2005 Westfield Boys Section

In his forty plus years as swimmer and swim coach, Bruce Johnson thought he had seen just about everything, but the Westfield Boys coach was not quite prepared for what happened in the Blue Devils’ section final meet against Bridgewater Raritan(BR) Monday at Bayonne. Heavy underdogs against a team that had soundly whipped them by thirty points in the regular season, Johnson’s team led 76-64 with two events left and seemed poised to pull off one of the greatest upsets in the storied history of Westfield swimming.

A furious BR rally lifted them to a an 85-85 tie and their power points of 3,796 topped Westfield's 3,597, giving Bridgewater its first NJSIAA/PSEG North Jersey, Section 2, Public A championship. Power points are determined by a scale. Each of the top three swimmers or relays for each team in each event are awarded points based on their times. The faster the time, the more points awarded.

The tiebreak method made for a surreal scene of almost everyone in the crowded pool area breathlessly awaiting the calculation of which team would win., but Johnson refused to criticize the result..

“I think we would've won on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th tiebreakers, but they won on the one that counts first.,” said Johnson.

“We've eliminated Bridgewater several times, so maybe it was just their turn. They have a very strong team, and they're a great bunch of young men.”

Johnson, a superb strategist, had expertly juggled his lineup and two of his gambles worked to perfection. He switched Dan Chabanov to the Butterfly Leg on the 200 yard Medley Relay and Chabanov led off with a 25.0 split as each member performed flawlessly in the tenth fastest time in school history. The other swimmers were sophomore Luke Baran (26.4), and juniors Pat Daurio (27.0) and Brandon Cuba (22.1).

Johnson also split his powerful 200 yard freestyle relay into two teams and was able to grab the first two positions to outscored BR 16-2.

“When we took a 1-2. I thought that might be the difference, but
Bridgewater came back ,” said Johnson.

Cuba also anchored the 200 yard free style relay which included freshman Matt Green, sophomore Robert Whitehead, and Chabanov, and also touched first in his specialty, the 50 yard free style. Cuba has typified the team, showing continued improvement to swim his best times in recent weeks.

“Brandon worked way harder this year than ever and it paid off. He's an awesome talent, but only swims the high school. season because baseball is his main sport ,” said Johnson.

Daurio was also superb, winning his two best events, the 100 yard butterfly in 54.80 and the 200 yard individual medley in 1:59.42. Sophomore PJ Harley added a (1:53.24) victory in the 200 yard free style and swam a personal best of 4:59.74 to just miss upsetting BR star John Beningno in the 500 yard free style.

Some other heroes for Westfield included sophomore Phil Anton who was second in the breast stroke in a personal best time, and junior Mike Burns who placed fourth.

Despite the heroics Westfield went into the final relay with a precarious 81-75 lead which ,Johnson knew was one point short of what was needed to clinch the victory.

“We knew before the meet we needed 82 points before the final relay if we were going to win, and we had 81.” Johnson once again split his relays, hoping to grab a second and third, which in the 10-6-2 relay scoring would have won but Bridgewater grabbed the all important third place to force the tie break.

“It was one of the greatest meets ever and I've been going to meets for over forty years ,” said Johnson.

It was a spectacular ending to a season that had been challenging as Johnson tried to replace an outstanding senior class from a year ago and despite the ending has established a strong foundation for the next two years.

“No regrets. This season was one of the most enjoyable ever. To watch a bunch of kids improve as much as these guys did, and to watch them work as hard as they did and then do the shave thing and the buzz cuts hairdos it was just great..”

Although the team season has ended, Daurio (IM, breast), Baran (back), Cuba (50), and all three relays will compete in the Meet of Champions.

Westfield had reached the finals with a 108-62 rout of Piscataway and a 96-72 win over Hunterdon Central in the semi finals.

A young Scotch Plains team outscored Summit 90-80 in the first round of the State North Jersey B tournament before losing to Chatham 93-77 in the semi finals.

2005 Westfield-SPFGirls Section Champs

Westfield Girls Swimming Coach Jaime Ruszala has been supremely confident all season that her team was deep enough to withstand the loss of just about anybody but she was hoping that assuredness wouldn’t be tested in a situation as important as last Monday’s NJSIAA/PSEG North Jersey, Section 2, Public A championships at Bayonne.

