There are only a little more than two weeks left of the boys swimming regular season.
We are getting closer and closer to handing out a lot of hardware to teams chasing the ultimate goal.
This past week was another action-packed week in pools all across the Garden State. Check out some of our top storylines as we head down the home stretch.
Division champions
A number of teams have clinched division championships over the past week. Take a look at the complete list below.
- Passaic Tech (8-0) — Big North Liberty champions
- Tenafly (7-1) — Big North Patriot champions
- St. Augustine (5-0) — Cape-Atlantic American champions
- Vineland (4-0) — Cape-Atlantic National champions
- Millville (6-1) — Cape-Atlantic United champions
- Kittatinny (5-0) — NJAC Freedom champions
- Madison (5-0) — NJAC Liberty champions
- Leonia (8-0) — NJIC champions
- Sterling (7-2) — SJSL Arctic champions
- Haddon Heights (8-0) — Bering Sea champions
- Bridgewater-Raritan (6-0) — Skyland Delaware champions
- Phillipsburg (4-0-1) — Skyland Raritan champions
St. Joseph (Met.) continues to impress
There are not many teams in the state that have put together a better resume thus far than St. Joseph (Met.).
With Bridgewater-Raritan, St. Augustine, Delbarton and Hillsborough separating themselves as the top tier of teams, St. Joseph is trying to put itself right up there amongst the best of the rest of the state.
The Falcons already owned wins over St. Peter’s Prep and Scotch Plains-Fanwood before posting a third Top 10 win of the season, this time in a 97-73 triumph over Pingry. It was their fastest race of the season with 3,873 power points.
This represented a big win in the Non-Public North standings with St. Joseph now sitting in first and Pingry fourth. Braden Michaels, Reid Stellatella and Anthony Vasilov give the Falcons three elite-level swimmers that is hard to match for most teams in the middle lanes.
Against Pingry, Vasilov barely edged out Owen Smith in the 100 free and Stellatella did the same against Carter Smith in the 400 free in two extremely exciting races.
Upcoming county and conference meets
The next two weeks are the biggest of the season for county and conference meets. This weekend, Passaic Tech will look to win its 10th straight Passaic County team title at its home pool. The Bulldogs remain heavy favorites to do so.
With a huge 105-65 win over Hillsborough that resulted in a season-high 4,507 power points, Bridgewater-Raritian has established itself as the clear-cut favorite in the Skyland Conference Championships on Saturday.
The Essex County Championships on Monday could be one of the most interesting all season. Seton Hall Prep has won this meet every time dating back to 1998, but the Pirates already lost a duel meet to Livingston on Jan. 8 and Columbia is unbeaten in the SEC American Division. This will be a tight three-team race for first.
Potential new playoff teams to watch
Swimming is always a difficult sport to have a quick turnaround season in. You can’t get by with beating up on lesser competition or having some breaks go your way. You have to outswim your competition and be faster than them in order to compete.
Yet, we stand to see a number of teams who did not qualify for the postseason last year on pace to do so. Kittatinny is the leader of that pack as the current top seed in North 1, Group C after not reaching the state tournament last season.
The Cougars are led by brother tandem Nathaniel Kern and Jonathan Kern. As a freshman, Jonathan already has MOC qualifying times in the 100 back (53.40) and the 50 free (22.32) and Nathaniel has one in the 200 IM (1:57.99). The Cougars have earned 1,707 power points.
The only other team currently slated to be better than a seventh seed that did not reach the state tournament last season is Old Tappan. The Golden Knights are currently the sixth seed in North 1, Group B with 1,914 power points.
The Golden Knights are only 2-4, but have faced a difficult schedule and have swum fast enough to have themselves squarely in the playoff picture. Joon Lee and Daniel Kim have paced this effort.
Below is the current list of teams on pace to qualify for the playoffs after a year of not reaching that goal.
- Steinert
- Wall
- Don Bosco Prep
- Rutgers Prep
- Fair Lawn
- Old Tappan
- Kittatinny
- Union
- Johnson
- Toms River South
Perfect teams
After coming into the week with 35 perfect teams, that number has dwindled by 11 to 24.
A few of these will eventually cross each other out by virtue of upcoming meets against each other within their division. Ridgewood and River Dell, CBA and Holmdel, and Gloucester Tech and Kingsway apply here.
It remains to be seen how far the rest of these teams can remain unblemished as we continue deeper into the season.
Here is the full list of unbeaten teams through Jan. 14, alongside the name of their conferences.
- Ridgewood (6-0), Big North
- River Dell (6-0), Big North
- Passaic Tech (8-0), Big North
- St. Augustine (5-0), Cape-Atlantic
- West Windsor-Plainsboro South (7-0), CVC
- Colonia (4-0), GMC
- North Brunswick (5-0), GMC
- St. Joseph (Met.) (5-0), GMC
- Delbarton (7-0), NJAC
- Kittatinny (5-0), NJAC
- Madison (6-0), NJAC
- Mendham (5-0), NJAC
- Leonia (8-0), NJIC
- Columbia (6-0), SEC
- Toms River East (4-0), Shore
- Christian Brothers (4-0), Shore
- Holmdel (5-0), Shore
- Marlboro (6-0), Shore
- Haddon Heights (8-0), SJSL
- Moorestown (6-0), SJSL
- Bridgewater-Raritan (6-0), Skyland
- Woodstown (5-0), Tri-County
- Gloucester Tech (4-0), Tri-County
- Kingsway (4-0), Tri-County
