FINAL PUSH: Princeton High girls’ swimmer Annie Flanagan churns through the water in a freestyle race earlier this season. Senior Flanagan excelled in her final races for PHS, placing first in the 200-yard individual medley and 100 backstroke as the sixth-seeded Tigers lost 92-78 to third-seeded Red Bank in the quarterfinal round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) North 2, Group B tournament on February 5. PHS ended the winter with an 8-3 record. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
Although the Princeton High girls’ swimming team ended its season by losing 92-78 to Red Bank Regional in the state tournament, it produced one of its better performances of the winter.
“It was really fun, we had a ton of personal bests from that meet,” said PHS head coach Patrick Remboski, reflecting on the effort he got from his swimmers as the sixth-seeded Tigers battled third-seeded Red Bank in the quarterfinal round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) North 2, Group B tournament on February 5.
“Emily Walden had personal bests in the 50 free and 100 free. Aryahi Pimple dropped some time in the 500 free and the 100 breast. Charlie Flanagan dropped some time in the 100 back.”
Senior star Annie Flanagan had a good time in her final competition for PHS, placing first in both the 200-yard individual medley and 100 backstroke.
“They weren’t personal bests for her in her events but they have a great backs-troker in Amira Washington, so Annie was super happy with that,” said Remboski of Flanagan, who will be continuing her swimming career by competing for the Carnegie Mellon University women’s swim program.
In Remboski’s view, his swimmers thrived as they battled top competition.
“The deeper you go in these tournaments, the deeper the teams are,” said Remboski. “There are really no A,B,C lanes, it is just all A.”
While Remboski was happy with his team’s final record of 8-3, he is even more proud of the vibe around the program.
“I look at as a success, we had an overall really positive experience, results aside, with the team camaraderie,” said Remboski, noting that the squad had a number of swimmers who also competed for local club programs. “It is hard to get that team feeling that you feel with a lot of these team sports in swimming because it is kind of disconnected. It is hard to make it your priority when you are swimming full time for another team outside of school but we had full buy-in from the girls’ team. There is nothing like playing or swimming for your school.”
The PHS swimmers showed that buy-in by handling a heavy workload this winter.
“It was a demanding season for these girls,” said Remboski.“We are usually a lot deeper and this year we had 20 girls per meet, so a lot of times these girls were swimming four events every single meet. It was demanding and they never complained, so that was really cool.”
Remboski credited his senior group with setting a positive tone.
“They are going to be hard to replace, we are definitely going to feel those gaps next year,” said Remboski, whose senior group included Vivian Lee, Emma Liu, Julia McGoldrick, and Nia Zagar in addition to Walden and Annie Flanagan “The important part is the culture they helped create and the standard they set which is going to stay longer than they four years they were here.”
With a core of returners that features sophomores Jenna Barry and Charlie Flanagan along with freshmen Lucia Camilli, Alicia Lee, Elliana Levitskiy, Luzi Meggers, Aryahi Pimple, and Kailey Yun, PHS should maintain its winning standard going forward.
“If our roster currently stays like it is and as long as we get Hannah Ploss back, we will have three seniors next year,” said Remboski. “I think we had nine freshmen this year and the eighth grade class is pretty large as well. We are going to be young for sure. We had so many freshmen, they were all imperative to the season.”