As winter sports transition into spring, the highlight of many is on the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girl’s varsity swim team that completed the dual season with a 5-6-1 record.
One of their biggest accomplishments this year was defeating rival Westfield High in the state North 2, Group A final and advancing to the Group A state semifinals against Montclair High School
The team, coached by Chris Levin, started the season with two losses against Ridge and Pingry but quickly came back against Ridgewood 116-54. Bridgwater-Raritan then pulled out with an epic victory against Westfield in the state sectional final, 88-82, on Wednesday, February 12, at the Raritan Bay YMCA in Perth Amboy.
Coach Levin was asked about the state tournament and the most successful match of the season.
“The state tournament meets are very quick-paced, with very little rest in between events. Some of the times that the girls produced against Westfield… were lifetime best times by multiple seconds,” he said.
Bridgewater’s first win against Ridgewood set the tone for the season ahead, as they constantly demonstrated grit and perseverance. The team was led by seniors Tiffany Bui, Claire Zhu, Katie Krause, Heesoo Kim and Vaanya Salwan, a group Coach Levin describes as “the perfect leaders to help this team succeed.”
The team continued its season with a 200-meter medley relay, which Katie Krause helped her group finish in 1:53.92. This was followed by Claire Zhu’s 100-meter breaststroke (1:11.23) and Heesoo Kim’s 400-meter free relay (3:45.12).
Juniors were also making their mark by contributing to their team in many ways. When asked what she thought her team did to make it to the state semifinals, junior Claire Hegedus addressed trust in her teammates.
“I think just believing in each other helped us a lot, and not listening to everyone else who told us we were going to lose because of some article. We knew we could do it, and we made it happen,” she said.
Coming off of a great season last year, the 2023-2024 season was hard to beat. Last year Bridgewater-Raritan ended 10-3, dominating the Skyland Conference 6-1.
This year the Panthers’ dual season came to a close when they fell to Montclair, 95-75, on Tueday, February 18, at the Gloucester Institute of Technoogy in Sewell. Montclair eventually fell by just one point in the Group A state championshiomeet to Cherry Hill EAst High School, 85.5-84.5, at Rutgers University oNS unday, February 23.
“We like to have a bunch of team bondings to get to know one another because it gives us the knowledge of support. I think I will definitely miss our team bondings because of the energy in the room,” Hegedus continued.