Fortunately for Ruszala, her confidence paid off as the Blue Devils
overcame the loss of two of their top swimmers to win their third consecutive section championship by squashing Bridgewater Raritan 96-72.

The victory elevates Westfield into the state semifinals where they met West Windsor Plainsboro South(WWPS) yesterday in a rematch of the 2004 semi final, which was won by WWPS.

Scotch Plains joined their rivals as section champs the following day with 114-56 trouncing of Chatham. The Raiders swept all eleven events as their three biggest stars senior Amanda Cameron, sophomore Jillian Murphy and freshman Melissa Helock each won two events.

Coach Jessica Hulnik admitted that her team was holding nothing back in trying to pile up the highest amount of power pints possible to try and annex the top seed in the Public B group and give themselves an easier semi-final match.

At press time it was unknown whether Scotch Plains amassed enough points to outscore their chief rivals, Rumson and Princeton.

The Westfield girls, who were missing Jacqueline DeLaFuente due to illness, lost another front-line swimmer early when senior Amanda Dickson had difficulty managing her asthma and was forced to drop out of the 200 individual medley halfway through the breaststroke leg.

Sophomore Darrell Ann Smith won two events, the 200-yard Individual Medley in 2:19.89 and the 100-yard backstroke in 1:05.72 and the Blue Devils also got victories from freshman Alexi Kuska and sophomores Katie Morgan, and Kylie Fraser to offset the loss of their top individual swimmer Jackie DeLaFuente, who missed the meet due to illness.

“Darrell Ann had a great meet yesterday in both events ,” said Ruszala.

The Blue Devils also lost versatile tri captain Amanda Dickson midway through the meet., when she had an asthma attack in the middle of her individual medley race and was scratched from her remaining events.

Dickson had joined Fraser, Brittany Reyes and Kirsten Selert on the meet opening winning 200 yard Individual Medley(IM) relay which posted a 1:55.98 time.

“Amanda swam well on the relay and it started the meet off great.,” said Ruszala.

“It scares the kids (and me) when someone is hurt. It is hard to juggle in a dual meet ,when we don’t have the boys events in between ours, so the girls who stepped up literally had to jump in the pool to swim.”

Ruszala is hoping that DeLaFuente, the two time Union County 100 yard breaststroke champion and a fine all around swimmer will be available for the state semifinals, but Ruszala can be heartened by the performances of her young swimmers who have made massive improvements since the beginning of the year, most notably Kuska and Morgan, who were barely on the depth chart.

“Alexi is an awesome kid and awesome swimmer, “said Ruszala,
“She keeps dropping time. I can definitely count on her.”

“Katie is a very consistent swimmer. Her breaststroke time yesterday was a high school best for her and moved her up on our top 15 all time Westfield list,” added Ruszala.

“She is an extremely hard worker and is always looking to improve in any way she can. “

Other heroes for the Blue Devils included Reyes and Selert, who swam on both winning relays, and Elizabeth Hawkins, who anchored the 200-yard free style relay .

The Raiders had cruised into the finals with two one sided victories. In the first round Hulnik limited each swimmer to one event and one relay in a 98-72 triumph over Holmdel. In the second round, Hulnik used her top lineup in a 111-59 dismantling of Caldwell and it was more of the same against Chatham.

“Before the meet, we figured on a worst case scenario of 100 points, but many of our swimmers did better than expected ,” said Hulnik.

“I did not expect to win every event but we had a lot of swimmers
perform at their best.”

What has both Ruszala and Hulnik feeling confident about the championship matches and the future are the contributions of their younger swimmers. In addition to Helock, freshmen Rebecca Fox and Cathy Harley finished 1-2 in the 100-yard breaststroke and freshman Mary Henkels swam on two winning relays and was second in the 100-yard backstroke.

2005 Union County Girls Co-champs

In the end, the third time proved to be the charm for the Scotch Plains-Fanwood (SPF) Girls and the thirteenth year wasn’t unlucky for Westfield as a tie for the team title at the Union County Girls’ Swimming Championship Saturday at Dunn Center in Elizabeth left both teams and their coaches happy.

