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.