Swimming: Bernards looks to keep momentum going

After one of the best season in the history of the program, the Bernards High School swim team might be in for a bit of a rebuilding year.

The Mountaineers won the NJSIAA North 2 Group C sectional titles last season for the first time, with the boys team besting Caldwell 115-55 and the girls team also beating Caldwell 95-75. 

Bernards then graduated three swimmers from the girls side and seven of its 14 swimmers on the boys team. The Mountaineers lost 52 percent of its points from last season with the graduation of Julian Baxter, Eric Bernhardt, Mike Doerr, John Leskauskas, Nick Schwed, Chris Van Dijk and Ryan Van Dijk. 

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"These guys were definitely our point scorers," coach Ed Tsuzuki said. "There is some good news in that we did get six new boys, all freshmen. While some of them are club swimmers and have talent there, they’re still young. They have good experience, so it’s not completely disastrous, we definitely can call this one of your rebuilding years."

It's not all doom and gloom for the boys team as three of the five swimmers Bernards sent to the Meet of Champions are returning. Senior Alex Kiel and junior Matt Voight are back, along with sophomore Joe Kiel. 

"We’re really fortunate to have three of the five MOC guys back," Tsuzuki said. "Not only do they have swim talent, but leadership and experience and that’s really good."

The incoming freshmen also show promise, according to Tsuzuki. Sean Robinson (breaststroke, IM), Alex Ruffer (breaststroke, freestyle), Matt Sardis, who is recovering from an injury, is solid in the butterfly and freestyle, and Noah Youssef, also recovering from an injury, is a quality all-around swimmer. 

"They’re so young, even though we’re not as strong as the seven guys we lost, these guys can become like the seven seniors who just graduated," Tsuzuki said. 

On the girls side, Megan Sardis, who is currently swimming for Yale University, Caroline Van Dijk, who is swimming club at Bucknell University, and Maria Vazquez graduated, but the team gained eight new swimmers. Despite a few swimmers not returning, Tsuzuki said the girls roster is at 25.

"In numbers we’re doing well," Tsuzuki said. "Megan, a DI swimmer right now, left an extremely big hole on the roster, but we do have some very strong returning letterwinners and a few good freshmen."

Seniors Lauren Browne and Maren Petrie and junior Caroline Casella (freestyle, backstroke) will be the captains this season, while a number of other strong swimmers return, including Ali Maffei (distance, freestyle), Mallika Negi (butterfly, backstroke), Kristen Sardis (freestyle, butterfly), Izzy Piccone and Sophie Ray. 

Jessica Snyder is also back after being named last year’s MVP. She qualified for the Meet of Champions in the 100 breaststroke and set a new school record. 

New swimmers who will look to make an impact are junior Natalia Youssef, who swam as a freshman but didn’t swim last year, and freshmen Maddie Kiel and Cassidy Meeks. 

"We’re one of the stronger teams in the division again this year, with the loss of our very strong senior class on both sides, we’re going to have some tough competition with Phillipsburg and North Hunterdon," Tsuzuki said. "We’ll have a really good showing in the conference and in the state sectionals, if everyone is healthy, we should do quite well."

The Mountaineers open their season on Friday against Watchung Hills, and according to Tsuzuki the team is extremely enthusiastic for the season to begin. 

"It’s a really good mix and we’re having a great time in practice. They’re all working hard and having lots of fun," he said. "We want to just do as well as we did last year, conference champs, division champs and sectional champs, that would be terrific."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Gill St. Bernard's returns a large group of swimmers from last year's team that recorded its first-ever multi-win dual meet season in school history. Gill St. Bernard's placed in all of its championship meets after failing to score points at those meets in the past. 

Junior Christian Ernst (sprint free), junior Preston Reep (butterfly/free), sophomore Adrian Massuet (breaststroke), sophomore Jonathan Osma (back/IM), sophomore Rebecca Michaels (back/free), sophomore Kelsey Breuer (sprint free), senior Sabrina Sukhin (breaststroke) and senior Cindy Tong (butterfly) are all back for the Knights and will look to continue the success from last season. 

New Providence will look to be a team to beat this season, as the boys team moves into North 2 Group C while the girls team remains in Central Group C. Junior Sophia Kudryashova, the reigning Courier News Girls Swimmer of the Year, returns after a stellar sophomore season. 

Hillsborough, the Central Public A champion last year, lost record-breaking swimmer Megan Bull to graduation, but will return junior Haley Tevnan and senior Alexandra Temple. 

Governor Livingston, which won sectional titles for the first time last season, lost a number of seniors, including Killian Quinn, Jack O'Halloran, Andrew DelDuca, Matt Zarelli, Declan Feeley and Jason Wong. Ellis Sartorio and Jason Paprocki return. The girls team also lost a few seniors, including Ashlyn Shallcross, Shannon Sieczka and Indiana Curtis. Junior Bailey Gold returns. 

The Bridgewater-Raritan girls team, which went undefeated last season and won the Public A title, will return Grace Palfreyman, Corina Do, Leah Juechter, Katie Cooper and Meredith Riegler. 

The Pingry boys team, which won its 10th-straight Non-Public B title last year, will return Victor Vollbrechthausen, Sean Tan, Leighton Mayers, Kevin Ma, William Zhang, Dillon Shu and Matt Stanton.