As expected, the meet was close and came down to the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay where the Raider foursome of Jillian Murphy, Brittany Larkin, Kristen Henkels, and Melissa Helock easily won in 3:46.82, but Westfield finished second, to
forge the tie as each team wound up with 275 points, nearly equaling the total of the next five teams.

“A county title is a county title regardless of how many teams you share it with ,” said an ecstatic SPF Coach Jessica Hulnik.

“It’s an honor to share this one with Westfield ,” added Hulnik who was thrown in the pool after the final event by her joyous team. It was a breakthrough accomplishment for the Raiders after a season of close misses against their traditional rival which included a dual meet loss and third place to Westfield’s second place at the prestigious Pirate Invitational two weeks ago.

“We're bringing the championship back to Westfield for the 13th straight season," said. Westfield Coach Jaime Ruszala.
"I would rather tie for first than finish second. Scotch Plains deserves a lot of credit.”

SPF might have won the meet outright except for the Walsh sisters of Kent Place who
won three events between them, defeating an SPF swimmer in each case. Star senior Amanda Cameron was narrowly beaten by .04 by Caroline Walsh after defending her 200-yard free style title with a 2:01.99 effort.. Freshman sensation Melissa Helock was twice edged by Blake Walsh in the 100-yard butterfly and 200 yard individual medley but anchored the final winning relay that brought the Raiders from six points back to tie.

After her narrow loss, Cameron was back five minutes later, swimming a 50 yard leg on the winning 200 yard relay that also consisted of Murphy, freshman Mary Henkels and Kristen Henkels and set a meet record with a time of 1:43.12, breaking the former record of 1:44.94 by Westfield in 2000.

“Amanda had her best time in the 500, and was so pumped that she had a great split on the relay ,” said Hulnik, who preferred to look at the Walsh sisters as a positive on her teams’ performance.

“After I got out of the water it was very hard to stand up ,” said Cameron.
“The 500 took all my energy. But, when my coaches came up to me and told me
we had a good shot at the relay record that got me pumped up.”.

An unsung hero was Larkin who gave the Raiders a sweep in the 200 yard free style, finishing second to Cameron as well as swimming on the final relay.

“Brittany had an awesome meet. She dropped three seconds in her 200 free and dropped close to a second in her 100 fly, and she just took off on that relay as did all of the girls. That 400 free relay just gets faster and faster every time it’s put to the test.,” said Hulnik.

Going into the final relay it had appeared as if a dominating Westfield effort in the 100-yard breaststroke might be enough for the Blue Devils to win. Jacqueline DeLaFuente defended her title with Katie Morgan, third and Callie Meserole, sixth..

The Blue Devils’ depth was also evident in the 100-yard free style where Elizabeth Hawkins and. Alexi Kuska closely trailed Murphy. Steady senior tri captain Amanda Dickson also contributed thirds in the 500-yard free style and the 200-yard medley as well as swimming on the two runner-up relays.

“It is such an honor to be part of a team that has won counties for over a decade in a row ,” said Dickson.
“It is exciting that we have won all four of my years. I am just glad that I could contribute.”

Improving SPF freshman Rebecca Fox broke up a Westfield sweep with a second place in the 100 breaststroke and had had a sixth place finish in the 200 yard Individual Medley. She also swam on the medley relay, which placed, second to the Westfield quartet of Kylie Fraser, DeLaFuente, Brittany Reyes, and Kirsten Selert.

Freshman Catherine Harley, who added an eighth place in the 100 yard breaststroke has now participated on two county championship teams in her brief high school career, contributing to the Cross Country team in the fall. Kate Kosenick also added a fifth place in the backstroke just behind Fraser, who was fourth and teammate Mary Henkels who was second.

“It's pretty exciting that we finally caught up to Westfield, “ said Cameron.
“ I would have been happy if we got second, because we haven't even gotten second in a few years. It seemed like it was for the best since I have some friends on
Westfield, so we shared the victory together.”

