rather look back and say, ‘You know what, I just ran out of time.’ That’s a much better excuse to say than, ‘Oh yeah, I just gave up.’”
ALL-SKYLAND CONFERENCE TEAMS
DELAWARE DIVISION FIRST TEAM
50 free: Will Zhang, Pingry; 100 free: Josh Franco, Hillsborough; 100 butterfly: Riley Pestorius, Bridgewater-Raritan; 100 backstroke: Leighton Mayers, Pingry; 100 breaststroke: Chris Ruhnke, Bridgewater-Raritan; 200 free: Victor Vollbrechthausen, Pingry; 200 IM: Sean Tan, Pingry; 500 free: Billy Fallon, Pingry; 200 free relay: Pingry (Will Zhang, Kevin Ma, Sean Tan, Victor Vollbrechthausen); 200 medley relay: Bridgewater-Raritan (Carter Weiland, Chris Ruhnke, Riley Pestorius, Daniel Petrillo); 400 free relay: Pingry (Will Zhang, Matt Stanton, Sean Tan, Victor Vollbrechthausen)
DELAWARE DIVISION SECOND TEAM
50 free: Daniel Petrillo, Bridgewater-Raritan; 100 free: Matt Sanders, Hillsborough; 100 butterfly: Dillion Shu, Pingry; 100 backstroke: Dylan Wachenfeld, Ridge; 100 breaststroke: Chandler Amato, Hunterdon Central; 200 free: Thomas DeLauro, Bridgewater-Raritan; 200 IM: Carter Weiland, Bridgewater-Raritan; 500 free: Matt Stanton, Pingry; 200 free relay: Bridgewater-Raritan (Riley Pestorius, Chris Ruhnke, Carter Weiland, Daniel Petrillo); 200 medley relay: Pingry (Leighton Mayers, Max Sanchez, Sean Tan, Will Zhang); 400 free relay: Bridgewater-Raritan (Riley Pestorius, Chris Ruhnke, Carter Weiland, Daniel Petrillo)
RARITAN DIVISION FIRST TEAM
50 free: James Hampson, Rutgers Prep; 100 free: Christopher Gillooly, Franklin; 100 butterfly: Joe Kiel, Bernards; 100 backstroke: Owen Thomas, Phillipsburg; 100 breaststroke: Sean Foster, Immaculata; 200 free: Alex Kiel, Bernards; 200 IM: Ryan Van Dijk, Bernards; 500 free: Matthew Van Dijk, Bernards; 200 free relay: Bernards , (Ryan Van Dijk, Michael Doerr, Matthew Voight, Alex Kiel); 200 medley relay: Bernards (Matthew Voight, Ryan Van Dijk, Joe Kiel, Julian Baxter); 400 free relay: Bernards (Alex Kiel, Joe Kiel, Ryan Van Dijk, Matthew Voight),
RARITAN DIVISION SECOND TEAM
50 free: Brendan Viera, Phillipsburg; 100 free: Michael Doerr, Bernards; 100 butterfly: Jared Sander, Phillipsburg; 100 backstroke: Conner Coll, South Hunterdon; 100 breaststroke: Ross Zazzarino, Bernards; 200 free: Nick Schwed, Bernards; 200 IM: Pat Vidal, Phillipsburg; 500 free: Aaron Huang, North Hunterdon; 200 free relay: Phillipsburg (Brendan Viera, Kaizen Frith, Jared Sander, Owen Thomas); 200 medley relay: Phillipsburg (Owen Thomas, Pat Vidal, Jared Sander, Brendan Viera); 400 free relay: Phillipsburg (Quincy Herdlein, Brendan Viera, Kaizen Frith, Owen Thomas)