2005 Union County Boys Swimming

A multitude of second place finishes compensated for only one first place and enabled the Westfield Boys Swimming team to comfortably win its sixth straight Union county title and 48th in the last 49 years, Friday at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth. The Blue Devils finished with 249 points, 77 ahead of second place Oratory Prep of Summit to pace the 13-team field,

Westfield did receive one victory from star junior Pat Daurio who defended his specialty event the 200 individual medley title by a seven-second margin, winning in 2:01.19. Daurio was a surprising second in the 100 breaststroke where he was upset by defending champion John Closs of NewProvidence Daurio was joined as runner-up by sophomore P.J. Harley who had a pair of seconds in the 200 (1:53.76) and 500 freestyle (5:02.24). The Blue Devils also finished second in all three relays, gaining 78 of 96 possible points.

“We only had a shot at maybe winning three individual races (IM, 500, breast) and we won one and got touched out in the other two ,” said Coach Bruce Johnson.

“We had a shot at all three relays, but got touched out in all three. That's how it goes.”

Although Closs was the defending champion, Daurio swam the state’s fastest time in the 100 breaststroke in winning the prestigious Pirate Invitational two weeks ago but has been recovering from an injured thumb suffered against Lawrenceville on January 18.

“Pat had been only kicking for a week or 10 days since the injury,” said Johnson.
“He's getting back to where he has to get. If Closs beats Pat again at the Meet of Champions, that would be shocking..”

A young Scotch Plains-Fanwood(SPF) team finished sixth in the tight team standing, but was only seventeen points out of second. Senior Mike Sheffield
Became the first Raider to win an individual crown since 2000 when he won the 100 butterfly in 55.32, edging Gov. Livingston's Steven Rubino by .04 seconds.

“Mike had a really good meet ,” said Raider’s Coach Jessica Hulnik.
“He had a great race in his 100 fly and I am glad he was able to earn a county title.”

Overall Hulnik was pleased with her young team’s progress.

“We had several kids who dropped time today in their events and it’s hard to be disappointed when you swim well, regardless of the outcome. The swimming that I saw today just shows me that we are on our way to being ready for the state tournament.”

Senior David Hauptman contributed a third in the 100 yard free style and a sixth in the 50 yard freestyle and sophomore distance specialist Mike Miller was third in the 200 yard free style and sixth in the 500 yard free style. All three Raider relay team also place in the top six.

In addition to Daurio and Harley, Westfield placed swimmers in the top six in every event against the 100 yard butterfly. Their best event was the 200 yard individual medley where Matt Green and Phil Anton joined Daurio in the top five.

While we have two top kids we also have ten or so who were capable of scoring in the county meet, and they did. It's a question of numbers, and we had more ,” said Johnson.

2005 Union county Girls Swimming Preview

Although there will be over a dozen teams at the Union County Girls Swimming Championships Saturday at Dunn Center Elizabeth, the focus will clearly be on rivals Westfield and Scotch Plains which have separated themselves from the other county teams and currently rank in the top ten teams in the state. The Blue Devils seeking their thirteenth straight championship have won two close head to head battles with the Raiders this year and Westfield Coach Jaime Ruszala, while wary of the other county teams knows how the Raiders have closed the gap.

“Scotch Plains is a really awesome team as they have shown at both the Pirate and our dual meet. We need to be 100 percent,” said Ruszala.

In December Westfield prevailed 87-83 and two weeks ago at the prestigious Pirate Invitational at West Windsor, Westfield used its superior depth to outscore the Raiders 204-177 for second place.

Scotch Plains Coach Jessica Hulnik is convinced her team is peaking at the right time and just wants them to focus on swimming well and not about their neighbors to the north.

“It’s not so much about trying to beat any one team in particular It’s about swimming well during the post season. Like all of the other teams at this meet, we are trying to win it,” said Hulnik.

Senior Amanda Cameron, the defending champion in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle shares her coach’s attitude.

“It is not so important for Scotch Plains to beat Westfield as so much it is
important for our team to do our best. We have proved to ourselves and other teams that we are strong and we are one of the top teams this year. We are a very strong and young team and we are going to do our best whether it be beating Westfield or each of the swimmers doing our best,” said Cameron.

By any measure this has been a groundbreaking season for the Raiders.
Their finish at the Pirate Invitational was the school’s highest ever and was augmented by two first place efforts, including a triumph by freshman Melissa Helock in the 200-yard freestyle, the first individual Pirate championship since Dana Berkowitz in 2001. Helock also joined fellow freshman Mary Henkels, sophomore Jillian Murphy and Cameron to win the 400-yard freestyle relay and was second in the 100-yard butterfly.

“All of our freshmen have done extremely well so far this year. Melissa,
and Mary have had great seasons,” said Hulnik.

Hulnik is also counting on the versatility of Murphy. “I've really been pleased with the way Jillian has been swimming this year. She is swimming with a lot of confidence and focus this year. She has been very versatile and I love the way that she has been attacking her races this season ,” said Hulnik.

Hulnik is hoping that the big four of Murphy, Cameron, Helock and Henkels can win or place high in enough events to counteract Westfield’s phalanx of swimmers which is led by free style specialist Amanda Dickson, breaststroke favorite Jackie Delafuente, and butterfly specialists Brittany Reyes and Kylie Fraser. Like Cameron, Delafuente is the defending champion in her best event, the 100-yard breaststroke.

Ruszala thinks the meet may come to the short freestyle races and the relays where the teams should dominate but must also be wary of other teams.

“There are many talented swimmers in Union County who could very well challenge both our swimmers for places. In this meet every point we can get will be necessary.”

2005 Union County Boys Preview

For the past half century the Westfield Boys Swimming Team has considered the Union County Championship as its private domain.
Scotch Plains Fanwood(SPF) is the only team to have interrupted an incredible domination that the Blue Devils have enjoyed when they stopped a run of 42 straight titles with a first place in 1999. The Blue Devils have regained the title the past five years to make the record 47 titles in 48 years and are a solid choice to make it 48 of 49 when the meet is contested Friday February 4 at Dunn Center Elizabeth.

As usual the Blue Devils expect their major competition to come from the Raiders, whom they defeated 94-79 in a dual meet and also outscored
at the Pirate Invitational January 16. Veteran Coach Bruce Johnson, who has won nine Union County titles, thinks his team is peaking at the right time.

“Hopefully the county meet is when the kids' times will start coming around. They've been doing a lot of best times at the Pirate and the Lawrenceville meet, but it gets looked over by most people when you don't win something,” said Johnson.

One Blue Devil that hasn’t been overlooked is junior Pat Daurio, who has emerged as the county’s finest swimmer, and became the first Blue Devil since 1994 to win two individual events at the Pirate Invitational. His victory in the 100 yard breastroke broke the meet record held by 2004 All State swimmer Eric Swenson of St. Joe’s Metuchen, a Scotch Plains resident and teammate of Daurio’s at his club, the Fanwood Scotch Plains YMCA. It was the second fastest time in the storied history of Westfield Swimming.

His winning time in the Individual Medley was the second fastest in the state this year and also the second best in school history. Daurio is a natural for the individual medley, having become the first Westfield swimmer in school history to break the one-minute mark for each of the four individual strokes.

“Pat is a really talented swimmer and a great young man. I think before he's done, he'll go down as one of the best ever at Westfield,” said Johnson.

“He trains really hard and he's a total stroke technician. Anything he does doesn't surprise me.”

In addition to Daurio, Johnson will count on freestylers Luke Baran and Brandon Cuba as well as Dan McGrory in the butterfly and multi talented Dan Chabanov. Freshman Matt Gelmetti may be the most improved swimmer on the team since the season started and versatile sophomore PJ Harley should score in numerous events.

The Raiders led by seniors David Hauptman and Mike Sheffield have the ability to win the meet should the Blue Devils slip. The Raiders also expect scoring from unrelated sophomores Matt and Mike Miller in the distance events and freshman Brian Pesin in the IM and Breaststroke.

“ I am looking forward to the county meet and expect to see great performances out of many of our kids. Our veteran swimmers have been very consistent and the newcomers have been improving steadily week to week despite our packed dual meet schedule,” said Raiders’ Coach Jessica Hulnik.

“Both Scotch Plains and Oratory (of Summit) have some really good kids but Scotch Plains has the most depth of any of the other teams,” said Johnson. One of Oratory’s top swimmers is Grant Moryan from Westfield who could win two events.

“We have been working very hard lately,” said Johnson.
“I’m very encouraged by what I’ve seen. If we don’t get to where we want to this year it won’t be from lack of effort.”